• Engage

    Three Good Questions about How To Love Your Political Enemies

    The next two months until the election will be full on cultural and political war. How can we engage in that conflict, especially as we respond to the our political opponents, and still follow Jesus, living with his love for people? Here are three good questions to consider as we check our motives and make our choices… Will we choose retribution? Suppose you are a salon owner and one of your independent stylists wants to bring in a high-profile official for a shampoo and blow dry. Suppose this official is your political enemy. Not just any enemy, but the highest official of the enemy party. The party responsible for shutting…

  • Karma versus Grace
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    Should Christians Believe in Karma?

    Facebook Theology. That’s what I heard it called the other day. You know, those “cute” sayings posted by Christians on Facebook. I see it all the time. Cute sayings that seem “true enough” to sound okay but are really not true and can lead to some really bad conclusions. I recently saw two very colorful, eye-catching posts referencing karma as something to pursue (especially “positive karma”). One was tips for improving good karma. The other said, “Create positive karma now!” Seeing those naturally led me to this question, “Should Christians believe in Karma?” And to this one, “Does Karma have anything to do with a Christian’s life?” So, I decided…

  • Engage

    “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…