The whole concept of a bucket list makes me somewhat uncomfortable. I mean, why am I contemplating my own death so soon in life that I’m making the to-do list I must get done before the day comes? My mother would probably have said I was “tempting fate.” And what do I put on there? […]
Jack Tookey
A Moment of Wind
As I stood at the rail, looking into the great chasm before me, I wondered about the impending sunset. I was on the south rim of the Grand Canyon, facing west as the light in the sky dwindled. It was the end of my last day there, and I wanted to capture a vivid sunset […]
Catching the Updrafts
The birds that inhabit the Grand Canyon are an interesting bunch. I’m not talking about the visitors – they’re an interesting bunch, too – but I refer to the winged denizens of the Great Chasm. Most common and notable are the ravens. These big, black-feathered fliers love to snatch anything that falls to the ground, […]
Beautiful Destruction?
Beautiful Destruction? The Big Ditch. The Monster Pit. I’ve heard a number of odd terms applied to the Grand Canyon since I visited there. It is absolutely breath-taking and mind-boggling in its enormity and variety. I found one website that had more than fifty nicknames and Native American names for this amazing geology.[i] I have […]
Horrific
There are no words to express how terrible was the news of the Texas school shootings. On top of a series of other unbelievably evil events, it was beyond comprehension. I had several things I wanted to share this week, but I just can’t get beyond the events of the last several days. While politicians […]
Early Check-In
Traveling, especially by air, has become a complicated, detail-encumbered process in recent years. Security issues related to terrorism and safety issues related to the pandemic have driven many to abandon it altogether. In our case, we were going by air, or we weren’t going, so by air we went. Many things that I enjoyed about […]
Insignificant
I was amazed. It started with the first peek over the rim. The closer I got, the deeper it went, and the more the impression grew. There is no way to feel like you’re some sort of big deal when you first encounter the Grand Canyon. It is incomprehensibly enormous. The statistics don’t do it […]
Emptiness
Recently, I tried to take a sip of water and realized my water bottle was empty. Empty is usually not good. It may not be terrible, but emptiness can be a unhappy thing in many respects. From the inconvenient emptiness of running out of something, to the emotional emptiness of being left all alone, to […]
On His Own Terms
He is world-famous, rich, successful, said by many to be the best ever at the position he played. He continued in his superlative achievements unabated for almost two decades. Still at the top of his class, he finally decided to end his career. One would think that he could make that decision and announce it […]
Last Wishes
(Read John 17) In Scripture, we have only a few examples of Jesus’ prayer life. Even Jesus had his private moments, when he laid his heart bare before God (see Hebrews 4:7). That is why this passage is so precious. We finally get a peek into his personal desires as expressed in prayer before his […]