Several months ago I was on my way to Chicago to deliver a talk. During the flight I had the opportunity to share the gospel with a man sitting beside me.

“I don’t even know why I’m praying for this anymore,” I told my spiritual director between sobs on a cold winter morning. “It seems like every time I pray for something really big, God says ‘Thank you for your prayers, but that’s not My will; please accept this.’” I sat there perplexed, not angry or hurt, just perplexed, wanting to understand what was so difficult to grasp.

At Florida Atlantic University, a professor was trying to teach a lesson on the power of symbols. The task she gave the class was to write the name of Jesus on a piece of paper, put it on the floor, and then asked them to step on the paper. One student, Ryan Rotelas, refused.

Sometimes, after reflection and study, people feel that they can’t decide between atheism and belief in God. Where they are at that moment, the evidence seems to evenly weighted or too difficult to evaluate.

You’ve been surviving on a steady diet of Ramen Noodles and coffee for the past four years; reading textbooks, using scan-tron forms, and frequenting the library at all hours.

I’ve always been something of a media nerd. For example, I’m reasonably certain I was the only kid in my seventh grade class who stayed up past her bedtime to watch CNN. I was definitely the only kid in high school who shouted at the screen whenever she noticed discrepancies with AP style.

WWJD? I found myself reflecting on this very question down in Panama City Beach, FL a couple weeks ago. It was literally a 24/7 wild party for the entire week.

There is a legend from the Orient about a traveler making his way to a large city. One night he met two other travelers along the road: Fear and Plague. Plague explained to the traveler that, once they arrived, they expected to kill 10,000 people in the city. The traveler asked Plague if Plague would do all the killing. “Oh, no. I 'm only going to kill only a few hundred. My friend Fear will kill the others.”