Will Vaus

On this 80th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, I thought I would share an excerpt from my book, Sheldon Vanauken: The Man Who Received 'A Severe Mercy' . Vanauken was an eyewitness to that attack... In the late afternoon, Van and Davy returned to their apartment in Waikiki. After showering and dressing for an evening out, they drove to Hickam Field, the army air force base near Pearl Harbor, for dinner with Allene and Jack. Van and Davy noticed as they drove along that the Christmas lights had been put up along the streets of Honolulu, but were not yet lit. Allene had asked Van and Davy to bring their record of Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony, the Pathétique. Allene was, apparently, still haunted by the memory of a man with whom she had listened to it years before. After dinner, the couples chatted and Jack played the violin. The two men talked about the possibility of war but concluded that the Japanese would never dare to attack. Then Jack said, “How ...

  In April 2002, an article about Afghanistan appeared in   Time  magazine. The author of that article wrote that…   One [arms] dealer tried to interest a Time reporter in a Kalashnikov for the bargain price of $200, with 100 rounds thrown in “to close the sale.” The man, who identified himself only as Abdul, said he wouldn’t need his weapons anymore. “Peace has come to Afghanistan,” he said. “The King is coming home, and people are sick of fighting.” [1]   19 years later, has peace come to Afghanistan? It is very doubtful. The need for peace in Afghanistan is probably just as great today as it was in 2002. Furthermore, though our country is more stable, the need for inner, spiritual peace is just as great among Americans as among any other group of people in the world.   Peace, Hope, Joy, and Love are the four traditional themes of Advent that the Church of Jesus Christ has celebrated and preached for hundreds of years. We are going to consider these four ...

Did you know that it was Abraham Lincoln who, in the midst of the War Between the States, in 1863, established the annual celebration of Thanksgiving? Lincoln had learned how important it is to stop and thank God in the midst of great difficulties.   When Lincoln was 7 years of age, his family was forced out of their home, and Abe went to work. When he was 9, his mother died. He lost his job as a store clerk when he was 20. He wanted to go to law school, but he didn’t have the prior education necessary. At age 23 he went into debt to be a partner in a small store. Three years later the business partner died, and the resulting debt took years to repay.   When Lincoln was 28, after courting a girl for four years, he asked her to marry him, and she turned him down. On his third try he was elected to Congress, at age 37, but then failed to be re-elected. His son died at 4 years of age. When Lincoln was 45, he ran for the Senate and lost. At age 47 he ran for the vice-presidency an...

  Listen for God’s word to you from Revelation 22…   Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb  2  down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.  3  No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him.  4  They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.  5  There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever. 6  The angel said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. The Lord, the God who inspires the prophets,...