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Doctors Crossing Borders, and Other Perils of Professional Training

This fall I am teaching an Honors Seminar designed for students in my home university’s College of Health Sciences. The students are all eager to pursue their professional careers as medical doctors, nurses, and physical therapists. Sadly, only 10% of them have expressed any interest in practicing in those parts of the world where they…
November 19, 2024
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When Judgment Hurts

Last month, I attended a conference at Calvin University focused on how to counter reductionism in teaching and education. Certainly, our culture has been in thrall to reductionist tendencies for some time, as the angry, dismissive tone of internet culture and political discourse shows us. Sadly, this tone often makes its way into the classroom,…
November 18, 2024
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“Is it Wrong to Mourn What You Do Not Know?” On Satisfaction and the End of Learning

Many faculty professional development days, hallway dialogues between colleagues, and programs for the integration of faith and learning exist because of the common question: how can we motivate our students to desire learning? Although scaffolded course objectives and early alert systems for struggling students are designed with the ostensible end of effective teaching in mind,…
November 15, 2024
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An Extended Review of The Artistic Sphere: The Arts in Neo-­Calvinist Perspective (Part 2)

The words of Calvinists like Kuyper on the one hand, and secular “formalists” like Greenberg on the other, can sometimes seem interchangeable. However, Kuyper and Greenberg would certainly have disagreed concerning the “area of competence” contained in the “Artistic Sphere.” For Kuyper (and for Rookmaaker, who worked out Kuyper’s ideas through art criticism) the artist…
November 14, 2024

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Dealing with Our Discouragement and Burnout

Decades ago, I was burned out. It was only weeks before a planned semester sabbatical that I’d been looking forward to. I had become disappointed in my university, my colleagues, and myself. I was deeply discouraged. I wondered why I was working so hard for students and a school that didn’t seem to appreciate my…
December 5, 2022
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Book Review – Wisdom-Based Business: Applying Biblical Principles and Evidence-Based Research for a Purposeful and Profitable Business

In Wisdom-Based Business, Hannah Stolze demonstrates that biblical wisdom is useful, indeed necessary, for modern business practices and that this has been confirmed by many business researchers. Stolze takes the perspective that the purpose of business is kingdom impact and then develops a model in which biblical wisdom forms the building blocks for that redemptive…
December 1, 2022
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Reclaiming Awe: An Advent Prayer Experiment with My Students

“Are you too comfortable with God?” The speaker’s comment took me by surprise and brought back a flood of emotions. Throughout the years, I’ve often wrestled with balancing the transcendence and intimacy of God. I’m not alone. In the same passage, the psalmist both states God is “the great King above all gods” and “we…
November 29, 2022
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Give Them the Gift of Hesed

She calls out to the man on the street Sir, can you help me? It's cold and I've nowhere to sleep Is there somewhere you can tell me? He walks on, doesn't look back He pretends he can't hear her Starts to whistle as he crosses the street Seems embarrassed to be there Oh, think…
November 28, 2022
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Gratitude Needs Direction

Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. Col. 3:16 For Christians, most virtue words do not describe virtues unless they are directed properly. To put one’s faith,…
November 23, 2022
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Right in Front of Your Face: A Thanksgiving Meditation

(John Everett Millais - Blind Girl)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blind_Girl#/media/File:John_Everett_Millais_-_The_Blind_Girl,_1854-56.jpg In 1856, the British artist John Everett Millais painted The Blind Girl, a captivating image of two young sisters in a rain-drenched field. Their clothes are threadbare, and the youngest has no cloak; she sidles next to her sister, sharing her covering. They clasp hands tightly and unconsciously, as…
November 18, 2022
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Cancer “treatments”

I am convinced that future generations will look back on the way we treat cancer patients with the same horror and judgement we use when considering how the sick used to be bled to remove bad blood. Our first president was bled four times and had his feet blistered to treat a throat infection. In…
November 16, 2022
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Love Divine and the Rings of Power

Has it been long enough yet since Amazon Prime’s series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power concluded its first season? Long enough that I may discuss the finale without spoiling it for latecomers? Long enough that the passions surrounding it have cooled? For make no mistake, gentle reader, passions there have been…
November 14, 2022