Sean Dietrich
Columnist
Sean is a writer for The Observer
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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...
OPINION —I thought of you a few days ago. I was driving past a controlled burn. The fire department had lit up half of the lower Alabamian forest. It was terrifying but beautiful — the flames surrounding the trees. Fire trucks lined the road. It...
OPINION —Occasionally someone may be described as “living in the doldrums.” That means the person has the blues and is sad, depressed and lethargic. It’s not an uncommon experience. Most of us have days when despondency drains joy and energy from...
OPINION —The sun is lowering over the trees on the horizon, and the sky is lit orange here in Birmingham. The world is filled with daylight. The birds are chattering.Opening day of Major League baseball is here. Hallelujah. Tonight, the Atlanta...
OPINION —I’m supposed to be eating complimentary hotel-breakfast, but I’m in line behind a girl’s softball team.The dining room is nothing but long-hair, red ribbons, glitter makeup and striped softball socks.“They’re here for softball camp,” says...
OPINION —The world loves to honor those rare individuals who accomplish great things. Ted Turner developed a remarkable baseball business in Atlanta. Oral Roberts built a fine university in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Frank Lloyd Wright designed Fallingwater,...
OPINION —Forty years ago, Wally Armbruster published a little book titled “Let Me Out.”It never made the New York Times best-seller list. I read it, found its message humorous and provocative, and soon forgot about it. But recently, I came across...
OPINION —The 94-year-old woman gets a jumpstart on Decoration Day every year. The cemetery gets busy at her little church in Elmore County. She likes to be early to the party.She has brown-flecked hands. Tissue-paper skin. She arrives at the...