Written by Christopher Unseth

Whether we like it or not, we are now living in the post-Microsoft iWorld of the late Steve Jobs. If you haven’t bought into the community, you’re still forced to read iPad press releases, iPhone magazine articles and the occasional mundane details of Apple’s stock news. What does this do to our brains? The tech world’s fascination with latest-and-greatest gadgetry is not so innocuous, and Apple is currently its epicenter.

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Written by Amanda Salmon

Yesterday in a moment of sheer boredom, I found myself typing in the name of the “man who got away” in my life—the man who broke my heart, convincing me I would never love again. Several years later, we are both happily married, to other people. I do not miss him. Yet, there I was typing in his name, wondering what I may discover.

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Written by Allison Harrell

I’m not an early adopter, and I’m not particularly savvy when it comes to social networking. I’m on Facebook, which makes me about as culturally hip as your mom, and I’m trying to get the gist of Twitter without getting cranky about it (#overtweetersannoyme). But there is now a network that beckons to me with a hypnotic power that I find myself unable to resist: the vast and glittering world of Pinterest.

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Written by Jordan Ekeroth

In Matthew 13, Jesus' disciples approach Him and ask the question that’s been burning on everyone’s heart: “Why do you tell stories?” His answer: “You've been given insight into God's kingdom. You know how it works. Not everybody has this gift, this insight; it hasn't been given to them. Whenever someone has a ready heart for this, the insights and understandings flow freely. But if there is no readiness, any trace of receptivity soon disappears. That's why I tell stories: to create readiness, to nudge the people toward receptive insight.”

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Written by Jordan Ekeroth

For a home-schooled boy growing up in the church, there is nothing more thrilling than to enter the 6th grade. Not only are you once and for all leaving the trappings of childhood behind, you are, in fact, gaining access to that most mysterious and alluring social circle, the church youth group. For the first time, you find yourself spending time with the coolest of the cool: high-schoolers. If they say something is cool, you’d better believe it’s pretty darn cool.

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Written by Ben Stevens

I finish a new journal about every four months. In fact, I make use of two different journals at all times—one for my personal life and one for work—just so that I can keep those two parts of my life separate. My wife says I’m crazy. I tell her it would be worse if I didn’t journal so much.

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Written by Kristin Tennant

I’ll admit: I’m a big Apple fan. The first computer I bought with my own money was a Mac Classic, purchased in 1992 through my college bookstore. Since then I have owned only Mac laptops (my first, purchased in 1994, had a tracking-ball instead of a finger pad mouse). I love my iPad and iPhone—which I was on the other night when I first read about Steve Jobs’ death.

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Written by Drew Dixon

The nature of God remains a subject largely untouched by video games. Games like Assassin’s Creed, Red Dead Redemption and Dragon Age: Origins ask significant questions about religion. Japanese games have a history of appealing to pantheons of mythical gods. From Dust asks the player to act as a tribal deity protecting your worshipers from natural disasters. Spiritual forces, mythical gods and religion are common subjects in games, but serious, thoughtful explorations of faith in a singular, omnipotent God are largely absent from the gaming industry. El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron, a game based on the Dead Sea Scrolls’ Book of Enoch, breaks new ground in this realm.

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Written by Drew Dixon

Scorpio, a well-built Hispanic man dressed in black and dual-wielding submachine guns, takes aim at a group of armored soldiers. He guns them all down in rapid succession, jumps on a motorcycle and speeds toward the edge of a cliff, only to be quickly pursued by several military Jeeps and a helicopter. Scorpio launches off the cliff and in midair releases a parachute, leaving the motorcycle to fall. The helicopter sends bullets screaming past his head. Scorpio turns his parachute toward the helicopter and shoots it with his grappling-hook-gun, zipping instantly to the bottom of the chopper. He quickly dispatches the chopper pilots and commandeers the vehicle. Seconds later, the chopper is hit by a missile, sending it into a tail-spin. Scorpio manages to jump out and latch his hook onto a Jeep speeding below him. He dispatches the Jeep’s driver, but takes control of the Jeep too late, as he skids off the side of a steep mountainside and rolls several hundred feet to the shore of a river. He climbs out of the smoking Jeep. For the time being, it appears he has escaped his pursuers.

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Written by David Wenell

Fact: If I had business cards (stay-at-home parents don’t tend to carry them), I’d still have nearly a whole box full.

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