The world will never starve for want of wonders; but only for want of wonder.”-G.K. Chesterton I want to begin a short series today on wonder and awe and our need to be able to discover our place in God’s good universe. But I’m convinced that all of that starts with being able to find God in it first. When I was growing up, the gravest sin that I could think of committing was taking the LORD’s name in vain. I... Read more
So every month, I sit down with Luke Norsworthy, the host of the podcast Newsworthy with Norsworthy to talk about the interviews he had that month, and about all the mistakes he made interviewing them. These are some of the interviews Luke’s done this past month: Dr Josh Graves: Luke interviewed our mutual friend Dr. Josh Graves about how to develop interfaith relationships between Christianity and Islam without sacrificing our convictions. Joshua Ryan Butler, Just a few days off of his trip from... Read more
A Fourth of July Meditation by Michael Wear, a former White House staffer who worked under President Obama. Wear wrote this piece a few years back on the Qideas blog, you can read his full post here. Americans are not God’s new chosen people; those who love Jesus are. But we can still be patriotic. Christians are not required to believe our nation has a special relationship with God in order to feel pride in the country in which God has placed them.... Read more
The following is a guest post by Ben Siburt. Ben served several years as a hospital chaplain and over a decade in full time church work, currently Ben serves as the Executive minister (think Old Testament High Priest) at the Highland Church of Christ in Abilene. He’s also a good friend and one of the more gifted people I know at entering into spaces where people are hurting: I think it is impossible to ever carry the label of expert in the... Read more
“You always marry the wrong person.” -Stanley Hauweraus Just last month, the most read article in the New York Times was titled “Why You will Marry the Wrong Person” written by Alain De Bottom, one of my favorite Atheist writers. De Bottom is trying to give the Western world a healthy dose of pessimism when it comes to relationship expectations. He points out that this kind of romanticism is only 250 years old, and hasn’t been very helpful to those... Read more
Recently I was back in my hometown of Benton, Arkansas. There’s something about being back home that always makes me nostalgic about my childhood and growing up in the South. It gets me out of my element and back to my roots, and that includes what kind of music I listen to. So when I’m back in Arkansas, I turn on the Country Music radio station that I listened to growing up (KSSN 96 if you’re wondering), and on my recent... Read more
“You’re nobody till somebody loves you.” -Dean Martin She sits in my office as her eyes dart nervously around the room, and we continue to make small talk. Eventually, her eyes settle and she tells me what she’s been dying to get off her chest. Over the past few years, she’s developed an eating disorder. The body she had doesn’t fit in with the cultural idealizations and she started making changes. She dreams of being happily married with kids, and so... Read more
A few weeks ago, I was having lunch with a new member at Highland (the church I serve) and was just asking questions trying to learn his story and what I found out was that this person has lived a fascinating life. For over a decade, he worked with the Department of Justice also serving several years as a Federal judge. And then recently moved to Abilene Texas to teach at ACU. He told me about his passion for justice and fairness and... Read more
So just a few days ago I walked into a Hospice room of a church member . It was someone who had made a dent in their little area of the world, he had lived well, and was dearly loved by his family and friends, and now they were gathered around saying goodbye as best as they could. And as soon as I walked in the room I knew I was in a holy place. As in, It was set... Read more
Last month, I was able to experience one of the weirdest, most awesome moments of my life. It was an event called The Devil-Palooza, which sounds like something my mother made me promise never to go to when I was growing up. It was 2 hours of some of the most prominent Christian leaders and theologians talking about Spiritual warfare on a Malibu roof top. You know, the kind of stuff that people talk about on Malibu roof tops. Yes it was... Read more
Jonathan Storment
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