ODJ: what can’t be seen
On a Thursday, my friends’ 10-year-old daughter was laughing and playing with her family and friends. The following Monday, she was in heaven. The lovely little girl was abruptly stricken with a rare form of malaria that took her life and left those of us who loved her in a state of shock. Particularly difficult was observing her parents’ raw grief as they said their final goodbyes to
ODB: How to Be Perfect
Christmas is the time of year when the pressure to be perfect intensifies. We imagine the perfect celebration and then put forth our best effort to make it happen. We shop for the perfect gifts. We plan the perfect Christmas Day meal. We choose the perfect greeting cards or write the perfect family letter. But our striving leads to discouragement and disappointment when our ability to imagine perf
ODJ: with us
When I visited the land of Israel, I was surprised by the small size of the Sea of Galilee. This was no sea, but merely a lake some 21 kilometers long and 13 kilometers wide. I could easily see across to the other side. How could a storm on this tiny body of water terrify the disciples? Talk about a tempest in a teapot! I scoffed at their fear—until I saw the size of an ancient boat.
A mus
ODB: A Hunger for God
A-poe-la-pi is an elderly member of the Akha, a hill tribe people who live on the mountain ranges of Yunnan Province in China. As we visited him on a recent missions trip, A-poe-la-pi told us that he had missed the weekly Bible study because of heavy rains. So he implored us, “Could you share God’s Word with me?”A-poe-la-pi can’t read, so the weekly gathering is vital to hi
ODJ: burning all the bridges
When my wife, Miska, and I were dating and our relationship grew serious, marriage became the obvious next step. For more than a year, however, I hesitated and pushed the conversation aside. We even broke up twice as our communication faltered and expectations diverged. Through several difficult conversations, I had to face how afraid I was of commitment. I loved Miska, but I wanted to keep my opt
ODB: Paradogs
I am amazed by the story of the World War II paradogs. In preparing for D-Day (June 6, 1944), the Allied troops needed the sharp senses of dogs to sniff their way through minefields and to warn troops of approaching danger. And the only way to get these dogs to troops behind enemy lines was by parachute. But dogs are instinctively afraid of doing this—and let’s be honest, they are not alone. Y
ODJ: the long way home
If you’re unsure how to get from point A to point B, what do you do? Recently I discovered the Google Maps app. Key in your starting point, enter your ending point, and voilà! The application will get you there. I have one gripe, however. It sometimes takes me the long way to my destination because it doesn’t always factor in the latest road conditions or take into account which roads
ODB: Like Shooting a Fly
Macarena Valdes’s skill in mapping underground mines made a real difference in the rescue of the 33 Chilean miners trapped after an explosion in October 2010. Drilling to find the exact place where the men were located was like “trying to shoot a fly from 700 meters away,” she said. With her mining experience, Valdes was able to guide the probe to where the miners were entombed,
ODJ: drawing alongside
A fter scaling a 350-foot rock wall, my climbing partner and I came face-to-face with a massive ice formation—thick, solid, and vertical. Too good an adventure to pass up, we began crunching into the solid wall of blue-green ice with our ice axes and the spikes of our climbing boots.
Suddenly and unexpectedly, I lost my nerve. We had no support ropes, and the thought that any fall would be