John Mark Hicks

[My book on the Shack is now available on Kindle.] William P. Young’s The Shack became a national bestseller in 2008. It touched the hearts of many and generated hostile theological disagreement from others. I read the book last January.  Moved to tears several times, I was emotionally and intellectually engaged by Young’s storytelling.  This modern parable […]

“God saw all that he had made and it was very good” (Genesis 1:31a). “….Cursed are you above all the livestock….Cursed is the ground…” (Genesis 3:14a, 17b). God created order, life and light out of a chaotic, inanimate and dark earth.  By divine act, life emerged from nothingness, light appeared in the darkness, and order […]

When I think of the dramatic story of Scripture in terms of divine presence (as I did in my previous post on theological hermeneutics), my mind always turns toward the absence of those whom I have loved and lost. This may seem a strange twist, but it is a natural flow for me because divine presence […]

Sometimes life gets to be “too much.”  Given some personal and painful meditations yesterday, some talks with several different people about their hurtful situations…it is too much. Intellectually, I know my losses are fewer than some and greater than others. I know it is all relative.  But my emotional gut–as I get in tune with it more […]

This morning I received an email from a friend who will be conducting a graveside service for premature twins who died hours after their delivery. They were only 24 weeks into their term. He asked my advice. I struggled with what to say. What would I say at such a graveside service? I have spoken […]

When a cyclone kills over 130,000 in Myanmar and an earthquake snuffs out the lives of 80,000 more in China, I have little interest in defending or justifying God. When my son (Joshua Mark Hicks) dies of a genetic disorder after watching him slowly degenerate over ten years and I learn of the tragic death of a friend’s son (John Robert […]

Since I was disconnected from the electronic world, I was unaware of the loss that the John Dobbs family has just suffered.  John Robert Dobbs died on the same day as Joshua Mark Hicks….my son in 2001, John’s son in 2008. Here are my feelings…about God…my prayer to God. Frankly, God, I am sick and […]

Twenty-eight years ago this morning–at about 3:00am–I was awoken to the news that my wife of two years, eleven months and eight days had died during the night. Sheila and I agreed that she would undergo corrective back surgery so that she could carry a child full term.  We had already experienced one miscarriage and would like to […]

What can we do for someone who has lost a loved one to death? I lost my first wife (1980), father (1994) and son (2001) to death, and my second wife and I divorced in 2001. I share here based more on my experience than any expertise.   Have a healthy sense of inadequacy. The worst and most […]

I often get requests for CDs of two seminar series that I have done for many churches.  The two most requested are “Anchors for the Soul” and “Come to the Table.”  They are both available on my Audios page.  “Anchors for the Soul” is my attempt to reflect on what we might say to those […]