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Saintly Superstitions Are Substitutes for Christ
The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who demonstrated through His life and His words that He was fully God. All God’s powers and attributes are in Jesus—nothing missing. There is nothing more of God that we can get apart from Jesus. Jesus Christ is over everything. Evil is under His feet. As we sit with Him in heaven, evil is under our feet. So, when life’s challenges hit us squarely in the face, why do we turn to substitutes? What happens when you get tired of waiting for God to answer your prayer? What happens when you don’t see Him rescuing you from a tough…
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On the Death of “Notorious RBG”
When I entered the tenth grade in Northern Virginia’s Wakefield High School—two miles outside of Washington D.C.—our school had no women’s sports teams. But then Title IX got expanded in a way that gave women the right to equal opportunity in sports in educational institutions that received federal funds. And that included us. So, my Phys Ed teacher invited me and others to play on the inaugural women’s varsity soccer team. And we said yes. Our team wasn’t so great. And people told us the men’s teams were way more fun to watch. They were right, of course. But sadly, only in the past few years did it dawn on…
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Hard questions about abortion and our vote
Why is a candidate being pro-choice such a deal breaker for some Christians? Can’t we put aside our belief about abortion for the sake of unity? (Note: this is a frank discussion and depiction of abortion) I wish that every election season each voter would take the time to watch or re-watch the movie Unplanned. It begins with real empathy for those who seek abortion and those who help them. It’s the true story of Abby Johnson who joined the staff of Planned Parenthood to help women in crisis—the women who called and walked through their doors, tender, upset, weeping. Having experienced two abortions of her own, she wanted to…
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Please, no more!
I thought this fall would usher in the return of normal work hours in offices and schools, eating in restaurants, and gathering with friends. But COVID-19. It feels like we’ve lost so much this year. How can we move forward into fall when we continue to grieve the loss of so many aspects of our used-to-be “normal” life?
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A Theology of Sleep
It’s no secret that Americans are chronically sleep-deprived. The problem isn’t relegated to just the United States; it seems our neighbors across the pond also suffer from a “global problem of insufficient sleep.” Researchers contributing to a 2014 BBC article named the significant consequences of getting less than 7-hours of shut-eye on a regular basis: depression, heart disease, cancer, and obesity, to name a few. No surprise there. But I was startled by the reason the researches gave for our propensity to deny our body clocks: arrogance. In Reset: Living a Grace-Paced Life in a Burnout Culture, David Murray boldly states, “Show me your sleep pattern and I’ll show you…
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On Suicide
The incidence of depression, anxiety and suicide has skyrocketed as the isolation and life-disruption from Covid-19 has ravaged our world. I wrote this post in April 2013. Over the weekend, Rick Warren (pastor of Saddleback Church in California, author of The Purpose Driven Life) and his wife Kay revealed that their son Matthew had taken his life after a lifelong struggle with mental illness. In an email to his church, Pastor Warren wrote, “[O]nly those closest knew that he struggled from birth with mental illness, dark holes of depression, and even suicidal thoughts. In spite of America’s best doctors, meds, counselors, and prayers for healing, the torture of mental illness…
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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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Training the next generation to seek Jesus; the call to intentional parenting
I am an experienced camper. Growing up, my family camped across the United States from the Mexican Border to New York City. We tent camped during tornadoes, temperatures above 100 degrees, and flooding rain. I remember hunkering down in a bathroom during a tornado warning only to share the bathroom with the biggest scorpion my little eyes had ever seen. As a child, I couldn’t decide if I would rather suffer through the storm in the tent or cower in the corner with the scorpion. Included in my memories of these cherished family adventures were Sundays on vacation. My Dad always traveled with a suit. His mother was elderly, and…
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Reading Well
I’m thrilled to welcome one of my favorite millennials as today’s guest blogger. Nika Spaulding is a proud graduate of both the University of Oklahoma and Dallas Theological Seminary, and she currently serves as Resident Theologian at St. Jude Oak Cliff, a church plant in the Dallas area. As I type this article from the comfort of my kitchen table, I can see a pile of books on my couch, three full bookshelves in my living room, two books on the crowded table, and one behind me on the island. Right before sitting down to type, I passed two more bookshelves in my bedroom and hit pause on my audiobook…
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Flourishing under Siege
Psalm 139 intrigues me. We often turn to verses 13-16 to talk about God’s design of the unborn child in the womb. Verse 5, though, has always captured my interest. Both the NIV and NASB contain phrases that we have incorporated into American idioms: “Don’t hem me in.” And, “Don’t lay a hand on me.” Do you use these idioms in your country? In my individualistic American culture, we use these idioms to say to others, “Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do; don’t mess with me; don’t put limits on me.” Yet in Psalm 139:5, God himself hems us in or squeezes us (NET translation) and lays a…
