Sean Dietrich
Columnist
Sean is a writer for The Observer
Sean Dietrich's Latest
OPINION — John tells in his gospel the story of Jesus restoring the sight of a man born blind. The man went home seeing, but when he told people Jesus had healed him, they did not believe him. The Pharisees refused to believe a sinner like Jesus...
OPINION — Jim was stuck. In the middle of the rural two-lane highway. Right there on the pavement. Not far from the solid yellow line. Tucked tightly in his shell. Scared to death.Vehicles sped past little Jim, on both sides, shooting by with the...
OPINION — I have a confession to make about hummingbirds. All my life, I have assumed all hummingbirds were just hummingbirds. Then I learned there are 360 species of hummingbirds in the world. When I read that, I recalled my dad often...
OPINION — There was an old man sitting outside the dusty bar. He sat in a plastic lawn chair. There was a dog with him. The dog was either asleep or dead.He was whittling a stick for no reason — the old man, not the dog. This is what old men did...
OPINION — Weak and intoxicated, a man made his way home at midnight. As he walked in, he was surprised to see his wife sitting in a rocking chair.“What are you doing up so late?” he asked.“I have been praying for you,” she said.“Well, for goodness...
OPINION — A woman I did not know called me from the local hospital. At her request I went to visit her, finding her in ICU, recovering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.She spoke plainly: “I saw no reason to continue living. I wanted to die so I...
OPINION — I found old photographs in the attic. I rifled through hundreds of old Polaroids. Most were infant pictures of me naked.I was a fat baby. People were concerned about me as a newborn. “Have you seen Sue’s baby?” people would say. Then they...
OPINION — Help is a fascinating word. To help someone is to provide assistance or support, to lighten another’s load. It can be a noun as in “Thank you for your help.” It can be a verb as in “I am here to help you.”I remember vividly the day my...
OPINION — It was late. I pulled into the campus after seven o’clock to attend my last class of the semester. My last college class. Ever. It was a night class.In America, most self-respecting people my age were finishing supper, settling down to...
OPINION —In my ninth decade, there are memories that are indeed precious to me. I think of them as holy moments when I was blessed with the presence and grace of God. Moments like the one when Dean took my hand in marriage. And moments when I held...
OPINION — I used to write about her all the time. She was just so easy to write about.From the first moment I met Thelma Lou, when she was an itty-bitty puppy, I knew I had found a literary muse. Then, she bit my ear with her puppy teeth. Crimson...
BY WALT ALBRITTON OPINION — The evidence of what God does in response to intercessory prayer is undeniable and awe-inspiring. I remember a holy moment riding down Palafox Street in Pensacola when a friend said to me, “I owe my life in Christ to my...
OPINION —The bag of vegetables magically appeared on our front porch along with beer. I looked around for angels and wisemen.Then I turned to my wife, saying, “Ray, is this heaven?”She looked at me flatly. “Who’s Ray?”You have to worry about this...
OPINION — Psalm 103 was my wife’s favorite of David’s songs. She loved it. She memorized it. More than once I heard her recite all 22 verses as the basis of her testimony or a message.Dean grew up reading and loving the King James Version of the...
OPINION —I am in the backseat of our van, sitting in a tiny, hollowed-out cavern of stuff.We [were] traveling to Tennessee and Kentucky [last] weekend where I [performed] my one-man shipwreck.So anyway, my wife is driving. My cousin Randa is in the...
OPINION —The quality of a Christian’s life depends upon the wise use of two phrases: I will, and I will not. The phrase, “I will,” is found often in the Bible and also in some of our songs of faith.One example of God saying “I will” is found in the...
OPINION —On my kitchen counter is a pound cake, sitting on a pedestal, beneath a glass dome.Pound cake is the food of summer. It can make or break the entire season. A summer without pound cake is like church without singing. Or Monet without...
OPINION —“Rise and Shine.” That was my dad’s wake-up call when I was a young boy.It was five o’clock in the morning. Since Dad got up every morning at 4:30, he had already showered and dressed. I had two cows to milk before getting ready for...
OPINION —The year is 1923. It is the middle of June. You are a kid in a seersucker suit, on your way to a picnic. The weather is hot. Sweltering, actually. Texas can be like a steam bath sometimes.Today is a holiday. At least that’s what everyone...
OPINION —What is grace? The Bible teaches us that we are “saved by grace.” But what exactly is grace?The word grace is one of the most commonly used words in the church. It is found in the King James Version and the English Standard Version 131...