“Lord, break me and make me new.” I started to pray this prayer a year and a half ago when I left my job as a classroom teacher to become a writer. I had no previous publications or qualification. All I had was a desire to become a published author, one poorly written manuscript for my first novel, and the support of my wife. But my decision, like my prayer, was not only about the new life I hoped for. It was about undoing much of the life I left. Over the span of two or thre

Last Friday, I did not sit before a sky filled with thousands of heavenly messengers, but I did sit in the church sanctuary before a dozen and a half members of the Baltimore Men’s Chorus. They sang “Make them Hear You,” a song from the musical Ra gtime. It’s not a new song, but I heard it for the first time that night. The song opens with the words, “Go out and tell your story, let it echo far and wide, make them hear you.” Those words brought to mind a scripture appropriate