Monthly Archives: December 2015
by Christy Admiraal | Dec 31, 2015
But there are some things I hold dear that you just can’t get in the greatest city in the world. And that’s where the stars come in.
by Jacob Kuyvenhoven | Dec 30, 2015
Maybe my faith will grow strong, strong enough to have the message of Christ’s victory over death ring just as true and feel just as real as the body in the casket.
by Hannah Leisman | Dec 29, 2015
Now we’re approaching New Year’s Eve. This is my favorite holiday, in spite of the fact that every year it disappoints.
by Bekah (Williamson) Medendorp | Dec 28, 2015
We are addicts to magnificence and depravity. If we can’t be the best we will compete to be the worst. If we can’t start the morning with the best cup of coffee, we begin the day with the worst.
by Brad Zwiers | Dec 27, 2015
The litany ends and we sing a few carols. Aunt Jackie sings the loudest and there’s a kind of hope pulling at the corner of her voice that makes you think that everything, all of it, is true.
by Nick Meekhof | Dec 26, 2015
Suddenly, I heard Kevin gasp. We stumbled blindly toward his voice until echolocation led us to a vine-covered mausoleum. The script was crumbling, but the names were unmistakable.
by Lauren (Boersma) Harris | Dec 24, 2015
Sometimes, I grow tired of people pretending they do know. I grow tired of people claiming the time to kill, the time to give up, the time to throw away.
by Michael Kelly | Dec 23, 2015
An emotional massacre is really what I wanted, leaving happiness as the only feeling left standing. It’s what made the most sense at the time, but it doesn’t anymore.
by Matt Medendorp | Dec 22, 2015
I took a train every morning in Budapest to a little café called Budapest Bagel: a bar and a bagel shop where I somehow received college credit to write short stories and read novels following a longstanding expatriate tradition.
by Andrew Orlebeke | Dec 21, 2015
When we are constantly being bombarded by how terrible the world is, it is easy to overlook the bright spots. This post is dedicated to some of the things in the world worth celebrating.
by Gabe Gunnink | Dec 20, 2015
Tina: Good evening, I’m Tina Fey…
Amy: …and I’m Amy Poehler.
Tina: Welcome everyone to the 26th annual Golden Gabe awards.
by Mary Margaret Healy | Dec 19, 2015
But I have not yet figured out how to be happy in a world that is torn apart every day by war and hate, by hunger and sickness, by itself. I’ve learned this semester that being a social worker necessarily means knowing that there is more fallenness in this world than we can bear.
by Ben DeVries | Dec 18, 2015
Recently, my wife and I watched all six Star Wars movies in preparation for The Force Awakens—a feat I hadn’t done in years—and I remember my vaguely alarmed reaction during the credit-crawl for A New Hope.
by Geneva Langeland | Dec 17, 2015
Stanton has a massive platform, and he stands on it with poise and humility. In an online world that screeches with hostility and self-aggrandizement, Stanton is the most elusive and vital kind of storyteller.
by Andrew Knot | Dec 16, 2015
After the first time we played, Christoph sent me this video of the Qatar Classic 2015 and said, “Whatever it was that we played last week, it wasn’t squash.”
by Cassie Westrate | Dec 15, 2015
“Can’t you feel that?” Pastor said one Sunday. “Can’t you feel that breeze?” I could. I was pretty sure it was the air conditioning kicking in.
by Will Montei | Dec 14, 2015
This year I’ll sleep in a guest room, maybe on an air mattress. It will be a normal night of sleep. I won’t be waiting for the rumble of the Polar Express, watching for its headlight to flood the walls of my room in a gold glow.
by Catherine Kramer | Dec 13, 2015
In a world overwhelmed by possibility, sometimes it sounds really great to have someone else make your choices for you and put them in a neat little box.
by Abby Zwart | Dec 12, 2015
Maybe it’s a sign of our times that I was waiting for this genuine and heartwarming scene to turn ironic, but it just didn’t ring true.
by Elaine Schnabel | Dec 11, 2015
Euchre has very little variation. Sentinels of the Multiverse, on the other hand, has somewhere between 14 million to 230 million different game scenarios. That’s cool. Really. But those 230 different scenarios have a price-tag of roughly the same amount of rules.
by Katie Van Zanen | Dec 10, 2015
It seems odd to speak of the limits of human intimacy when anticipating our reunion; to record for the world the untold stories which are themselves just fragments of a billowing moment already passed away, to promise that I will fail again to share them fully.
by Bart Tocci | Dec 9, 2015
We like Tony C. because he was good, but we love him because he could have been great. We love him for his potential. We love him because we can imagine what he could have been. 100 home runs by twenty-two? He could have been the best player who ever lived.
by Paul Menn | Dec 8, 2015
I have never been good at writing poetry. I don’t have the wit to write metaphysical poetry like Donne. I could never capture the sylvan landscape like Frost. What I am good at is doodling.
by Caroline (Higgins) Nyczak | Dec 7, 2015
I am having a conversation in broken English outside a bar with a man named Matthieu. He brought up the attacks before I did, which is good, because I was terrified to bring it up, and not even sure if I should. “You are from New York, so you understand,” he explained.
by Josh deLacy | Dec 6, 2015
D.A.R.E. to explore the unexplored. Here be monsters and suddenly we’re the first ones, wading through myth and legend and finding freedom, happiness, and warmth. We don’t see dragons or lose our grades. We don’t get pregnant. We aren’t shoving suppositories up our asses à la Trainspotting or whoring à la Requiem for a Dream. It’s just nice. Warm and cozy and soft. One of us uses the word “underwhelming.”
by Alissa Anderson | Dec 5, 2015
“I think Advent is my favorite season, but by the time I’ve finished all of the work and grading, Christmas is here and I never really got to enjoy it.”
by Ben Rietema | Dec 4, 2015
I have a “thing” about hair, and it may to seem strange to you. But let’s be honest, you have your things too.
by Sabrina Lee | Dec 3, 2015
My pastor slipped up this past Sunday, saying “Lent” instead of “Advent,” as she sent us into this new season. How appropriate, actually, for these two periods of waiting mirror each other: repetition with a difference.
by Jacob Schepers | Dec 2, 2015
6. Bribes are more than okay. I’ve trained my kids to think that tic-tacs are the holiest of grails in terms of possible rewards for good behavior.
