Will Vaus

There is one thing that I have learned from writing books: it is one thing to start and another thing to finish. There are moments in the middle of the process where I wonder if I will ever reach the end and hold a finished book in my hands. In the muddled middle what is most important is to keep on keeping on. The same is true in the Christian life: it is relatively easy to start, but hard to continue and cross the finish line. At the beginning of the Christian life, there is the refreshment of forgiveness and the joy of a newfound relationship with Christ. However, in the middle of our journey there are many days when it feels quite difficult to plod on, to keep putting one foot in front of the other. Thus, the key question is: how do we stay on course when we are tempted to drift? That is the question that John answers for us in this next section of his letter. Listen for God’s word to you from 1 John 2:24-29… As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains i...

San Francisco and New York City both use a highly efficient system to detect the presence of toxins in their city water supply, toxins that may be a possible sign of a terrorist attack. The two cities have found that the best tool for monitoring such threats are bluegills, those little fish many people catch on a lazy summer afternoon.   According to an article by the Associated Press, these two cities keep a small number of bluegills in a tank at the bottom of their water treatment plants because bluegills are highly attuned to chemical imbalances in their environment. When a disturbance is present in the water, the bluegills react against it. If the computerized system of the treatment plant detects even the slightest change in a bluegill’s vital signs, it sends out an e-mail alert.   Bill Lawler, the co-founder of the corporation that makes and sells these bluegill monitoring systems, said, “Nature’s given us pretty much the most powerful and reliable early warning center o...

The United States does not always come in first place. A few years ago, UNICEF surveyed twenty-one of the most developed nations and measured how youth related to other youth, spent time with parents, used alcohol and/or drugs, and perceived their own happiness. Tight-knit nations—like Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Finland—ranked the highest when it came to young people feeling secure and happy. The U.S. came in next to last, with the United Kingdom at the bottom of the list. UNICEF’S operating thesis was that “stable, supportive family and social relationships are far more important to kids’ well being than how much expensive junk they have piled up in their rooms.”   William Falk of  The Week  magazine editorialized on these findings:   It would be comforting to shrug off the report as pure anti-American bunkum. But as the parent of a teen and a tween, I cannot. I’ve seen firsthand the emptiness that haunts so many middle-class kids. From an early age, they...