Twenty years ago Rosaria Butterfield professed faith in Christ. Subsequently, she married Kent Butterfield, a pastor, and moved to Durham, N.C. She told her story of God’s grace in The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert and in WORLD issues dated March 23, 2013, and Aug. 6, 2016. Her new book, The Gospel Comes With a House Key, describes why and how to be hospitable in our neighborhoods.

Earlier this week, I spent an hour visiting via Skype with more than two dozen students at this spring’s World Journalism Institute. We talked about embracing discomfort, asking good questions, and the time a monkey hopped on my shoulder while I was covering a Ron Paul campaign event. 

I later thought about how journalistic disciplines sometimes mirror Christian disciplines. Here are 10 examples of journalistic practices that roughly translate to the Christian life: 

If you’re riding a sinking ship, which is what the world can feel like, the last thing you may need is the book of Joshua. The day’s battles—from Congo to Sri Lanka to Washington to the dinner table—can be dismal enough without adding in Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.

It’s a debate, it seems, that just won’t go away. This time it showed up in a letter from a WORLD reader in rural Texas. Although the letter was apparently written in early 1994, it showed up only a couple of weeks ago in a box labeled “UNANSWERED MAIL.” My wife Carol and I were preparing for a yard sale (something we’d never done before and will probably never do again) and in the process ran across several items that had inadvertently been set aside. 

Last week, I experienced the most uncomfortable prayer meeting. I was the only Asian in a group of about 24 mostly black women gathered in Compton, Calif., but that wasn’t what made me uncomfortable. No, what caught me off guard was that I was the only person not crying or wailing or speaking in tongues. 

What if you always told the truth? Would things work out for you?

A young woman from Myanmar has been trying to get her husband to America for four years. It’s been Uber rides to Manhattan, and consulate interviews, and lots of prayer by our English class. This is a woman so sweet that she calls me “Teacher” outside of class; so kind that she colors my hair for free; so humble that she works crazy shifts rather than trouble her husband about the mounting costs. Her Christian pedigree, in a Buddhist land, traces back generations to Adoniram Judson.

Years ago, on an episode of Focus on the Family, I heard the story of an experimental school for young children. The school’s founders wanted to challenge the students to tap into their natural curiosity and boldness, so they knocked down the playground fences to allow the kids to explore beyond their prescribed boundaries. Instead of free-ranging all over the neighborhood, however, the children hardly ventured beyond the schoolhouse door. Moral: Kids need boundaries so they can feel secure while tapping into their natural curiosity and boldness.