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Stop Saying Christianity Doesn’t Make You Happy
This week, a Gallup Poll has reported pretty dismal mental health ratings, adding to a year full of statistics about depression, suicide, porn, stress and substance abuse. 2020 stinks, and the world doesn’t know how to handle it. So can we please stop adding to the problem by saying that Christianity doesn’t make Christians happy? I know, I know. When we say this, we’re trying to explain that we–and our happiness–aren’t the point. We’re reminding one another that our faith doesn’t protect us from life in a broken world. We’re saying that the abiding joy in Christ is substantially different than flurries of happiness that may come. These theological truths…
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Homogeneity is Easy (But Unity’s Better)
Can I be frank with you? Homogeneity is easy. Whole cultures exist where people have common stories and experiences, surrounded by people who speak the same language (both literally and figuratively). Exhausted from the fractalization, Americans daydream of such utopia, like Camelot or Wakanda or maybe Finland. Meanwhile across our melting pot, we don’t share anything but angst. Is holding a door patriarchal or polite? Does our compliment show appreciation or reveal underlying racism? Requiring masks wise or a lack of faith? Is there any politician, educator, or mommy blogger who isn’t accused of being extreme and trying to ruin the country? Chasms cut and crosscut the nation, including…
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Go Back to Where You Had It Last
When my brother and I scrambled around looking for lost objects, my mom (like mothers around the globe) would say, "Go back to where you had it last." We'd trudge back to the kitchen and find our homework in the fridge next to the milk. Or we'd sheepishly discover our keys still in the front door lock. Or when we got to the porch, we'd remember that after the water fight we'd gone to the fort, where the missing shoe was waiting for us. I think of this when I hear people say that they used to be so certain of God's calling or guidance, but they're going through a…
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Have We Forgotten How to Remember?
Every Memorial Day, soldiers, veterans and military families try to remind the nation of the holiday's meaning. As fewer Americans enter into military service, though, the significance grows hazy in the midst of sales, parties and the unofficial start to summer. As the wife, daughter and granddaughter of men who served, my heart breaks a little over the forgotten sacrifices so many made. This year, however, I've been thinking of broader implications of this type of amnesia. Have we lost our ability to memorialize? Have we forgotten how to remember?
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Identity: Angelina Jolie, Tim Tebow, and a Pregnant “Infertile”
Angelina Jolie has become rich, famous and popular for being an archetype of female sexuality. Tim Tebow has been an exceptional, celebrated athelete since high school. But for both of these superstars, circumstances have changed. I've been thinking a lot about how circumstances shape our identities, and how changes in events influence our identities. For 5 years, my husband and I have struggled with infertility. Strike that–for 5 years, we struggled with infertility. In a breathtaking blessing straight from the Author of Life, we're pregnant. I expected the morning sickness, and the nervousness, the parties and the shopping. But I didn't see the adjustment to identity coming.
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Why Mentoring Programs Fail
Go to a women's ministry conference, and you're likely to hear at least one breakout session on mentoring. Today's young Christian women yearn for relationships with older women. On the other end, many mature Christian women have so much to offer younger women. So why does the win-win setup so often end in a big fail?
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The Pope, Lent, and Evangelicals’ relationship with Catholics
Pope Benedict XVI announced today that he'll be retiring after eight years. He'll be the first pope to retire in almost six hundred years, and the Catholic community is examining repercussions of the historic announcement.
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Stand or Sing?
In both England and America, slavery was brought down mainly by Christians…but not all of them. Christ-followers fought to wipe out infanticide in most parts of the world. At least some of them did. Christians–but not every Christian–fought against female circumcision half a century before the issue attracted larger attention.
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NYE, Resolutions, and true life change
New Year's Eve. All over the world tonight, people will gather to celebrate, watch the ball drop or, of course, make life-changing New Year's resolutions. By Valentine's day, though, most of those resolutions will be only guilt-producing memories. We're not what we want to be.
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Sandy Hook and Christmas
Yesterday was the third Sunday in Advent, the day when many churches around the world light the Joy candle. As tears streamed down faces, we sang and worshipped and tried to grasp Joyous expectation in the shadow of unspeakable horror. But this juxtaposition doesn't remove us from its meaning; it brings us closer. Immanuel–God with us–didn't come to an idyllic world.