By Sean Dietrich
A television is playing in a Birmingham bar. The talking head is shouting politics. Most folks in this joint are below thirty, and aren’t even watching TV. They’re transfixed with the opiate glows of their smartphones.
The bartender looks thirteen. He stares at the television screen and says...
By Sean Dietrich
The boy holds his fish as high as he can. His father hugs him and kisses his hair. They make a fine picture together.
I’m watching a father and son fish in a state park. They stand shoulder-to-shoulder.
After a few minutes, the boy’s rod starts to bend.
He screams,...
By Sean Dietrich
A small town. The kind of American hamlet that causes you to start looking around for the Norman Rockwell signature. Hanging begonias. Storefronts with colorful awnings. A cute downtown.
There was a loud party happening on Main Street.
I followed the sound of distant music and many voices. I...
By Sean Dietrich
The plane landed in Tuscaloosa at 8:37 p.m. Central Time. Coach Kalen DeBoer deboarded.
He was met with an entourage of photographers and reporters with iPhones. DeBoer’s press conference was scheduled for 1 p.m.
It was a blustery, rainy day in the Yellowhammer State.
Nick Saban retired on Wednesday. DeBoer...
By Sean Dietrich
Long ago, my college professor told us to choose a poem to recite in class. Students chose lofty selections from the greats. Whitman, Dickinson, Frost. I consulted Daddy’s Hank Williams songbook.
10:40 P.M.—New Year’s Eve. Hank Williams is on my radio. My wife is sleeping in the passenger...
By Pastor David Holland
The world broils with conflict. Can you imagine living in Israel with rockets lobbed into your neighborhood at random times? Or, in Gaza, where the country is being reduced to rock and rubble? Or in Ukraine, where soldiers rot entrenched in freezing foxholes. They fight a...
By Sean Dietrich
Birmingham, Alabama—the 1970’s. The hairstyles are ridiculous. Fashions are even worse. It’s Christmastime in the Magic City.
Early evening. A young couple arrives in town to visit family. They are working-class poor. He is overworked and underpaid. She is too.
Still, things are looking up. Even though it’s hard...
By Pastor David Holland
“On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before I had conceived him.” –Luke 2:21
John Lennon mistakenly believed the Beatles were more famous than Christ. While the dead Beatle lies in the...
By Gueary Clendenning
Christmas is just around the corner. After Thanksgiving, the pace quickens toward the big day! We’ll find ourselves in a big rush, always pursuing one more thing we need to get accomplished. We look for the nearest parking spot in the crowded mall, searching for the perfect...
