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A Pattern of Prophecy
Clarification: they’re not the folks on TV spouting name-it-and-claim-it mumbo jumbo. Or Christian celebrities on conference circuits. Or those huddled in dimly-lit rooms whispering, “I just see x for you,” with x being anything from a new job to a medical diagnosis. They’re the school teachers and concert pianists and teenagers–everyday folks who have high views of Scripture and altruistic desires for widespread transformation. Their pursuit of purity, beauty, and unity keeps them listless…anxious…even depressed. They’re true prophets, and their lives often follow a rough-but-predictable pattern: see, speak, wait.[1] See. True prophets perceive what’s going on beneath the surface. Consider Elijah in 1 Kings 17-19, a man who peeled up…
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Disarm
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The Language of the Unheard
In 1965 over half the population of Dallas County, Alabama, was African American, yet accounted for a meager 2% of registered voters. After attempts to register these residents failed, Martin Luther King, Jr. came. Peaceful protests formed. Bloody Sunday ensued. King was shot. And violence erupted across the nation. “A riot is the language of the unheard.” Fifty years of peaceful attempts to procure the right for women to vote made little impact. By 1912 a new wave of suffragettes had flooded Britain’s shores, attacking clergy, bombing buildings, and terrorizing society. “A riot is the language of the unheard.” In the 1400’s Jan Hus confronted corruption in the church, specifically…
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Listening to My Black Brother: an interview
Ecclesiastes says there’s a time to speak and a time to be silent. Today I’m going to be silent, but I invite you to listen to one of my spiritual godfathers, a Black man living in north Dallas. His name is Dwayne. What happens within you when you see this ongoing brutality against people of color? There’s a flood of emotions: anger, terror, sadness. I wonder how this could happen. Why is there so much hate and disrespect for Black people and people of color? I wonder why and how long my people have to suffer. It’s like all the history triggers me. This has been going on for so…
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An Invitation to Lament
Everyone is grieving. Students mourn the ball games and proms they didn’t have. Folks agonize over the jobs and insurance they’ve lost. People ache after their loved one joined nearly a quarter of a million others killed by this “novel” virus. We’re all grieving . We need to. We need to wrestle and scream and plead with God to do something about the whole dadgum thing. Actually, we need to lament. Today I invite you to lament with me. We’ll journey together, interactively, so grab something to write with and get into a comfy chair. Begin by jotting down the first thoughts that come to mind when you hear the…
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Longing for Life After Corona
Last weekend I took to the streets, maintaining social distance, of course, to chat with perfect strangers about the corona situation. The responses were fascinating… 0
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Facing Anxiety? Here Are 2 Choices
Excitement fueled my journey toward Gatlinburg, Tennessee where friends awaited me for a weekend getaway. Dusk was setting as I reached Chattanooga, so my eyes struggled to adjust to the darkening roadway and approaching headlights. Somehow I navigated that huge bend of highway skirting Lookout Mountain and then, just as the road began to straighten out, my excitement bottomed out. Before me stood a wall of fog so dense and so massive that it shrouded all four lanes of interstate. I had exactly 12 seconds to make a decision: pull over on the shoulder OR put on the low beams, reduce my speed, and navigate the haze. Honestly, these are…
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Purpose in Anxiety?
I stared in silence at the panorama, utterly captivated by the beauty of Interlaken. My eyes slowly traced the massive white peaks of Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau contrasting against the azure sky. Blinking tears, I spied a red cogwheel train trekking up a nearby ridge. Curiosity nudged me toward the cliff and from my lofty perch I glimpsed a scene so pleasing it almost made me blush: cottony wisps of fog gently kissing the bashful waters of Lake Thun. Yes, I have a slight fascination with fog. Even as a child I’d wake up—early, like most farm kids do—and dash over to the window to see if the fleecy stuff…
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Your Help Wanted
Anxiety impacts an estimated 264 million people worldwide. For those living in “the land of the free and home of the brave,” things aren’t much better. Millions of adults (31.1%) are strangled by anxiety on a regular basis. Anxiety disorders impact over 40 million Americans (19.1%), earning the title of most common mental health concern in the United States. I’m passionate about this issue, not only because of a personal struggle with social anxiety, but also because there is a major void of awareness, compassion, and service from the Church to those struggling with anxiety disorders. To that end, I’m working on a resource that provides a robust theological framework…
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Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus
He could have kept a distance, withholding his immanence from the shepherd tending a flock. But, there he was: appearing in a fire that burned, yet did not consume its bushy host. God himself had come. And the shepherd, unable to behold such glory, hid his face while God continued, “’I’ve seen the afflictions and heard the groaning of my people. I know their suffering andI have come down to deliver them out of Egyptian oppression and lead them into a broad land flowing with milk and honey.’” He could have delivered the once-enslaved Israelites from afar. But, there he was: appearing each evening as a flaming fire and each…
