Bingo is a game of chance. How about life? This post is about how the game of life requires conscious control and the utmost care. One cannot leave one’s interactions with others to chance. I will not wade too deep into the murky waters of fate and freedom. What I will say is that I invest a great deal of thought looking for signs of conscious control in my son Christopher’s life. Unlike bingo, I won’t leave anything to chance... Read more
In the medical field, it is impossible to prescribe proper treatment and provide an astute prognosis without a sound diagnosis of a patient’s condition. That is why I always pray that medical professionals tending to my son’s traumatic brain injury and resulting aftermath discern what the causes are for his various ailments. Sound diagnosis of a medical problem makes astute prognosis possible. The same is true in the spiritual domain. Lenten lament aims to help us discern what is wrong... Read more
One of the most pressing challenges facing society at large is the temptation to reduce all relationships to transactions whereby we commodify life. It gives rise to a throwaway culture. God calls us to resist this trend. May we cherish life and our relationships in view of how God restores humanity as the divine masterpiece in view of Jesus. Pope Francis addressed this subject back in 2014. He claimed that we live in a “throwaway culture.” Whereas for Pope Francis,... Read more
We learn a great deal about ourselves from our metaphorical accounts of deities and devils. Do these accounts prove life-giving or deadly for others and ourselves? Friedrich Nietzsche was one of the great critics of religion, along with Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, and Ludwig Feuerbach. Nietzsche wrote about truth as a dead metaphor. In “On Truth and Lying in an Extra-Moral Sense,” Nietzsche asserts: “Truths are illusions about which one has forgotten that this is what they are.”[1] Nietzsche argued... Read more
The famed series Breaking Bad is so good at describing how life can go from bad to worse. Something similar preceded it. I’m not talking about the series prequel, Better Call Saul. Rather, I am referring to what transpired with the fall into sin in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3), along with its resulting aftermath east of Eden (Genesis 4:16). This post reflects briefly upon the television series and biblical story. As in the show Breaking Bad, sin in... Read more
There are at least two competing ideologies in our world today—the survival of the fittest expressed in strict, even violent competition, and the survival of the friendliest. Both make their appearance in evolutionary theory, the Netflix sensation, Squid Game, and in the Christian life. We are perhaps more aware of the survival of the fittest doctrine, which is often associated with Charles Darwin’s Origins of the Species. In fact, the term makes its appearance in Origins’ 5th edition. To be... Read more
The God of the Bible is self-sufficient, but not self-centered. Take, for example, Jesus’ words to the rich young ruler in Matthew 19: “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” (Matthew 19:21; NIV) Jesus doesn’t want the man’s money. He calls on the man to sell his possessions and give the proceeds to the poor. Rather than use the man to get at his resources... Read more
So many people I meet today must be from Missouri, the “Show Me” state. I find that various individuals I encounter rightly hit the pause button on whether to believe someone regardless of whether they hold a position of authority. Of course, this is not universally the case, as we can easily fall prey to taking up residence in the state of gullibility. All it takes in some cases for someone to be hoodwinked is for a person in charge... Read more
A living hope is a dangerous thing. It is a revolutionary thing. Hope can keep you going when you’re in solitary confinement, when you’re being pressed down and spit out of society’s mouth, when you lose someone so dear to you it makes you want to die every day. Consider the theme of hope in Shawshank Redemption. Andy, Red, and other prison inmates are talking about Andy’s recent two-week long isolation in solitary confinement (you can find the link to... Read more
How often have you come across bait and switch tactics or loss leader strategies in business? Have you ever witnessed such tactics and strategies in evangelism, that is, when people share about Jesus with others in the hope they will convert and become Christians? Let’s define the terms to make clear what we are discussing. Cornell Law School defines “bait and switch” in these terms: A “bait and switch” takes place when a seller creates an appealing but ingenuine offer... Read more
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