Recently my son had a rough day at school. The issue was relatively minor, but he came home upset and dreading going back to school the next day, worried about a repeat of what had happened that day. Image via Pixabay We sat down after school and talked things through. He was genuinely emotional, as it all felt very real to him. He was anxious and worried and distraught, as I did my best to comfort him and bring him... Read more
Years ago at Christmastime I was shopping at a large chain store which shall remain nameless. This massive blue-themed superstore was all decked out for the holidays, and it was slammed with people getting their last-minute shopping in. Image via Pixabay As I was standing in line at the cash, I heard a phrase being repeated with some significant intensity. “Merry Christmas.” It was coming from the cashier. To every customer, she was looking them in the eye, definitely not... Read more
If I’m being honest, it was a pretty cool feeling the first time someone called me “Pastor Chris.” Image via Pixabay I was 21 and had just started bible college while joining my home church part-time on staff. Although I hadn’t finished my training or been credentialed yet, some people began calling me “Pastor Chris” because I was part of the pastoral staff team, and it felt awesome! I greatly respected the men and women in my life that carried... Read more
If one were to do a Google Image search for George Washington, a number of different pictures will pop up. Since he lived in a time before photography, all we have are paintings and sculptures by various artists, each one representing him in a slightly different way. Image via Pixabay Were you to actually go and do the search, you’ll notice that, even though they are varied, the various images all pretty much capture the same nose, the same brow,... Read more
I heard a preacher once who talked about how much he hated green olives, and so sometimes when he would go to his favourite pizza place, he would order green olives on his pizza and force himself to eat them. Image via Pixabay He also talked about sometimes seeing that a movie was coming out, something that he really wanted to see and had been waiting for, and how he would deliberately choose to not go see it. He used... Read more
I know it’s a risk to start off a post with controversy, as it means that some readers might get turned off right away, but I feel compelled to make the following statement all the same: I’m not so sure that everything about the Internet is a good thing. Image via Pixabay Please, people, please – put your pitchforks and torches down! I know it sounds crazy! But hear me out! The Internet has brought wonderful blessings of connectivity, convenience,... Read more
People are great, except when they are the worst. Image via Pixabay As much as we do our best, it seems that whenever our lives bump up against other humans, there is bound to be some messiness. Loving others is far from an easy task. It calls us to sacrifice and it calls us to put them first and it calls us to jump into other people’s messes. It’s so much easier to avoid it all. But, as is... Read more
The truth is that I love and revere the Bible as God’s holy Word, and yet, if I’m honest, I also have concerns that we may be overdoing it. Image via Pixabay Now, if it sounds crazy to suggest that one might “overdo” the Word of God, which is called food and life for the believer (e.g. Dt 8.3; Jn 6.33; etc.), than I get it – it does sound a little weird, especially from a pastor and Bible... Read more
Recently the “check engine” light lit up on my car dashboard. My automobile knowledge is essentially zero, and so I abided by my standard initial response of, “Keep driving for a while and see if the problem goes away all by itself!” Sometimes this works. This time it didn’t. Image via Pixabay I took the car to my trusted mechanics Wes and Leah, a couple who have a garage in town and who not only look after my car, but... Read more
Whatever the Christ-follower’s conception of Heaven is, it typically includes the idea that Heaven is “somewhere else” – it’s the place we go when we die, it’s where God lives, it exists in another realm, it is a world beyond our physical world, etc. Image via Pixabay These thoughts are not wrong. But, at the same time, these thoughts are just plain wrong. Now, to be fair, it’s not so much that they are wrong, they are just woefully... Read more
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