Empathy: Path to trust

Empathy: Path to trust

What do “Foreign Interference” and “Freedom Convoy” have in common – other than becoming unusual coffee table words in Canada? They both reflect the growing loss of trust in the way we make decisions on how to live together in Canada, which is to say, the very foundations of democracy and politics. Could they, through…

Saints in the family
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Saints in the family

Angela, Editor of CC, wrote this as a companion piece to her editorial in March. Did you ever wonder if your mom really had eyes in the back of her head? If so, you’re not alone. Ripley’s Believe it or Not asked 1,000 kids between six and eight years old if they thought their parents…

A Father’s love
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A Father’s love

“Wait ‘til your father gets home!” How many times did my miscreant behaviour provoke those words from my mother’s lips? Make no mistake – Ma had a penchant for law and order and she was quite capable of meting out immediate discipline. But this was her trump card for especially exasperating infractions. Did she realize…

Coal and the greatest commandment
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Coal and the greatest commandment

Larry was the last holdout. Years ago, the local coal company had purchased mineral rights from the inhabitants of Kayford mountain to blow it apart – to tap the coal seams and bleed the mountain of its precious payload. One by one, Larry’s neighbours had sold their rights and moved – driven away in some…

The Fires of God’s Love
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The Fires of God’s Love

I get the text message in Brussels, while lying on the floor of the airport, my backpack serving as my pillow. I’m on my way to West Africa; soon I’ll board the last leg of my journey into Freetown, Sierra Leone. Aiden, my oldest son, has messaged me. It’s two in the morning back home…

Loving Forever
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Loving Forever

It was a day when Janneke was home from school, and from my office, I could hear her giggling in her room. I had positioned her in bed while I worked on some emails. I set up a playlist from well-known Canadian storyteller Robert Munsch on the iPad. That morning, his expressive voice and playful audio…

Love works differently
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Love works differently

The day was sharp with cold but the sky was clear, and my grandmother wanted a walk. I’d come all this way, after all, she reminded me. No point in wasting the day inside. She lived alone in the last of her little houses, and, as a university student, I could get there on the…

The Gospel on the Streets

The Gospel on the Streets

Her name is Princess.  She’s maybe 15. Her face hangs old, on a young body, like someone has swapped heads on a doll, and she’s seated on a bench by McDonald’s, leaning sideways, propped up by some invisible hand.  The air smells like stale french fries. I stop and sit and ask her name. She…

The Bad Kimchi Club
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The Bad Kimchi Club

It’s one of those days – all gray and grouchy, the sun seeming to have pulled the sheets over its head and gone back to sleep. I’m sipping coffee on my yellow recliner, trying to feel as happy as the chair looks.  And that’s when she calls. “Emily?” my pastor’s wife says. “I made you…

Visions of a more loving church
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Visions of a more loving church

“Serve one another in love.” (Gal. 5:13) I am drawn to the gospel in part because it is filled with movement, action and activity of all sorts – all aimed at transformation. It promises the healing of wounds, the restoration of relationships and the birth of unquenchable hope in the face of despair. It offers…

Humble Hospitality
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Humble Hospitality

“There is nothing greater than giving people space to be,” says Nicola Bartel, executive director at Mercy Canada. “To go into those dark places and not be alone. That’s the love of God when he promises that he will never leave us. And when he sits with us in that dark place and in the presence of somebody – a neighbour, a friend, whoever that is – he works in that community, in that beautiful space, and helps someone walk through it and out of it.”

Love Up Close
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Love Up Close

My mother came to visit. This was a big deal because these days we live five thousand kilometres apart and I hadn’t seen her since I was home last year when my dad died. We email and video-chat fairly regularly, but that isn’t the same. It isn’t face-to-face. She came at the end of September and stayed with us for a month. When I told friends about this visit, they paused, then asked rather deliberately how it “actually” was. A whole month with your mother in your house?