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IF: the (mostly) under-40’s rock at their first un-conference
The 1200-seat Austin Municipal Auditorium sold out in under an hour. So they offered live streaming to anyone with a computer. And from around the world 20,000 more registered, many of those inviting friends and even churches full of women. It was as IF the organizers had blown a giant whistle and thousands had come running…to what no one was exactly sure. Not even the organizers. But here is my hunch: In Bird by Bird: instructions on writing and life Ann LaMott says that “Having a great narrator is like having a great friend whose company you love, whose mind you love to pick, whose running commentary totally holds…
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Justice is Social
My friend Célestin lost six family members, including his brother, in the Rwandan genocide. One day a man came to Célestin to be baptized wearing a shirt he recognized as having belonged to his deceased brother. When Célestin asked about it, the man said his relative killed the guy who wore it. Célestin wanted to drown this person instead of baptizing him. But he remembered that Jesus died for both of them. Today Célestin and that man he baptized—the brother of his own brother’s murderer—serve together as ministry partners. Célestin went on to write his doctoral dissertation on forgiveness, coauthoring the book Forgiving As We’ve Been Forgiven: Community Practices for Making…
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“The New Mantra of Revenge: Unfriend”
Also posted on the web: “Dealing with a Mean Mother: Is an Obituary the Best Revenge?” “Revenge of the Gossip Girls” “Oscar Wilde once said: The greatest cruelty we can do unto others is not to hate them but to ignore them. That’s my form of revenge.” What's yours? For me… …it's the silent treatment. I’m fairly sanguine, don't think of myself as a Make-em-Pay kind of person. But when I’ve been wounded, if I respond out of weakness, rather than God’s strength, that’s my temptation—retreat and pull up the drawbridge. On the one hand the desire to punish and take revenge “…far from being merely a fallen…
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An impossible dream?
Living God’s way in our chaotic world sometimes seems like an impossible dream. Yet Micah the prophet summarized God’s intents this way: “He has told you, O man, what is good, and what the Lord really wants from you: He wants you to promote justice, to be faithful, and to live obediently before your God.” Micah 6:8 NET. Or, from the NIV, “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Our country is embroiled today in divisive debates about what it “looks like” to act justly, love…
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Why Our Expectations of God Are Unrealistic
In my last blog post I talked about “Unrealistic Expectations” and promised to explore some of the reasons our expectations of God are unrealistic (and thus why we get frustrated or even furious with Him). I mentioned several ways in which we think God should act. Here are my responses to why those expectations are unrealistic. • Show the same grace to all of us by treating us all the same No child ever has to be taught about fairness. The heart’s cry for justice is part of our design. But we are broken in our understanding of so many things, and we usually equate fairness with equality. We want…
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The Transformation of a (Bible) Church Lady
The nut of any story of transformation is “I used to…but now…” Evolving in Monkey Town is Rachel Held Evans' story of transformation. Daughter of a Dallas Theological Seminary grad, Rachel used to be a Bible Church going, Christian Character Award winning, youth group leading, Bryan College attending young woman quite certain of the answers to the hard questions about God. Christianity meant having the right opinions about God and being able to defend them at all costs. Her self-worth and sense of purpose were all wrapped up in “getting God right.” But now she describes herself as “moving through doubt to belief.” Belief held with open hands and a…