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Reflections of a Female Seminary Professor
Sipping on coffee, I was sitting in the café of a church in a Dallas suburb where I’d just spoken, when I noticed a man’s military boots in front of me. As I lifted my eyes, I saw the desert fatigues. And then my pupils met his. I knew this man! “Justin!” The soldier standing in front of me was someone I had loved and mentored in my job as a seminary professor. He was one of my artistic geniuses, eating up every word I’d had to say about how to tell a story. I jumped up to greet him. What a wonderful surprise! But what I had assumed was…
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Zapped into Spiritual Maturity
Wouldn’t life be easier if we could just fix it? What if we could push a button and bring immediate change? When I watch people dear to me whose lives could be helped with more faith or Christian maturity, I wish I could insert them into a machine which would spit them out all cleaned up, somewhat like a washer. It might have numerous cycle choices, depending upon what needs to change—things such as a bad attitude, foolish decision-making, selfishness, laziness, unforgiveness, and leaving God out of life decisions. Since God hasn’t given us such a machine and doesn’t choose to zap people into maturity himself, how are we supposed…
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Skin-Deep Maturity
The same day the news announced “Katrina Leaves Dozens Dead,” my server’s news rotated this headline as an equivalent top story: “How did Jessica, Denise and Others Get So Slim and Fit? See Their Secrets.” Think maybe our culture has messed-up priorities? Want more evidence? Americans spend more than $8 billion annually on cosmetic surgery. But it’s not just this side of the Atlantic where we’re forking over cash. The Scotsman reports that four in ten teenage girls in the UK consider plastic surgery. And how about this? His-and-hers and mother-daughter treatments are among the latest plastic-surgery trends. People are giving such treatments as gifts. What are we teaching our girls?…
