The Anger Ball

Posted in Stories
Keeping your cool in an argument

It’s been eleven years now since I learned that lesson. I was living in Michigan, serving as a missionary. For those unfamiliar with Mormon-dom, let me tell you about those fellows who wear white shirts, ties, and black name tags. The pair of them must be within eye sight of one another 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The only break they get from one another is the occasional “trade-off” where they switch companions for a day.

And did I mention you don’t get to choose your companion?

And it can last anywhere from six weeks to six months (and sometimes more).

Guess what….. Read more »

Love the Unloved, Part 2

Posted in Stories
Love the Unloved

This is an adaptation of the book Love the Unloved into blog format. If you’ve read the book, I’d love it if you wrote a review on Amazon. It would be totally awesome and help me out a lot 🙂

If you haven’t read the book, you can read the unabridged version on Amazon.

Read part one of the blog post.

April 2005

James cleaned himself up by going to drug rehab. He connected with a guy who lay flooring. He started a business and began attending church.

And he opened a MySpace account.

God works in mysterious ways, sometimes. Read more »

Facing rejection with a smile: a story of persistence

Posted in Stories
PersistentFriendliness_square

Cole, a reader, said something in a comment last week that reminded me of a story I’d heard years ago–a story of persistence.

But I’ll get to that later–the “why” of this story. First, let me start with the who.

(I promise, I’ll get to the “why.”)

I called Ron Gillum and asked if I could share a story he once told in church.

“I’m just going to come and ask some questions,” I said, “and take some pictures. How’s that sound?”

“Oh that sounds fine. I’m not much to look at. See, I used to be ugly. Now I’m ugly and old.” Read more »