Run your race with intensity

March 6, 2013 By 2 Comments
Run the race with patience

The apostle Paul compares our life in Christ to a footrace. Like any race this is one that only the diligent will win. Go back to your childhood story time. Though he had every advantage, Aesop's hare lost to the tortoise because he dawdled and frittered. We face the same temptations, but Paul exhorts us to run with intensity: Run like you want to win. Says the apostle, “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize?" This isn't to say that only one … [Read more...]

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In Christ we ascend beyond the angels

December 19, 2012 By 2 Comments
Going beyond the angels

It is sometimes easy to focus on how sinful we are. Our frailty and failings stand in stark contrast to the life we hope and believe we can live in Christ. Focus on these things too long and we can become very discouraged. But there are reasons for encouragement, and one example can be found by looking at a song about Jesus’ mother. Orthodox and Eastern Catholic believers sing a short hymn about Mary called the “Axion Estin,” or “It is Truly Meet,” which declares her “more … [Read more...]

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It’s the little sins that kill you

December 5, 2012 By 4 Comments
Little Fox

Judas Iscariot didn't begin with betrayal in mind, and David didn't intend adultery and murder. But then one day they sat alone, their minds consumed with guilt and recrimination, the deeds done. How? Judas was one of the twelve. David was a man after God's own heart. What went wrong? The question is important if we want to avoid our own personal and spiritual disasters. One thing I know: It's not the exotic sins that get us. We're mastered by the moral failures we've already made mundane … [Read more...]

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April fools for Christ

April 1, 2012 By 1 Comment
The Mad Hatter by Charles Robinson, Wikimedia Commons

The Bible presents us two kinds of folly, both very different. We meet the first in Proverbs. It's the folly of the person who denies the existence of God, the person who embraces a materialist worldview. We encounter the second in the writings of the apostle Paul. This folly proclaims a God so real and imminent and palpable that he takes human flesh, walks among us, and expunges our sins upon the cross. These two views are as different as whisky and chicken broth. In a flatly … [Read more...]

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Making grace stick

March 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Sandpaper

Sometimes we face problems in life that really rub us wrong, abrasive and hurtful experiences that we would never characterize as good. Like everyone, I have come through many of these episodes; in hindsight some of them even make sense. I'd go so far as to say that I'm grateful for them. Here's one way to think about these situations. … [Read more...]

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Hippies, monks, and Lent

March 16, 2012 By 11 Comments
Hippies, monks, and Lent

Here we are in the middle of Lent and I'm stuck on hippies. I've always been fascinated by the 1960s. These were wild and momentous years, populated by colorful and absurd characters whose impact far outstripped their usefulness. But drop the whole psychedelic mess into the period of the Great Fast and a compelling comparison of cultures emerges, one that might change how we see ourselves. … [Read more...]

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Fighting Downton Abbey passions

March 5, 2012 By 2 Comments
Matthew and Mary

At the dawn of the surprise-hit series Downton Abbey Mary Crawley has a momentary and tragic fling with a guest staying at her family's estate. Opportunity presents in the form of the dashing Turkish envoy, Kemal Pamuk. Lust prevails, and her moral failure and the threat of its scandalous exposure form a good bit of the dramatic pulse that drives the story forward … [Read more...]

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Grace and the blame game

February 20, 2012 By 5 Comments
Working with God

There’s a view of God’s sovereignty that can leave us with nothing to do. Since God provides for all our needs, it seems as if there is little to do but wait for him to act and accept everything that comes. But such a view smacks more of fatalism than providence. We've all encountered this view, and probably have believed it in one way or another ourselves. … [Read more...]

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Make room for suffering

November 15, 2011 By 9 Comments
make room for suffering

There is a strain of Christianity that promises material blessing as a sign of God's favor: cars, homes, bank accounts, etc. Given the economic downturn over the last few years, this strain should strain all credibility. Did God decide to withhold 30 to 40 percent of his favor across whole neighborhoods as their housing values plummeted? … [Read more...]

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Why we don’t bear fruit

November 11, 2011 By 2 Comments
Parable of the sower

One of Jesus' many well-known parables is the parable of the sower, which imagines a man with a bag of seed, casting the kernels this way and that. The seed, which represents the gospel, lands on different types of soil, which represent human hearts, human lives. We often think of this parable as speaking primarily about evangelism. The sower is the evangelist, spreading the Word. But that's only the most basic dimension. … [Read more...]

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