By JIM NICHOLS One of the charming results of our religious plurality is that different groups have varied emphases and include traditions that can surprise someone from another group. Once I was to speak for a group different from my own and I intended to begin my comments as I often do by quoting from Psalm 118:24. I began by

By JIM NICHOLS A quote from a verbal and precocious nine-year-old girl: “You think boys are nice, but then when you do something that’s a competition, they get stupid.” It happened again just the other day. I was stopped at a red light next to another stopped car. When the light turned green, the other car took off rapidly and

By JIM NICHOLS The text message read, “It has been raining so much that we cannot work; the ground is too wet. You are still on our list.” After a few drier days, the workers arrived in a short caravan. Two pickup trucks joined a larger truck with a trailer containing the “chipper” that seemed to operate like an ultimate

By JIM NICHOLS During the construction of biology classes for college students, instructors have developed certain patterns. There are areas that need to be addressed in readings, lectures, and discussions because they are agreed upon central concepts of the discipline; somewhere during the semester the topics need consideration. The students’ interest in certain topics may be high or low. Despite

By JIM NICHOLS I could hardly wait until I was eight years old and eligible to play Cub Scout baseball. That was the earliest age at which boys in my city had the option of being in an organized league with dads as coaches, real bases with chalk lines, caps, and t-shirts with major league names on them for uniforms.

By JIM NICHOLS The call came saying that a patient had died, and the family had requested a chaplain. Sometimes, chaplain visits are repeated to the same patient, but usually they are single visits such as this. This was one of the larger patient rooms and, when I entered, the patient was lying in the bed right inside the door.

By JIM NICHOLS An instructor friend in the religion department got in trouble with administrators because of a teaching technique that is potentially harmful, but overall positive. Despite his problems, I believe it is the way by which God wants us to learn and grow. Learning and growing are not completely positive events when they are in the process of

By JIM NICHOLS He hoped he had put on enough antiperspirant/deodorant that morning. He was facing one of the periodic daunting challenges of being a graduate student. In this case, he was seated on one side of the conference table and three of his professors were opposite him.  There were no rules; they could ask him any questions they wished.

By JIM NICHOLS At first glance or encounter, a labyrinth seems to be a maze; it is a path with twists and turns seeming to go nowhere. On closer attention, however, one realizes it is a path leading eventually to the center. Their meditative value is that they mimic the varying positions of life, eventually leading to a center of