Why Believe? Most of our lives, we’re asked to believe true things that seem, on the surface, outlandish. If you had asked an American academic in 1985, whether the Berlin Wall would fall and the Soviet Union collapse, he and most of his colleagues would have sneered. The conventional guardians of our conventions — academics,..
Seeing Through The Clutter So, in this no-man’s land between Christmas and our official re-awakening of commerce—about one week after New Year’s—I’ve been swimming through a rich sea of YouTube documentaries. It’s an impossibly large feast; it’s like being being tossed around by a huge school of Atlantic Cod, two minutes with a fork in..
The church that dies and the church that occupies If you have ever wept singing Leaning on the Everlasting Arms, or tearfully marveled at the sweeping simplicity of a thief promised eternal paradise merely for recognizing the King, you know that Christianity doesn’t categorize very easily. It’s not spiritual botany, stuck in there between the..
High School Juniors There’s a sad day in a parent’s life when he comes to understand that his teenage child has the world figured out, and that mom and dad–once heroes–are hopelessly compromised. The child, now an adolescent, is seeking a much better world for himself, but he’s got at least seven or eight years..
Yesterday, driving around town, I settled into a comforting blanket of technical pleasure: Spotify and Google Maps gracefully shared the BMW’s speaker system. The air-conditioning was leveling off at a precise 72 degrees. “Traffic is delayed along your route,” computer-girl announced, and re-routed me. The Tokens paused for a moment and then soared back up..
I have a soft spot for anyone seeking an explanation for the universe, and our place in it. I suppose that even includes the judgmental and the irritating, because the pursuit itself is desperate for self assurance. We’re all trying to box up our foggy doubts, to turn our spiritual conjecture into solid stepping stones,..
A lot of folks don’t fight, because nothing excites them. Jesus could marvel at a lily, or a sparrow, or the innocence of a child. He could turn water into wine. He could weep at the death of a friend, because life was so bitterly beautiful its loss even touched Him. He could describe a..
“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” Christ calls us ‘evil,’ but capable, on occasion, of giving good gifts, of doing good. How many of us know happy, sensitive, articulate..
First of all, good luck. I am about to offend a few of you, but there just aren’t that many real Christian fellowships out there. How do I know this? Well, let’s see: Bruce Jenner would be a good place to start. Whenever you pile up your groceries at the supermarket check-out and you see..
Yesterday, I argued there can be beauty, and even virtue, in tawdry places, but I think I was really wrestling with a more fundamental problem: how to live, when to speak, when to shut up, which jokes to tell, what life-script to pick. God certainly seems something like a playwright. He gave Pharaoh a role..
