The Standard Archives – Page 2 of 4

Your life is much more than your career

Leave a Comment / Newspaper columns, The Standard / October 9, 2014 / 2014, African university life, careerism, careers, Christianity, Jesus Christ, spirituality, the incarnation, work / 3 minutes of reading

(The UCU Standard – Monday, September 29, 2014)

MUKONO, UGANDA ✦ The problem with university life is that it can bypass your heart and feed your mind directly with foolish notions about the work world, namely that some grand career will make you a personally large being.

“Hey, look at me! I have this job now. It’s who I am!”

And maybe you’ll win much of that war that’s so well-known around the world, that is the war to get ahead.

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Dear student who’s cheating: You’re rotting inside out

Leave a Comment / Newspaper columns, The Standard / March 31, 2014 / 2014, African education, African university life, cheating, dishonest gain, education as business, education in Uganda, student pressures / 3 minutes of reading

(The UCU Standard – Monday, March 31, 2014)

MUKONO, UGANDA ✦ It’s a new day, a good day, a day when you’ll be tested. Yes, it’s time for another exam and you, dear UCU student, are out of bed, finished your breakfast and walking with a confident smile.

This is why today is such a fine day: you know the answers, every one of them. Because you know the questions too.

Nobody is suspecting that you’re a cheater because you know the game and you play it with skill

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What if the joy of singleness is just for you?

Leave a Comment / Newspaper columns, The Standard / February 27, 2014 / 2014, African university life, divorce, Jesus Christ, relationships, singleness / 4 minutes of reading

(The UCU Standard – Thursday, February 27, 2014)

MUKONO, UGANDA ✦ Last time in this space we were talking about marriage, how good things come to those who wait, and about falling in love with our Creator, really, the One who knows us better than we know ourselves.

I shared that I was 35 before I met my wife and how there was something to this, something mysterious and with joy, the sort that you can’t contrive because it comes from a deeper place inside but also somehow outside of you too.

What if the joy of singleness is just for you? Read More »

This Valentine’s Day, fall in love with the One who knows you

Leave a Comment / Newspaper columns, The Standard / February 14, 2014 / 2014, African university life, God's love, love, marriage, relationships, sexual culture, sexuality, singleness, spirituality, Valentine's Day / 4 minutes of reading

(The UCU Standard – Monday, February 3, 2014)

MUKONO, UGANDA ✦ It’s soon Valentine’s Day and you’re alone.

The flowers are out there and so is the wine, and much more. One would have to be blind and half-dead not to notice. But you’re alone, a rose in the parched dessert, and you don’t know how much longer you can hang on.

This Valentine’s Day, fall in love with the One who knows you Read More »

What suicide can teach us about fear and living freely

Leave a Comment / Newspaper columns, The Standard / November 1, 2013 / 2013, African university life, Christianity, family, family life, Jesus Christ, relationships, spirituality, suffering, suicide, theology / 4 minutes of reading

(The UCU Standard – Friday, November 1, 2013)

MUKONO, UGANDA ✦ Suicide is a shabby and shameful business, something that nice people don’t get mixed up in, yet here they are, two suicides in our university family, two young people who in separate incidents have left us with nothing but a disturbing ‘good-bye.’

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Attracting partnerships and fresh thinking in Africa

2 Comments / Newspaper columns, The Standard / September 23, 2013 / 2013, African university life, Jean Chamberlain Froese, partnerships, relationships, Save the Mothers, Uganda Christian University / 3 minutes of reading

(The UCU Standard – Monday, September 23, 2013)

MUKONO, UGANDA ✦ The old Yiddish joke goes like this. ‘Do you know what makes God laugh? People making plans.’

This is the mystery of it, of the Gospel itself, really. Even our lives, fragile and short as they are, are not ours to over-script. No, we need to open them to possibilities outside ourselves, and when we do, surely good surprises will come along the way.

It’s as true for any person as it is for an institution like UCU. I was reminded of this while around the dinner table – twice – during my family’s recent season back in North America.

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The Light of the World in the darkness of hell

1 Comment / Newspaper columns, The Standard / March 25, 2013 / 2013, Christianity, Easter, hell, Jesus Christ, Jesus in hell, Jesus' humanity, spirituality, suffering, violence / 3 minutes of reading

(The UCU Standard – Friday, November 1, 2013)

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New security plan is a good start; more now needed

Leave a Comment / Newspaper columns, The Standard / January 14, 2013 / 2013, African culture, African university life, thievery / 4 minutes of reading

(The UCU Standard – Tuesday, January 14, 2013)

MUKONO, UGANDA ✦ It was the children. “Daddy, daddy,” they said, unable to sleep. “What if the thieves are still out there?”

Yes, to add to the rotten tally of 2012, at year-end thieves stole our electric piano, the one my children loved. Six days later, thieves got my bride’s laptop plus valuables from her purse.

Two violations in six days from inside our campus home. It took our breath away. Six days.

New security plan is a good start; more now needed Read More »