Author Archives: Don Follis

Almost every day I feel like following Jesus is like holding a taut rope.  One the hand I go through my day feeling like my best is not good enough, no matter what I do.  But on the other end of that taut rope I feel good about what I do and the decisions IContinueContinue reading “The two ends of the Taut Rope”

I have just finished Julie Yip-Williams’ The Unwinding of the Miracle — A Memoir of Life, Death, and Everything That Comes After (Random House, 2019). What a powerful read. The book is Yip-Williams’ account of being born into poverty and nearly blind in Viet Nam just after the Viet Nam war. Her family somehow madeContinueContinue reading “Oh the mysteries of life”

I am reading The Unwinding of the Miracle by Julie Yip-Williams. She died last March (2018) of colon cancer at age 42. She was born into a poor family in 1975 in Viet Nam with seemingly few choices but to accept their lot in life. At just 2 months, Yip-Williams maternal grandmother wanted her putContinueContinue reading “What do you think you control?”

My hometown of Colby Kansas, sits just  north of Interstate 70 in Northwest Kansas. Victoria, Kansas (about 100 miles to the east of Colby) sits immediately south of Interstate 70. Victoria is the home to the beautiful Cathedral of the Plains. Since last September it has been the home of deposed 88-year-old Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. Former CardinalContinueContinue reading “The 88-year-old deposed Cardinal living — at least for a while — near my hometown”

41 years ago today I was dating a freshman girl at a small Christian college in Manhattan, Kansas, named Jennifer Earles. She was from Phoenix, Arizona and had come from the desert to Kansas for a year to study the Bible and sort out what she believed. She already had received a scholarship to attendContinueContinue reading “41 years ago today it snowed in Manhattan, Kansas, and I was in Love”

My custom most mornings is to start by spending time reading the Bible, praying, thinking and writing in my journal. Then I turn to the news of the day. Today’s edition of the New York Times featured the obituary of World War II war-time sex slave Kim Bok-dong who died Monday in Seoul, South Korea, atContinueContinue reading “What in the Sam Hill is going on down here anyway?”

The political divide in this country cuts deeply, into how we view politics, where we live, who we want our kids to marry, and even where we go to church. Who can we ever trust, and why should we anyway? How can we as pastors, leaders, politicians, even every day ordinary citizens, ever hope toContinueContinue reading “Given the deep political divide in this country, how will we ever even begin to show proper empathy and respect?”