Mark D. Roberts
This isn’t particularly erudite or thoughtful or insightful, but it did make me chuckle and feel a bit bad: frog photobombs NASA launch. Read more
This isn’t particularly erudite or thoughtful or insightful, but it did make me chuckle and feel a bit bad: frog photobombs NASA launch. Read more
Over at the Paris Review blog, Casey N. Cep writes about cathedrals in Europe, and Ray Carver, and other things – and it’s lovely. They continue, when moments later Robert says, “Close your eyes now.” Now both blind, they keep moving across the paper, adding features of the cathedral silently. The catharsis of the encounter, rendered as only Raymond Carver could, is when Robert asks the narrator: “Take a look. What do you think?” “My eyes were still closed,” the narrator confesses... Read more
Well, this is interesting: some researchers thought that messiness – as opposed to tidiness – might serve a purpose. And so they did some research into messiness and found out some interesting things: When we analyzed the responses, we found that the subjects in both types of rooms came up with about the same number of ideas, which meant they put about the same effort into the task. Nonetheless, the messy room subjects were more creative, as we expected. Not only... Read more
Katelyn Beaty (who is a colleague of mine at Christianity Today) recently wrote an excellent editorial about our “hunger for outrage” on the internet – and the problems it causes. Call it the tart deliciousness of moral outrage. From mayors’ sex scandals to pastors’ oddball comments to judges’ incoherent rulings, we are reminded 24/7 of the extent of human folly. If anything, a nonstop news cycle gives us nonstop proof that sin pervades every person and institution. In the words of... Read more
Psalm 67:1-7 May the nations praise you, O God. Yes, may all the nations praise you. Let the whole world sing for joy, because you govern the nations with justice and guide the people of the whole world. Psalm 67:3-4 To be honest, we begin our relationship with God because of what’s in it for us personally. We recognize that we need forgiveness and learn that God offers it. We yearn to be saved from our sins and know that... Read more
I teach writing and edit for a living, so I talk to a lot of people who say that they wish they knew a few tricks to help their writing improve. It’s unfortunate but true: once you’re a grownup, on the hamster wheel of daily work, it’s hard to re-learn grammar rules and re-build your writing. Yet everyone needs help (even editors!). So I thought this piece from the Chronicle of Higher Education was useful in giving a few down-and-dirty... Read more
Over at Fieldnotes, Gideon Strauss is recounting some of his own remarkable vocational history – starting with his work as a conscientious objector under apartheid in South Africa – and reflecting on identity and belonging at work: In my late teens I made a conscientious objection against serving in the military of apartheid South Africa, and as a result did community service for about three and a half years in the late 1980s in complaints offices of the apartheid government’s Department of Labor. My immediate office... Read more
Lately, I’ve been getting a little tired of hearing people claim that there aren’t Christians making good art. Sure, Christians haven’t always been very good about making good art – and have made a lot of bad art – but there’s good out there, too. And I think sometimes that people who say it doesn’t exist just aren’t looking. That’s why I was glad to see that Image has compiled a list of 25 of the greatest living writers of faith. Check... Read more
Over at The High Calling, Jen Hanno Sandbulte reminds us that the disciples weren’t in leadership positions or fancy jobs when Jesus found them: they were fisherman, and tax collectors, and so on: If you think about a fisherman’s personality profile, I’m guessing you might find many who were introverts. When Jesus found these three fishermen, they were casting their nets. They weren’t telling someone else how to cast the net. They were getting their hands dirty and doing the... Read more
Yesterday, I was putting laundry away and changing the bedsheets and catching up on NPR, and I heard this piece about the new Apple iOS. In case you can’t listen to it right now, here’s the basic idea: the new operating system for iPhones and iPads is releasing very soon, and Apple is finally migrating away from a paradigm rooted in the real world to one that’s entirely digital. Here’s what I mean: for a long, long time now, computers... Read more
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