Before leaving the house, I make sure I have my debit card and I put a small bill in each front pocket. Living in a new city presents a number of new challenges. I’ve had beggars approach me several times
Praying for Laborers
A month before I turned 13, I wrote the last entry in that year’s journal. Before that day, I hadn’t written anything for over six months. I had confided in the previous entry, I think these years of my life
Spiritual Climate
The first morning of this month of fasting is hot. News sources warned that the today would be the peak of a dust storm. The last couple of days were really windy, a sure sign that the desert dust –
Carrying the Backpack
Hebrews 12 has always intrigued me. It’s a hard passage to call my “favorite,” but it has impacted me significantly the past three months in particular. When I first started studying it, I used one of my favorite reference tools
Appetites
My mom makes the best lentil stew. Its mouth-watering combination of cumin and vinegar give it a unique flavor unlike any other dish. I’ve made the same recipe a couple of dozen times – but it’s never quite as good
The Discipline-Inspiration Cycle
I used to write in high school. Only a couple of friends read what I wrote. (Back in 2013, I posted a couple of things I wrote in High School. You can read two of them here: “A Full Understanding”
Legacy of Listening
“As I’ve been reading your news, I’ve been wondering…” “I just have to ask you….” “Tell me more about…” These were the questions that marked 4-hour dinner conversations. I wasn’t the one who asked – I was the one who
The Slaughter
Warning: the following post contains one picture that shows blood and another picture that shows the cooked head of a sheep. “Come to my house the first day of the Eid,” my friend, “Miriam,” said to me a couple of
The Problem with Extremist Logic (and what we ought to learn from it)
A Russian commander, in fighting j|hadists, is credited with asking, “How do you fight an enemy who, when looking down the barrel of a gun, sees paradise?” If terrorism is a war and j|hadists are the enemy, fighting and killing
Run, run, run
“Run, run, run,” the Russian tandem pilot instructs me pre-launch, waving his gloved hand in a forward direction with each repetition of the word. “Run” “go!” and “ok?” seemed to be the only three English words he had mastered. “Yes”