Feature Columnists

"Beauty will save the world." Fyodor Dostoyevsky wrote those words in his 19th-Century novel "The Idiot," and Pope John Paul II referenced them in his 1999 "Letter to Artists." It's an idea that has rung in my head as especially true throughout these past few weeks as our society and world face the...

This little bird is called a titmouse. It is native to the eastern third of the United States. I photographed this one March 18 as it jumped from a small outer limb of a non-native ornamental Japanese quince bush. The titmouse was once called titmose, but many years ago everyday folks changed the...

I doubt anyone reading this column could have imagined the rapid impac the coronavirus has made upon our lives. In less than a week's time schools have been canceled, churches learned to use streaming video, and a major city in Missouri of all places has issued a mandatory "stay-at-home" order....

Jim and Katie couldn't figure out why their life kept going downhill. It seemed that everything, and everybody, was against them. What was the cause? Why couldn't they move ahead? Katie, especially, felt that other people were at fault. She believed that she and Jim were definitely victims. ...

This past Wednesday, one of our local supermarkets set aside an hour for older people to come and shop for groceries. "Older people," in this instance, may be identified as people 60 and over. Voila! I qualified. As a member of the age demographic most vulnerable to the coronavirus, it was...

I found this little plant March 15 growing on a west-facing hillside in the woods. It is a springtime woodland wildflower native to North America called a trillium. There are many kinds and colors of North American trilliums. The one most common in Southeast Missouri has a purple bloom...

Lately I've been thinking about the difference between taking and receiving. Although both result in the attainment of something, the method of attainment is fundamentally different. When we take something, we evidence an attitude of entitlement, impatience, self-sufficiency or perhaps distrust....

Ask someone how they are, and there is a good chance they will say, "I'm busy." Busyness has emerged as the status symbol of the age. Busyness fills every hour of the day with activity pressing out any sense of margin. Many are overcommitted, overscheduled and under fulfilled. The busyness they...

Sleep is a big business these days. Rather the lack of sleep. Both traditional mattress companies and the mail order bed in a box are hoping your lack of sleep will drive you to purchase their heavenly promised sleep strategies. As a person for whom sleep can often be elusive, these advertisements...

I love dirt. This deep love of soil and grit and regarding it as sacred comes, I think, from being from a farm that has been in our family for more than 120 years. The dirt gives us what we need, and it provides a place that is ours, lets us reside on it and work with it to create goodness,...

This is a colony of black fungus I found in early February. I had seen these a few times in past years, but did not know what they were called. Doing a Google search on black fungus, I discovered they are called dead man's fingers. These were growing on top of a rotting oak log which was lying...

In the 1980s, a former boss said something to me that is still hard to forget. Discovering my decision to leave the radio news business after a decade to go to seminary, the secular New Yorker had a facile reaction: "Oh, I hear there's good money in (the ministry)."...

Whoever trimmed this hedge didn't do such a wonderful job. And why would anyone trim his hedge in February? As I looked closer at this unsightly yard work, I realized that the gardener had left not one single green leaf on the ground. Investigating further, I found small hoof prints all around the...

Do you often feel that your work must be clean cut, be performed in a nice environment and exist with the absence of drudgery? When people are young, dependent on their parents and, consequently, must do necessary jobs, their thoughts aren't always on where their direction is going to be in life....

There are reasons to look down while walking in the woods. Obviously you need to know where you place your feet. And you will want to avoid stepping on and snapping sticks, if you are trying to be quiet. Another reason to look down is to find interesting things on the forest floor...

Recently I took my son snow skiing. After we picked up our gear and took a quick lesson, we were ready to conquer the slopes. I learned two traits about fear from the ski trip. First, focusing on fear can lead to failure. Second, fear can keep me from trying...

My brother has an extensive knowledge of trees. After working for several years at a hardwood company during high school and right after, he can identify trees in the woods just by looking at them, from their leaves and bark. It's such a cool skill to have, and something I really admire about him...

This a photo taken on Groundhog Day. The weather was warm enough for groundhogs to be out sunning themselves or looking for green vegetation to eat, but I found none. What you see pictured here is the underside of a small crawdad. It is about 1 1/4 inches long. I dipped him out of shallow water...

"As I drove home from a visit with friends, I felt rather sad," said my friend, Connie. I was surprised, because of all the people I know, she is one of the least likely to complain. I listened intently knowing something must be wrong. I wondered what had caused her disappointment...

In just over a week it will be President's Day. One of the most consequential chief executives from the standpoint of religion was our third -- Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson espoused a view now memorialized in a letter, which many Americans believe is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. It is not...

In recent years I have been taking closer notice of mushrooms I come across in the woods. Different kinds appear from season to season, much like individual kinds of wildflowers have their favored season. The mushroom I show you here is a rare one for me. And gauging from the very limited...

It is February, and love is in the air. The Bible has much to say about romantic love. One example comes from Ephesians 5:33, which says, "However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband." Highlighting a simple but complex principle,...

With Valentine's Day approaching, it's a good time to reflect upon all types of love in our lives, and on how we ourselves are receiving and giving love. After all, that's really what our mission is in life: to be loved and then to love. Some of the words that have had and continue to have the most...

In 1959, a new anthology series called "The Twilight Zone" hit the broadcast airwaves. Of all the TV I've watched in my life, and in full disclosure I saw this only much later in a re-run, Episode No. 8 ("Time Enough at Last") is a half hour that stays with me...

Most birds found in Missouri raise their young during the spring and early summer. Many of them will still care for their offspring for several days after they leave the nest. But the birds in my photo here were still very much a family when I found them on a local wildlife refuge Dec. 29...

"Oh, I'm so sleepy -- not ready to awake and get up yet," I heard myself whispering. I yawned lazily, opening my mouth widely, as I stretched both my legs and arms, like a cat. This was just one of my unthought-of, morning gestures, a part of my usual routine. Another facet of my morning routine is...

This photo was taken Jan. 10, as I was out walking in the rain. The ground was not frozen, so when it became saturated with excessive rainwater this and other worms came to the surface to escape drowning. This worm is called an earthworm. Across the world there are thousands of different kinds and...

In the past two years, I have been trying to resolve some health issues in my family. Parts of the treatment protocols have involved learning to recognize and manage stress. In the past two years, I have learned much about stress. The one aspect of stress that has surprised me most is that the body...

I love cows. We have some on our farm, and I love walking through our fields talking to them. Sometimes, I stop and stretch out my hand to one of them. I hope she lets me make contact with her so I can show her my admiration for all she does through a touch on her nose or side. She looks at me with...

I took this photo Jan. 5. It shows the green limbs and five buds at the ends of the limbs. Not many native North American trees will tell you during winter whether they will bloom come springtime. But the flowering dogwood will. If you have a dogwood tree in your yard, you can go now and see if it...

Peace is a coveted word. Just the meaning of the letters brings feelings of tranquility and calm. "Ah-h, "we say, "If I could merely have this feeling of serenity and safety, always; I would feel secure." Often we're only relaxed when we can find refuge in our home, and being with those we...

In a little over a week, the spring semester begins at Southeast Missouri State. It's a decided privilege once again to teach a subject close to my heart -- and since you are reading this column -- perhaps close to yours as well: New Testament Literature...

Something that struck me about Christmas this year is the truth of what we are celebrating. It is not a holiday only about the past; it is a holiday also about the future. It is a marking of our defiant hope as Christians despite the odds, and a statement of our trust in God, God's promises and...

I have a list of goals for 2019 that I did not reach. Now on the cusp of a new year raging with optimism, I will list out what I want to accomplish in 2020. No. 1: Practice self-control. Proverbs 25:28 reads, "A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls." Ancient...

Trees are resilient. Most of them grow relatively straight and tall under good conditions. But many trees struggle to overcome adversity of one kind or another. I do not know what caused the tree in my photo here to take on such an unusual form. Your guess is as good as mine. I have never seen a...