The NU Blog Page

Tough Minds and Soft Hearts Alan Arnett climbs mountains to raise funds for Alzheimers’ disease research. This past year he became the oldest man ever to climb K2, the second highest mountain in the world, in the Himalayas. I watch his blog postings and have been impressed with how often he uses the phrase “mental…

Wisdom: What We Thought Was Important, Wasn’t The mother of my first wife, Patsy, turned 96 years of age this past month. She lives near us, and we help with her care. She has seen a lot of change in her life, from the depression of the 30’s, to World War II, to raising a…

Rejoice in Your Suffering and Finish the Race: A Christian life is entangled with seasons of trials, tribulations, success and jubilation. The Bible tells us about the story of Naomi, who left her native land of Judea due to famine together with his husband and two sons. The family of Naomi thus went and found…

The Forest is My Home: I find myself more and more at home living in the piney forest area of East Texas, surrounded by 150 or more trees on our property.  Not far away is “my solitary place”, a small, heavily wooded island in the middle of Lake Palestine, about 17 minutes from home.  For…

Only God has an infinite capacity for love. As Christians, we have access to that deep well of love. The patient was clinging to life in the hospital’s surgery intensive care unit (SICU) following some “heroic” surgery to repair the damage from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest. The doctors characterized him as the…

How do you defend your church from false teachers? For the past three years, I have been a part of church planting movements in Kenya and South Asia. One question that began to nag at me was how do we protect these new believers from false teachers. I know that we can pray for their…

Do you have “olympic” spirituality? Is it as big as an olympic swimming pool? There is an “ice breaker” we often use to introduce people and establish rapport during training events. Each attendee is asked to share something about themselves that no one else knows. For example, I might offer, “I play the baritone horn.…

There are no solo Christians! Few forces of nature capture our attention and humanity like that of a hurricane or typhoon. The experience elicits the best in people where boat-driving volunteers rescue stranded citizens. Likewise, trailer towing strangers shower food, water, and clothing on the survivors. Previously little known neighbors show up to man shelters.…

Events can make you feel overwhelmed. This past week has thundered with an over-abundance of tragically electrifying events. Floods, cancer, interpersonal conflict, temptation, work overload, threats of nuclear war, financial stress…the list seems endless, and it tends to leave me exhausted, depleted, disoriented, and be muddled. Have you seen any of this in your life?…

“Hope” “Now these three remain: faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love.”   I Corinthians 13:13  When “life happens,” people are tempted to give up hope. It must feel like that today to the residents of south Texas who just experienced hurricane Harvey and whose lives have been ripped apart by the…