Perhaps one of the most wonderful experiences life offers us is the chance to fall in love. For some, love comes naturally; for others, the journey is difficult… and some search their whole lives without ever finding it. I have been fortunate to experience many loves during my life, and although my hair is now…

For many years, I have poured my heart into the work of peace — not as a distant ideal, but as a daily practice, a quiet commitment made and remade with each passing season. And yet, for much of that time, it felt like shouting into a wind that simply carried my words away. Progress,…

For much of my life, I have had to deal with bullies and dishonest people who held positions over me. Most of the time, I have just walked away from the job or situation, frustrated, yes, but confident that the day would come when they would be held accountable. THE GARDEN was written after being…

As a species, we have repeatedly acted on inherited prejudices, convincing ourselves that certain groups are somehow less human, less deserving of dignity—or even of life itself. In doing so, we have committed atrocities while telling ourselves they were necessary, justified, or deserved. The dehumanization that precedes genocide, the racial hatred that fuels violence, the…

The questions came early.They first surfaced in Mr. Timmer’s Sunday School class at Olivet Reformed Church in Grandville. I didn’t intend to embarrass him by asking what he could not answer, but at that age, there was no one else to ask. I was already searching. In those early years, I imagined that becoming a…

For my 70th birthday, I flew from Cambodia to Bar Harbor, Maine, to see my dear friend Gail Gutrudt for what I knew would be the last time. She was dying of cancer, and the hospital had called to say she didn’t have long. So I was surprised when I arrived at her home to…

I wrote this poem while recovering from wounds at the Bethesda Naval Hospital in 1969. I was the last person to leave the battlefield alive. The eleven Marines who threw me on the medivac chopper were all dead a few minutes after we got airborne.The full story can be found in the second chapter of…

This verse was one of the first things I wrote for the opening of my original STATEMENT OF PASSIONS AND BELIEFS, which got me fired from the mission field. I was having trouble with the wording of it. I knew what I wanted to say, but couldn’t put it together. It means a lot to…