On the face of it, no book focused primarily on the subject of dying holds high promise for becoming a bestseller. Death is hardly the most appealing of all possible topics. And unless the author has actually “been there, and done that,” the book-buying public has reason to be skeptical.

If I tell you as well that this book I want you to read was written by a philosophy and ethics professor at a small college, I realize you may already be turning the page.

Because nature reflects both God’s design and human experience, in the cool of the day I leave my desk and go to the garden, for truth.

The universe, which scientists have always considered to be pretty big, may be a good bit bigger, according to some of those same scientists. In the interest of not embarrassing them by reporting statistics that they might have to adjust again in a few weeks, we’ll wait for the specific numbers.

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.