In the summer of 2021, I was diagnosed with metastatic appendix cancer. Thankfully, despite its inconveniences, chemotherapy seems to be working well for me. Two years prior to my diagnosis, my wife was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and a decade prior to that, my sister with uterine cancer. This past April, my sister died, followed […]
This past year I’ve been reminded that Christ is the vine, and I am just a branch. I can do nothing apart from him. So, as I make it my focus to be a Christian professor, God is teaching me that only if I stay connected to him—really hidden in him—will I be able to […]
I have a picture in my house that says, “And if not, He is still good.” It’s a loose interpretation of Daniel 3:18, where Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, declare to King Nebuchadnezzar their confidence that the one true God would save them from the fiery furnace, the punishment for refusing to bow down to Nebuchadnezzar’s […]
On a warm autumn afternoon, I navigated across campus to hear student feedback regarding a policy I had implemented as the Social Work Program Director. Upon entering the classroom, it became evident that this was no ordinary student feedback session. The desks had been arranged conference style resembling a long rectangle with students along each […]
In a recent presentation given at Cal Poly, one of the questions that was asked of the faculty attendees was, “How can we measure success?” Number of publications High teaching evaluations Grants These were some of the answers that emerged. But to my surprise, one of the professors answered, “Free time.” That was such a […]
Not long ago, I was at a research conference with students and faculty members from the region. At a mentoring breakfast, I sat with several students and a “more seasoned” faculty member from another institution. A student asked the two of us to share about our academic training and how we ended up in academia.The […]
Last summer, a Christian colleague encouraged me to share my story of trusting Jesus Christ on MeetTheProf.com. MeetTheProf is a website for Christian professors to write about their faith journeys and other information about themselves, making it easy to share the link with their students and colleagues. I liked the idea of having my profile […]
Life was good: two kids, a career in academia, and a decade of walking with Jesus. Then a decision from my early teens threatened to ruin it all. It was disorienting to realize that being a “new creation” did not entirely erase the consequences of bad decisions from the past. Reality was forcing me to […]
I looked desperately at my husband and weakly uttered the phrase for what seemed like the hundredth time in the past several weeks, “You have to tell me that there will be a day when I wake up and I don’t feel like this.” During the Fall 2021 semester, I found myself in an unexpected, […]
I once had a pastor who asserted, “Confession is good for the soul but bad for the reputation!” At my age and stage of life (professor emeritus), my reputation, bad as it is, is of less and less consequence. So, in retrospect, I have a major confession. I confess that I put far too much […]
