“Amnesia”

By Jim Word | July 18, 2020

In 2006, Joe Bieger, a 59-year-old husband, father, and grandfather, and an assistant high school athletic director, who was in the process of having a new home built, walked out of his house in Dallas one morning with his two dogs—and wasn’t seen again for 25 days. What happened? He contracted an extremely rare form…

THE BURNT BISCUIT

By Jim Word | July 11, 2020

Long-time friend Ed Steger of Paducah, Kentucky shared the following piece with me. I think all of our readers will find it a touching and inspirational story. Ed does not claim it as an original but does not know its author. For now, I hope you will “hear” the message in the story Ed shared…

Courage or Comfort?

By Jim Word | July 4, 2020

Once there was a beautiful bird, more beautiful than any other. It was powerful and free, and possessed great courage. This bird was fearless, going wherever it wanted. It also was very proud of its spectacular plumage of vibrant colors. One day the bird decided to pluck its own feathers, one by one, to make…

Our Greatest Failures Can Produce Our Greatest Successes.

By Jim Word | June 27, 2020

Job 14:7-9 – At least there is hope for a tree: If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail. Its roots may grow old in the ground and its stump die in the soil yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth shoots…

Do You Expect Trouble? Or, Expect Good Things?

By Jim Word | June 13, 2020

Often, we predict calamities and then they happen. We call this a “Self-fulfilling Prophecy.” It is somewhat like going to a fortune-teller. They tell you what is going to happen and often your sub-conscious mind makes it happen. There are plenty of bad things going on in our world. There is no doubt about it.…

You Mustn’t Quit

By Jim Word | June 7, 2020

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,When the funds are low and the debts are high,And you want to smile but you have to sigh,When care is pressing you down a bitRest if you must but Don’t You Quit! Life is strange with its twists and turns,As…

Angels Unaware

By Jim Word | May 24, 2020

It was a rainy night in New Orleans; At a bus station in the town, I watched a young girl weeping As her baggage was taken down. It seems she’d lost her ticket Changing buses in the night She begged them not to leave her there With no sign of help in sight. The bus…

God Is Gracious

By Jim Word | May 16, 2020

Many years ago, in Chicago, Joseph Kratzle, a service elevator operator in an apartment house, recovered two checks for $114,000 that had been lost by the tenant in the apartment house where he worked. His reward was a fifteen-cent tip and a solicitous offer to put iodine on the cuts on his hands that he…

The “Dewberry” Man

By Jim Word | May 10, 2020

He wore faded overalls and a khaki shirt buttoned at the collar. He was leaning against a rusty red pickup parked along the side of a Texas farm-to-market road. On the hood of the truck were two shiny, one-gallon buckets still bearing labels for institutional green beans. The buckets were now filled to the brim…

Do You Expect Trouble? Or, Expect Good Things?

By Jim Word | May 3, 2020

Often, we predict calamities and then they happen. We call this a “Self-fulfilling Prophecy.” It is somewhat like going to a fortune-teller. They tell you what is going to happen and often your sub-conscious mind makes it happen. There are plenty of bad things going on in our world. There is no doubt about it.…