suffering Archives – Page 6 of 10

On prayer, danger and flying into it all

4 Comments / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / August 17, 2013 / 2013, Christianity, danger, Froese biography, malaria, prayer, spirituality, suffering, travel / 4 minutes of reading

(The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, August 17, 2013)

HAMILTON, CANADA ✦ It’s a strange world, especially here on what is, for all I know, my deathbed. It’s malaria and I’m dreaming. Or maybe in the fight of it I’m actually hallucinating.

I see a friend, a writing mentor, a bear of a man, the sort you can disappear into when he hugs you. He’s an American who’s never been to Africa, no not once. But he’s somehow made it over the ocean and through the walls to kneel at my Ugandan bedside.

“What are you doing here?” I ask.

“I’m praying for you.”

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Tim Bosma’s funeral: a bittersweet day

6 Comments / Daily Dad / May 23, 2013 / 2013, death, funerals, Sharlene Bosma, suffering, Tim Bosma, Tim Bosma funeral, Tim Bosma murder, Timothy Bosma / 4 minutes of reading

The children had dental appointments and I was running late and so found myself in the back without a program in hand, a thousand people in front of me, a thousand faces, a thousand hearts, some in black clothing, some not, all coming together for one purpose, to say goodbye to Tim Bosma. We listened

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Tim Bosma, dream house builder. Don’t let your heart be troubled.

2 Comments / Daily Dad / May 15, 2013 / 2013, anxiety, death, dying, fear of death, God's love, God's nature, heaven, Jesus, suffering, Tim Bosma, Timothy Bosma, Timothy Bosma murder / 4 minutes of reading

‘Don’t let your hearts be troubled,’ is what he said. ‘Trust in God. Trust also in me. My Father’s house has plenty of room.’ This is what Jesus told his friends. That he was going to get things ready. That he’d come back to get his friends when things were all set. He’d have to

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Liz is 9. She’s making a difference. This is her message.

Leave a Comment / Daily Dad / April 5, 2013 / 2013, adoption, Hannah's adoption, our Ugandan home, suffering, Ugandan children / 2 minutes of reading

A child is just a child, you say, and when I was younger my own father would make a point of telling us what his father would tell him, namely that ‘Children are to be seen and not heard.’ Some children are neither seen nor heard, true, especially the many orphans – estimates are as

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Of grace, forgiveness and tears

4 Comments / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / March 30, 2013 / 2013, African culture, African university life, Christianity, Easter, global violence, Jesus Christ, Jesus' humanity, spirituality, suffering, violence in Africa / 4 minutes of reading

(The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, March 30, 2013)

KAMPALA, UGANDA ✦ I’m the odd man out in a loose circle in the campus home of the university president talking about God’s grace, an unsurprising discussion because, besides being a university and my own family’s home, this is a nearly century-old theological training centre.

The horrible news of late is the roadside murder of a young law student, John Otim, beaten dead with an iron bar for money that he didn’t even have.

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The prayer of all prayers

Leave a Comment / Daily Dad / March 28, 2013 / 2013, African health care, Easter, Garden of Gethsemane, God our Father, God's love, Good Friday, Jesus, Jon's big accident, prayer, suffering / 3 minutes of reading

It was in the garden where he talked to his Father. ‘Abba,’ he said, which is to say, ‘Daddy.’ ‘Daddy, I know you can do anything. And I know you can take this away from me. This cup. I know you can take it away. It’s too much. Too bitter. Too awful. Daddy. Please, Daddy,

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Light and shadows in a Good Friday world

2 Comments / Christian Week, Newspaper columns / March 27, 2013 / 2013, art, Christianity, faith, Good Friday, Jesus, Jesus' humanity, mystery, Painter of Light, spirituality, suffering, Thomas Kinkade / 3 minutes of reading

(Christian Week – April 2013)

KAMPALA, UGANDA ✦ Jesus wept. Not long before he set his face like flint toward Jerusalem and the cross, he wept. Why?

Surely he knew how it would all end, how he’d resurrect Lazarus, who lay nearby so cold and dead; how this miracle would foreshadow his own final triumph over the grave. Was he playing his audience? It’s a scene with at least some strangeness. Here’s another.

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The Light of the World in the darkness of hell

1 Comment / Newspaper columns, The Standard / March 25, 2013 / 2013, Christianity, Easter, hell, Jesus Christ, Jesus in hell, Jesus' humanity, spirituality, suffering, violence / 3 minutes of reading

(The UCU Standard – Friday, November 1, 2013)

MUKONO, UGANDA ✦ Suicide is a shabby and shameful business, something that nice people don’t get mixed up in, yet here they are, two suicides in our university family, two young people who in separate incidents have left us with nothing but a disturbing ‘good-bye.’

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