http://www.madetomatter.org/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&view=post&articleid=51798&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

Ummm, that would be me, as I was about to learn.

Every fall for as long as the old-timers could remember, the construction industry in our tiny New England state practiced the ritual of the mass layoff. As cold weather moved in, and work outside became more difficult, the ranks of the employed dwindled and the ranks of unemployed swelled. Winter is a hard time to be without income: Winds howl and swirl, working their way into the cracks of homes, forcing heating bills up and squeezing grocery budgets out.

http://www.madetomatter.org/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&view=post&articleid=51549&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

Can you believe People magazine passed over me again!?!

http://www.madetomatter.org/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&view=post&articleid=A-Canteen-Christmas&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

Old soldiers still cry at the mention of this story.

http://www.madetomatter.org/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&view=post&articleid=51173&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

Sometimes an act of grace passing between two people sweeps a multitude into its' wake; this was such an act. Coming as it did on the final day of the American Civil War, it remains one of the brightest moments in American history:

http://www.madetomatter.org/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&view=post&articleid=50922&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

I knew he had the knife. He knew I knew he had the knife; but the rules of our encounter in that moment included both of us pretending neither of us knew those things. He was in serious trouble, and my job in that moment was to try to limit how much trouble he was in. Staring at the handle of that knife, I was also hoping to limit the amount of trouble I was in.

http://www.madetomatter.org/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&view=post&articleid=50671&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

Nothing stirs the soul of a human more than courage; nothing haunts that soul like cowardice. Shakespeare knew this, and tapped into it when he penned the famous St. Crispin's Day speech in Henry V. "And gentlemen in England now a-bed shall think themselves accursed they were not here---". Samuel Johnson knew it, too, when he suggested every man "thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been at sea," the two places an ancient could count on measuring their courage.

http://www.madetomatter.org/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&view=post&articleid=50311&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

Already weary beyond words, this band of tinkerers, tailors, merchants and seamen had been fighting the sea for hours, stealing 19 sailors from its' deadly grasp. But nineteen wasn't twenty, and the missing twentieth sailor had been spotted, still aboard the Iron Crown, the thousand-ton bark swept ashore by yet another nineteenth-century North Sea storm. Soaked and spent, the Life Brigade climbed back into their vessel to fight one more fight for life.

http://www.madetomatter.org/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&view=post&articleid=50102&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

I can't parallel park! Now, I'm not saying I have trouble doing it, I'm saying I can't do it. For someone who prides himself in being able to weave big trucks through traffic like a ballet dancer, this is an embarrassing character flaw.

http://www.madetomatter.org/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&view=post&articleid=49916&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

Jesus isn't looking to non-Christians to fix the world; He's looking to us, His followers, to do that. We need to fix this economic crisis.

http://www.madetomatter.org/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&view=post&articleid=49644&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

My inbox is always packed with emails from Christians hoping I'll scold people who've offended our faith; or who as public Christians have failed to live up to the words of Christ.