• Heartprints

    Lessons Learned in Narnia

    Eustace  “There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.”     C.S. Lewis, Voyage of the Dawn Treader pg. 1 Instead of being motivated by selfish ambition or vanity, each of you should, in humility, be moved to treat one another as more important than yourself. Philippians 2:3 (Net Bible) If you, like me, have fallen in love with C. S. Lewis’ world of Narnia then you may be quite familiar with Eustace, one of the main characters inThe Voyage of the Dawn Treader.   Though you may remember him well, you may not think quite so well of him.  He does begin as most definitely “a…

  • Engage

    Rest: Sochi and the Cadillac Lie

    Have you seen this ad that Cadillac has been running during the Sochi Olympics?     Don't believe the lie. Here is a summary of a biblical view of rest:  A few more stats…. Men who take annual vacations decrease their rates of heart attack by 30%, but for women the rate of decrease is more significant at 50%. Most bodies need seven or eight hours of sleep. (Americans average less than six.) Stuff will never satisfy. It's not just "the world" that feeds the lie. Many churches foster a culture that says, “Busyness is next to godliness,” but God designed us to need rest. Ruth Haley Barton rightly observes, “There…

  • Engage

    Are Women Worth Less Than Men?

    Last month The Economist ran an article, “The Worldwide War on Baby Girls,” that addressed the devastating effect of “son preference” on a number of societies. The author noted that “mothers in some developing countries say they want sons, not daughters, by margins of ten to one. In China midwives charge more for delivering a son than a daughter.” It’s sad how much the world devalues girls. And sometimes such thinking even penetrates the church. Some time back a reader responded to one of my blog posts by saying, “I notice you are in favor of defining women in a good light from a biblical standpoint. This is an issue…