Learning about Prayer from Fairy Tales
Our youngest son, Devon, and I anticipate a trip soon to the Baltic that will start and end in Copenhagen. While we celebrate Søren...
C. S. Lewis on Avoiding God
Blaise Pascal, of course, offers classic observations in his Pensées on how industriously we avoid God and ultimate issues such as virtue...
In (Abashed) Praise of Diligence
Here are a few Proverbs, taken from a half-dozen similar ones: 12:27 The lazy do not roast their game, but the diligent obtain precious...
On Reading Student Course Evaluations
“They’re so mean!” I recall as if it were yesterday the look of agonized shock on the face of a colleague just after he had finished...
Food Choices at Christmastime
Der Mensch ist was er isst, said Feuerbach, and he was right about that, as he was, alas, about so much else. One is what one eats, and...
Some Post-Election Hopeful Realism
In my book, Making the Best of It: Following Christ in the Real World, I devote a chapter to the theology of culture of C. S. Lewis. In...
Happy New Year!
It’s September 1 and the beginning of the real new year. December 31/January 1 is a good mid-year pause to party and/or ponder. But...
Find Someone Good? Go Deeper–Notwithstanding…
In a world of voices—what seems often to be a maelstrom, even a cacophony, of competing signals—how wonderful it is to find someone...
"Getting Ready for Glory"–Academic Style
A few posts ago, I enjoyed writing to you about Steve Bell’s grandmother as described in a story by Steve and a song by Carolyn Arends,...
Practice Makes Perfect
Life here, now, is about life here, now, and also about the life here, then. We Christians live in the hope of the Second Coming of...
"I Want to Be in Jerusalem": More from Walter Hilton
I’m very much enjoying David Jeffrey’s edition of Walter Hilton‘s 14C spiritual writings. Today I came across this parable and wanted you...
Remembering C.S.L.
Many Americans look back today to the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963. I was too young for the event to have any impact on me,...
Who You Gonna Call?
The following is my latest contribution to the “Ask John” feature of Wondering Fair, a blog led by Regent College graduates around the...


Read These Books to Succeed at College/University This Year
I’ve been teaching study skills seminars in one form or another for many a year. I took a study skills course myself when I was a...
Not Right Now, Please: I'm . . .
A friend of mine recently sent me an e-mail as he was preparing a speech: “If you had to choose one issue that we Christians face as we...
Students, Stop Multi-Tasking: You're Only Fooling Yourselves
Research is now confirming what a lot of us have known for a long time: flitting back and forth between a lecture and MSN or tweets or...
"Be But Your Own True Friend"
William Law (1686–1761) is not one of my favourite spiritual writers, although he did have his fans (such as the Wesleys, George...


Best Advice at 50
Your servant passed the 50-year mark yesterday. Family and friends turned up for a highly convivial evening hosted by my beloved who,...
Facebook: Worse than a Waste of Time, but with Pix
Matt Labash and Sørina Higgins are mostly right: Facebook is a waste of time. And here are a few more reasons to hate it: 1. I keep my...
Finding the Will of God–or–Not Getting Lost in the Forest
Last December my family and I moved to North Vancouver, to a house surrounded by trees on the shoulder of Mount Seymour. Settlement ends...