Even Jesus Didn’t “Have a Peace About” Following God’s Will (Pt.2)

January 6, 2015 By Rebecca Florence Miller

In my previous post, I discussed the way Christians sometimes wrongly “follow the peace” in their decision-making. I argued that the Bible never tells us to rely on an emotional feeling as the ultimate determinant of our decisions. Rather than always experiencing emotional calm when we follow God, we should realize that oftentimes obedience, service, and sacrifice will actually be difficult. In fact, if we find ourselves getting too “comfortable” or “peaceful,” we may have cause to ask ourselves if... Read more

Why “Having a Peace About It” is a Terrible Reason for a Christian to Make a Decision (Pt.1)

January 5, 2015 By Rebecca Florence Miller

Christians believe in a personal God who is intimately involved in our lives. This is a true and Biblical belief. But there are some extra-Biblical conclusions that have sometimes been drawn from this belief. I can’t count the number of times a Christian has said to me that “they have a peace” about a certain decision and therefore plan to move forward. Sometimes they make this decision despite obvious signs that their decision is unwise and not in conformity with... Read more

Big Eyes: How Stealing Creative Property Damages the Artist’s Soul

January 5, 2015 By Rebecca Florence Miller

As Tim Burton’s film Big Eyes opens, talented painter Margaret Keane (Amy Adams) is leaving her first husband, daughter in tow. She moves to San Francisco, eager to enjoy freedom and a new life. She is content to sell her artwork for pennies until she meets aspiring painter Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz). He encourages her to charge more for her art and celebrates her talent. Initially, she is completely charmed by the classy man who is fast pursuing her. His... Read more

Wild–and the Restorative Power of Doing Hard Things

December 31, 2014 By Rebecca Florence Miller

When I first read Cheryl Strayed’s memoir of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, I was struck by its vivid portrayal of a broken woman who had messed up her life in almost every way she could. I was struck by her humble acknowledgement of her failures–rather than aggrandizing them in some homage to postmodern self-actualization. And I was powerfully moved by her walk from broken woman to humbly-restored woman. The... Read more

A Savior Who Emptied Himself into Our Humanity, Bloody Birth Canal and All

December 23, 2014 By Rebecca Florence Miller

Christmas means a lot to me. It means a lot to me because in a world of alienation, violence, and sorrow, Christmas means that there is a God who cared enough about broken, hurting people to come and be in solidarity with us. It means that the concrete is hallowed. It means that simple, ordinary things like mangers, smelly shepherds, annoying government decrees, a baby nursing at his mother’s breast–these concrete, ordinary things are where we find God. God has... Read more

Bad News/Good News: In a World of Hatred, Jesus is Our Peace

December 19, 2014 By Rebecca Florence Miller

This has been a year of tremendous hatred and violence and division. ISIS beheaded American and British captives and posted videos of these acts of violence on the internet for all to see. Visceral, personal violence. The Taliban attacked a school in Pakistan and killed over a hundred people, most of them young students. In South Sudan, over 20,000 people were killed in a door-to-door massacre last December. One million people were displaced into refugee camps, most of them women... Read more

Making Homosexuality a Capital Crime? A Repudiation of Hateful Pastors

December 15, 2014 By Rebecca Florence Miller

Just this week, over on the Friendly Atheist blog, there were three separate examples of so-called pastors advocating making homosexuality a capital crime (one of the three appears to have no actual congregation and to be mentally ill, so my main concern is with the other two). I will not name these pastors because I have no desire to make them more famous than they already are or to spread their message. One of these two pastors advocated killing homosexuals... Read more

Why Do You Air the Church’s Dirty Laundry?

December 15, 2014 By Rebecca Florence Miller

One of the distinctives of my blog here at Patheos is that along with straightforward discussion about my Christian (and, specifically, Lutheran) faith, I also do a fair amount of critiquing of the times when we as Christians fail to live up to the call of our faith. Within Christian culture, there is oftentimes a fear that speaking out about the dark things that sometimes happen in Christian community–or even just about the general day-to-day sins that we as Christians... Read more

Why Do You Stay in a Flawed Church?

December 15, 2014 By Rebecca Florence Miller

In a previous post, I spoke directly to my Christian community and argued that because we follow a Savior who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, we do not have to be afraid of “airing our dirty laundry.” We do not have to be afraid of critique or of openly dealing with our flaws. In fact, we can welcome critique because it can help us ultimately grow as faithful followers of Jesus. In this post, I’d like to... Read more

Bad News/Good News: Bad News at “the Most Wonderful Time of the Year”

December 12, 2014 By Rebecca Florence Miller

I have been conspicuously silent on the blog this week. There’s a reason for that. On Sunday, I was taking my daughter to a ballet recital and got into a car accident. Everybody walked away from the accident, but our minivan (which we bought only three months ago) was totaled. I didn’t expect a car accident to shake me up as much as it did, but it was Tuesday before I even began to shake the nausea, depression, and mental... Read more