DEVOTION
Dive deeper into your faith with Dr. Barry Creamer.
A Version of DEET-against-Humanity
The sun is setting behind a ridge across the lake when I notice a couple of things simultaneously. First, insects are not bothering me. I have watched and photographed the sunset for about 20 minutes and have not experienced a single buzz or bite—a stark contrast...
The Help We Really Need
“I could use some help,” I say to the nurse at a retreat center where kids from my church are in camp. “My thumb has been sore for a while and isn’t getting better.” A couple of months prior (when I was young and volleyball nets were much lower) I dislocated my thumb...
Seek Judgment in Yahweh’s Court Only
“Against you, you only, have I sinned…” (Psalm 51:4). The omission of that statement is as culpable as the person who expresses it “when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba” (Psalm 51: superscript). The acts amalgamated into this sin are...
God Counts Them
“Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it And spills the upper boulder in the sun, And makes gaps even two can pass abreast. The work of hunters is another thing: I have come after them and made repair Where they have...
Da Da Da Dum.
Almost everyone is familiar with the opening phrase of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Da da da dum; da da da dum. The motif is now ubiquitous. Some riffs, rhythms, and even lyrics ensconce themselves in the mind so tenaciously it is hard to imagine a world without them:...
Frogs Surprisingly Like Humans
Already turned back from two trails by deep water, I took one covered by only a few inches of slow overflow from the nearby creek. Now pedaling inconsistently at a snail’s pace, I looked down to see a small frog cross just in front of me, swimming unevenly,...