Ascension and Vocation

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 3:26 pm By Alissa Wilkinson

Over at the Washington Institute, Laura Merzig Fabrycky writes about Christ’s ascension, and what it means for our understanding of our vocation: So beyond being a bit of biblical trivia that we might affirm as true, what does Christ’s ascension have to do with my waking up, pouring the morning’s coffee, checking email, and heading out to work for the day? How does Christ’s ascension matter to my life and its vocational commitments? Is the ascension a public reality, or a mere religious curiosity,... Read more

Keep the Friends Who Wound You

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 3:26 pm By Alissa Wilkinson

John Sowers wrote a wise article over at the Storyline Blog about keeping the friends who are willing to wound you: Proverbs 27:6 says, “Wounds from a friend are better than kisses from an enemy.” To hear my writing was like an IKEA product stung a little. But Kari was right. It hurt, but it helped move me in the right direction. Read the whole post here. Read more

Celebrating Life’s Nitty-Gritty

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 3:26 pm By Alissa Wilkinson

Over at Good Letters, Peggy Rosenthal looks at the poetry of Brazilian poet Adelia Prado: I would like to feel, with Prado, that everything — yes everything — is beautiful, is holy, because it is God’s creation. Oh, I say I believe this, and I do believe it. But do I truly live it? I whine when the weather is chilly and grey day after day. I mash ants to death on my kitchen counter instead of listening to them. I walk to the... Read more

Thinking About Anxiety and Depression

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 3:26 pm By Alissa Wilkinson

Over at QIdeas, this week’s question: “is anxiety and depression our new normal?” Some researchers say that 1 in 4 women are on antidepressants, and there’s a lot of talk about what causes this uptick (or if there even is an uptick) in the occurrence of anxiety and depression. There are four articles and a video worth checking out, if you’re interested in the issue or mental health more generally. You can find them all here. Read more

On Crises and Middles

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 3:26 pm By Alissa Wilkinson

Ever feel “fair-to-middling”? In The Curator, L.L. Barkat ruminates on “middles”: Middle places can be unsettling. I wrote a whole novella I now look upon as a “middle” book. I wrote it at the same time I was fiddling with beginnings. And, oddly enough, I started the novella with the words, “The End.” The End is a logical place to begin when you are middling. I asked a dear friend once — a person whose life I did not comprehend at the time —... Read more

An Outward Sign of Nothing New

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 3:26 pm By Alissa Wilkinson

Perhaps you’ve heard about the monument that a group of Satanists are trying to erect on Capitol grounds in Oklahoma. They’ve raised nearly $30,000 so far. Over at Christ and Pop Culture, S.D. Kelly explores what this statue and the hubbub around it actually says about us, and comes to some surprising conclusions: The members of The Satanic Temple of New York admit as much when trying to carve out a place in the public imagination, laying claim to a very shaky... Read more

Beware of Three-Second Distractions

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 3:26 pm By Alissa Wilkinson

Here’s a surprising fact (or maybe not): even a 3-second distraction can screw you up, especially at work: Researchers asked 300 Michigan State University undergrads to complete a tedious computer exercise in which subjects needed to remember exactly where they were in a precise sequence of tasks. The researchers evilly programmed interruptions to occur after about every sixth step, in the form of a pop-up box that required the volunteers to type in a CAPTCHA-esque code before they could get... Read more

The Perfect Essay

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 3:26 pm By Alissa Wilkinson

This is a great essay – about essays, and about what a mother can teach a kid who think his writing is flawless. Criticism, at its best, is deeply personal, and gets to the heart of why we write the way we do. Perhaps you’re a narcissist who secretly resents your audience. Or an elitist who expects herculean feats of your reader. Or a know-it-all who can’t admit that stylistic repetition is sometimes annoying redundancy. Or a wallflower who hides... Read more

Numb Generations?

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 3:26 pm By Alissa Wilkinson

At QIdeas, Kara Powell’s talk about “numb generations” is available to watch. In it, she argues that stewardship of technology doesn’t start with kids; it starts with parents. If parents are addicted to technology and are not fully present as a result, that’s the posture children will mimic. Watch the talk here. Read more

Endurance Makes Us Stronger

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 3:26 pm By Alissa Wilkinson

Over at The High Calling, they’re doing a series on thriving through stress, and John Blase writes on how endurance makes us stronger: I am a man of prayer. I don’t do it very well, but I believe in its efficacy regardless of me. Needless to say, I was a praying son of a gun the month of January and February and dipping over into March. My initial petitions were along the lines of Jesus, please snap your divine fingers and... Read more