The Quest for Certainty

(How Much Guidance Should We Expect from God? )Rita was in a dead-end relationship and very confused about God's will. She phoned me one evening, anxious for my advice.

Job Seeker Raped

It was shock and initially, disbelief among residents of Tanke area of Ilorin, Kwara State, when news filtered into the town that a pastor raped a girl on the church altar during a vigil. But what looked like a fairy

Trust Your Judgment

Sometimes when counseling someone about a decision, I'll give this simple advice: Trust your judgment.

I may add something like: You are in a better position to decide this matter than you realize. Make the

Welcome Guidance From Unwelcome Circumstances

 In the mid-1970s, I served as a pastor on a church staff for several years. The experience was a milestone for me. The senior pastor and congregation were highly supportive to me, and I grew in many important ways.

When Is a Door Truly Closed?

I'll never forget a story that made the national news a few years ago. CNN announced, as a headline item, that a man had passed his bar exam. Of course, passing the bar doesn't normally attract the attention of the national

Beyond First Impressions

One evening when our son Ben was eight years old, he toted along a baseball glove to a karate class he was attending at our local middle school, and then forgot to bring it home. The next week, as I was leaving to drive him

Regretting the Choice That Seemed So Right

When Chandra was 39, she left a lucrative job in banking to pursue a counseling career. Long wanting to make this change, she chose to move forward when a psychologist friend promised her a position with his counseling

Finding Answers to Impossible Problems

When the Sons of Thunder were close to disbanding, they faced a financial crisis. During the previous year this Christian music group that I directed had accumulated a debt of $5,000. Though that doesn't sound like much

Reconcilable Differences

This past year my husband, Mark, and I celebrated our twenty-first anniversary. During those twenty-one years, we tripped over many truths about life—and sidestepped a few more. Kind of like Dick Van Dyke and his pesky ottoman.

Marriage in Real Life

I recently started watching Friday Night Lights, a show about the inner workings of a small Texas town and its obsession with football. The show centers on the high school football coach, Eric Taylor and his wife, Tami, as they—sometimes unknowingly—disciple the inhabitants of this small town in football and in life.