Bleak, concrete, steel Abandoned warehouses Boarded up, narrow alleys Strewn with trash Soulless highway overpasses Onramps, offramps, no exit Homeless derelict Rundown strip club Sad, addicted, victims Pretend smiles, soulless, empty Bodies without spirits Locked in a hell of guilt, Self-loathing, unworthy Dark world suicide, death Broken relationships Sinners and fools Spiraling, spiraling Soulless, lacking Energy, eros, life Awakening out of shadows She can lead the way out Pregnant...

What does it mean to be human? In what sense are humans unique? We are not unique biologically. We humans share approximately 98.8% of our DNA with chimpanzees and bonobos, our closest living relatives. We are not unique because we think, reason, or communicate. Historically, that question has been answered in ways that have required continuous revision. To be human, we thought, meant that we use tools. So do crows. To be human meant we have speech to communicate with one another. Dolphins,...

We seem to find Jesus all over the place if we are looking. Scripture is a unified story leading to Jesus. He is on every page of the Bible. We hear him on the breeze, smell his fragrance in the flowers, observe him in the birds and fishes and on beaches and prairies. In the bright eyes of the curious child, the soft touch of lovers, the soaring notes of an orchestra in full flight, there he is. There he is disguised distressingly as a beggar, an immigrant, a migrant worker in the...