We can’t expect T-shirts, jewelry, and bumper stickers to do all the work.

South Carolina is facing a lawsuit over the proposed production of specialty Christian license plates with the imprint, "I Believe." While opponents are asking whether or not this law constitutes state endorsement of religion, I have another important question: Why do people want these license plates, anyway?

I've often wondered why some Christians wear "Jesus" T-shirts and cross necklaces. I'm not sure what people hope to convey with bumper stickers reading, "In case of rapture, this car will be unmanned."

How I still the mental noise of life’s demands

I’m hiding right now.

I’m in my bedroom, with my laptop propped on a pillow, trying to work. I spent the last half hour in my home office, only to be interrupted with endless requests for play dates (from my 7-year-old), repeated inquiries as to the whereabouts of blue princess shoes (from my 3-year-old), and whimpering cries for attention (mostly from my dog, but occasionally from my 11-year-old). So I retreated here in hopes of creating a few minutes of quiet.

I look forward to the moment when, though worthless, I’ll be made worthy of God’s love.

A couple of my Christian friends have told me they worry about being judged before God at the end of time, as the apostle Paul says will happen in 2 Corinthians 5:10: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive what is due them for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.†One friend still anguishes over sins she committed long before she became a Christian. I argue in vain that these sins—along with every sin she’s committed since then and will commit later—vanished from God’s notice for all time when she accepted Jesus’ death in payment for them.

Satisfying my real hunger

I grew up fat.

Not fat enough that people on the street pointed at me and laughed. But I was that fat in my head, so they might as well have.

When my mom took us kids back-to-school shopping at Sears, my sister got to pick out school dresses in the normal girls’ section, but I had to pick out dresses in the section called Pretty Plus.