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  • Would You Consider Becoming a Patron

    Would You Consider Becoming a Patron?

    I have been blogging at Challies.com on a daily basis for over 20 years now. That long commitment has allowed me to write thousands of articles and hundreds of book reviews while also sending millions of visitors to other sites through the daily A La Carte feature. While I’ve also written a number of books, through it…

  • Understanding and Trusting Our Great God

    Now Available: Understanding and Trusting Our Great God

    If you have been visiting this site for any length of time, you will have seen some SquareQuotes—the quotes combined with graphics that I release every day both here and across social media. A couple of years ago I teamed up with Jules Koblun (the artist who creates them) and Harvest House Publishers to create…

  • A Family and Personal Update

    Worship Round the World: An Update

    It seems like a very long time ago that Tim Keesee and I announced a new project called Worship Round the World. In fact, in some ways, it was a very long time ago since it happened before any of us had ever heard of COVID and before any of us imagined that world travel…

  • Update

    A Family, Personal, and Travel Update

    I have just returned from a long journey that took me to a number of countries in Asia and the Pacific. I will share more on that momentarily but first, for those who are interested, I’ve got some updates on a couple of other matters. Nick Challies Memorial Scholarship You may remember that after Nick’s…

  • Becoming a Patron

    Would You Consider Becoming a Patron?

    I have been blogging at Challies.com on a daily basis for over 19 years now. That long commitment has allowed me to write thousands of articles and hundreds of book reviews while also sending millions of visitors to other sites through the daily A La Carte feature. Of course I’ve also written a number of…

  • Seasons of Sorrow

    Now Available: Seasons of Sorrow

    Today is the day: Seasons of Sorrow is now officially available. If you pre-ordered a copy, you should already have it or it should already be on its way. If you didn’t pre-order a copy, then you can order it right now and it will be shipped immediately. (Also, listen to the song inspired by…

  • Seasons of Sorrow

    About Today’s Seasons of Sorrow Launch Event

    This morning I will be hosting a launch event for my new book Seasons of Sorrow. It will be taking place immediately prior to the Getty Music Sing! Conference at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee. For those who plan to attend, or who still wish to attend, here’s the information…

  • Seasons of Sorrow Pre-Order

    Seasons of Sorrow: A Special Pre-Order Offer

    I recently announced my forthcoming book Seasons of Sorrow: The Pain of Loss and the Comfort of God. In the weeks and months that followed the death of my son Nick, I wrote a series of meditations, some of which I shared through this blog, but many of which I did not. As that first…

  • A Mid-Summer Family Update

    A Mid-Summer Family Update

    It is a holiday weekend here in Canada—a strange holiday that goes by various names across the different provinces and even across different cities within the provinces. I know the first Monday in August as the Civic Holiday, but in Toronto proper it’s known as Simcoe Day while in B.C. as British Columbia Day and…

  • A Wedding Speech for Abby and Nathan

    Who You Most Truly Are — A Wedding Speech for Abby and Nathan

    Yesterday we celebrated Abby and Nathan’s wedding—the first of a whole new generation for the Challies side of the family (though certainly not the last since Abby is one of 16 children/nieces/nephews). The day was every bit as beautiful as we had hoped. I’ll try to share a few pictures in the near future, but…

  • Laying Ambushes

    Laying Ambushes — A Family Update on a Special Weekend

    Like so many Canadian boys of his era, Nick went through a pretty significant Nerf Gun phase when he was 8 or 10 years old. Between several birthdays and Christmases he built up quite an arsenal and, for a time, most of his play would in some way involve these guns. There was one game…

  • A Family Easter Update

    Easter weekend is always a special time in Canada, not least because both Good Friday and Easter are public holidays. Whether you celebrate Jesus, Passover, the Easter Bunny, or nothing at all, you get two days away from the hustle and bustle of normal life. In an era in which governments seem intent on tearing…

  • Canadian Truckers

    A Family Update and a Some Thoughts on Those Canadian Truckers

    It has been a little while since I have provided anything like a family or personal update, so I thought I would do so today. Also, I have received quite a number of questions about the Canadian truckers and their Freedom Convoy, so wanted to offer a few observations on that. I am under some…

  • A December Family Update

    A December Family Update (and Non-Travel Report)

    I turned 45 yesterday. My birthday was supposed to arrive when I was somewhere high over the Atlantic, perhaps just off the coast of Namibia, at the front end of a monster 16-hour homeward flight. I should have long since fallen asleep, and not known exactly where I was when the clock struck midnight, nor…

  • a Beautiful Bench

    Family Update: An Engagement, a Scholarship, and a Beautiful Bench

    Canada’s Thanksgiving weekend has just come and gone and we ourselves have just come and gone—we are on our way home from a brief trip to Louisville, Kentucky, where we spent some time as a family. We very much enjoyed our few days with Abby, with Ryn (Nick’s fiancée), and with Nate, (Abby’s fiancé). Yes,…

  • Knowing and Enjoying God

    My New Book Is Out: Knowing and Enjoying God

    If you have frequented this site over the years, you have undoubtedly seen some SquareQuotes—the quotes combined with graphics that I release on a daily basis. A couple of years ago Jules Koblun and I had the idea of combining some fresh SquareQuotes with short devotionals. While she got busy with the designing, I got…

  • A Mid-August Family Update

    A Mid-August Family Update

    We have somehow already come to the middle of August, and over the past couple of weeks have been experiencing the full heat and humidity of a Canadian summer. Temperatures are often hovering around the low-30s Celsius (+-90 Fahrenheit) with humidity making it feel more like 40 (105). But it won’t be long now before…

  • A Canada Day Family Update

    A Canada Day Family Update

    Summer is now well underway in Canada. The hot weather began early this year and only now is the calendar catching up. If Canada has an unofficial beginning to summer it is the Victoria Day weekend (which falls around May 24) and if it has a more official beginning it is Canada Day (which is…

  • A Family Update and a Cause of Death

    A Family Update and a Cause of Death

    It took nearly six months, but the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office finally determined the cause of Nick’s death and sent us an autopsy report. It was a very long wait for a crucial piece of information. And while it was very difficult to receive the report, we were glad to finally know. We couldn’t bring…

  • A Family Update

    A Family Update, Six Months Later

    It’s hard for me to believe it, but today is exactly six months since Nick went to heaven. In some ways it feels like more than that, but in so many more it feels like less. Six months ago we were a family of five and looking forward to soon being a family of six…