A goodly portion of my ‘time off’ so far has been sorting through cupboards and bins, trying to cope with the ubiquitous accumulation of stuff that is the property of every modern person. Too great a generalization? Perhaps there are some people out there, somewhere, who don’t don’t use things, who exist in perfect spiritual minimalism, the soul unencumbered by the needs and fascinations of the body. But I haven’t met any of them. And because I always finish the... Read more
[Me sitting in my chair, awake but not working.] So here I am, smack in the middle of our annual holiday, or what Americans like to call Vacation, but really, this year, its more ghastly variation, the Staycation–the misguided mangling of two words to make both of them into the opposite of themselves. To stay and carry on with life is one thing, and to escape it all and gaze at some other tranquil scene is another. Surely the two... Read more
Well, the links aren’t about the law and the gospel, but the Podcast is. We take apart the last five minutes of a Michael Curry sermon and I can’t imagine that you’d want to miss it, even if I do, as usual, sound tired. I’m going to try to start blogging again this week, which seems, actually, a terrifying proposition. Can’t remember how it was that I woke up and wrote something Every Single Day. What did I say? How... Read more
I have been enjoying my small break from relentlessly pursuing to know and consume all that the internet has to offer (that’s a joke, there’s no way I am at all interested in the main thing the internet is about) but am coming back just for a moment to say Hello and link the extra long podcast we did this morning. It wasn’t intentional, we just got talking and without the pressures of the usual Monday spurring us on, we... Read more
Good Afternoon. I mean, it’s still morning, but by the time I post this it will probably be the afternoon. We woke up late and talked about how Christians should disagree, if it’s ok to disagree, and how we fell in love. Also, some Eugene Peterson and my forthcoming blog break which I plan to begin tomorrow. I am not going to be doing this. I am Not quitting anything! I’m just having a break because I’m very tired and am... Read more
In unusual fashion, the house is a disaster area and nobody is really ready for church. Some children took their pre Sunday shower, but nobody picked out anything of wear, and I think there’s a high chance that no single shoe will be able to be discovered without sheer panic in a few minutes when I wake everybody up. That’s what I do on Sunday morning. At 7am I turn on NPR’s With Heart and Voice to see if we... Read more
Good Moaning. It’s a cool, gray day, up here, how ’bout some Takes. One To dispense with business first, I got to be on The Ride Home again yesterday. I’m in the first segment being all hilarious, but then you should keep listening because Karen Swallow Prior is in the second segment and she’s lots more interesting and you’ll actually become a better person. Oh, and then you can go listen to the Persuasion Podcast interview Wendy Alsup about her... Read more
So, it seems, that Eugene Peterson searched his feelings and discovered that the LGBT community can be spiritual too. Everyone brighter than me has already commented. What I found most interesting, besides RHE’s* passive aggressive Facebook post that no doubt Peterson would have an easier time of it than Jen Hatmaker because he’s a man and she’s a woman (I think I’ll circle back to this some day because it’s not true and I think it would be worth saying... Read more
I know it sounds crazy, but we are going to take a vacation this year, so help me sweet baby Jesus. After a lot of years of work in the church, we’ve tried both taking a vacation and not taking a vacation, and it turns out that not taking a vacation is a foolish, might I even say stupid thing to do. But you don’t really realize how stupid until January or February when the weather and your overall hatred... Read more
I thought this morning might be a good moment to confess, in the most virtuous way possible, that I’m not living up to my own expectations and hopes on social media. Consider this, if you will, a head-cold-addled self-justifying lament–I am not as I wish I could be, but also, there’s probably no way I can actually be better at this. First of all, I should acknowledge that I am the kind of person, like vast swaths of the rest... Read more
Preventing Grace
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