Category: Scripture

  • Scum of the World

    I could hear the cussing from inside the room and noted the awkward glances of nearby nurses and staff who turned to look and gawk.  Even though I only sat a few feet outside the door, I ignored the increasingly loud litany of expletives and deliberately focused on the screen in front of me.  He was my patient and I was doing my…

  • Failing Faithfully: Created, Fallen, and Waiting

    Failing Faithfully: Created, Fallen, and Waiting

    [This is an advance post in a series from the ESN blog.  You can find the first part here or here.] In the first post of this series, I was ruminating about a patient who had a rapid decline in health and social circumstances, culminating in a recent scan that showed the possibility of cancer even while…

  • Violence In the City: Stories of Three Women

    Now Absalom, David’s son, had a beautiful sister, whose name was Tamar. And after a time Amnon, David’s son, loved her. But he would not listen to her, and being stronger than she, he violated her and lay with her. – II Samuel 13:1, 14 Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne…

  • Death and Resurrection

    Death and Resurrection

    He was a young man, and I could see fear in his eyes as he gripped the railings of the bed and struggled to breathe, sucking in heavily through the plastic mask feeding him oxygen. His body was wasting away from cancer, and the infections that had crept into his lungs were now forcing every…

  • Fire and Smoke

    Fire and Smoke

    There is an icebreaker question used in small groups: “If your house was on fire, what three things would you rescue?“ The sunlight began creeping down our broken blinds, making  its way into the late Sunday afternoon.  I laid on the sofa exhausted, eyelids dragging.  There was a pile of dirty laundry upstairs in my room, waiting…

  • Do Not Fear the Nephilim

    Do Not Fear the Nephilim

    [This is an Editorial Note from the upcoming issue of Health & Development on violence from CCHF.  It is a publication with an august history, and we are humbled to make some contributions from this blog.  More to come.] So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied…