A young man about twenty-five years old paddles out to his local surf break in San Clemente, California. The silhouette of something substantial yet sprightly in the murky water startles the surfer with no name. The still sea around him becomes agitated. Moments later, a creature scuffs his leg. He recoils his limbs and lies…

I am not a songwriter but I did attempt to write a song once, while I attended Azusa Pacific University as a transfer student back in 2001. The lyrics speak of a fellow transfer student who I became close friends with during the last few months of her life before a fatal car accident. (I…

Christ is the ideal soldier: he never leaves a man behind. Even under enemy fire he risks his own life to save the men and women under his authority. He puts the needs of his platoon before his own: they eat and then he eats; they sleep and then he sleeps; they shower and then…

As some of you know, I am writing my mom and dad’s memoirs. The excerpt (below) is taken from the work in progress, Flight to Freedom. (My father starts by reminiscing over his personal experience flying a wide variety of disparate aircrafts over a seven year period, from 1963 to 1970, in the Nicaraguan air…

NICARAGUA, my beloved homeland, has experienced more tumultuous revolutions than any other country in Central America. To better understand the current socio-political climate of Nicaragua, Alan Arnesto–long time family friend and proud Nicaragüense–gives us an up-close-and-personal depiction of Nicaragua’s longing for peace and prosperity, in the midst of governmental greed, scandal, corruption, and violence.  …

Worldly “happiness” is merely subjective (i.e., emotional) and non-virtuous, ergo, non-moral, not to mention superficial and fleeting. The world seeks it directly as a feeling but cannot attain it because true happiness is a byproduct of morality (e.g., justice and righteousness). By comparison, biblical happiness is character-based. That is, true felicity is virtuous, ergo, moral….

One of my favorite Bible verses is 2 Corinthians 5:17, which claims, “anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” (NLT) But what does that mean in relation to who we are as a complete human being? Does it mean that everything about…

The literary devices of style (i.e., how something is said), tone (i.e., an attitude towards the subject), and mood (i.e., feelings and emotions created in the reader), which make up the author’s voice is of no minor importance in a narrative. The same goes for the narrative of our life, which the Supreme Author writes….

Hillsong United has come out with a relatively new song (2017), entitled “So Will I (100 Billion X).” Its songwriters are Joel Houston, Benjamin Hastings, and Michael Fatkin. I am personally a big fan of the song, particularly its melody and lyric. Click here to listen to it for yourself on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLURTvUQoTM VERSE 1 God…

Curiosity and distractibility are braided together. Imagination and impulsivity hold hands. Temptation is built in to this intricate web of choosing. Patience–a virtue–is your best friend helping you unravel the knots of tension between beauty and betrayal. Wisdom–another friendly virtue–requires a vocation of untangling flowers from weeds. This, too, is the plight of an artist.