If you’re like me, some days streak by, and before you know it, a week, a month, even a year has passed. Other days, though, are slow and plodding as you struggle to fill the boring minutes with something productive.
Formations 12.22.2019: A Shepherd’s Perspective
December 15, 2019 by
My beloved pastor at the church where I grew up asks church members (both past and current) to submit devotionals for an Advent booklet he compiles each year. Inspired by Luke’s account of the shepherds, I wrote the following story for the 2015 booklet.
Connections 01.06.2019: Perspective
December 30, 2018 by
On Christmas Eve in 1968, the Apollo 8 spacecraft was orbiting the moon. The three astronauts inside the craft— Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders—were the first human beings to travel to the moon and back. I was only ten years old, but I vividly remember the chills I experienced when the astronauts read the opening verses of the Genesis 1 creation poem as they beamed footage of the lunar surface back to Earth.
Formations 08.06.2017: An Eternal Perspective
July 30, 2017 by
Josh Ritter began The Animal Years by singing these words: “Peter said to Paul, ‘you know all those words we wrote are just the rules of the game and the rules are the first to go.’” Ritter weaves a story together about these two characters, and in it, Peter, or at least this Peter, struggles to hold to the his proclamations of faith.
After Election Day
November 9, 2016 by
Anyone ready to flee to the hills today? Do you feel the wicked have bent their bows, strung their arrows, and are ready to shoot those whose heart is right (v. 2)? Do you feel like the very bottom has fallen out and that a righteous person like yourself can do very little about it?
Formations 10.11.2015: Finding Joy
October 4, 2015 by
Where do you find joy in life? It’s easy to find joy while watching a sunrise or baking cookies or watching a favorite movie, but how about at work? Where can we find joy in the midst of our humdrum daily existence?
More to the Story
August 19, 2015 by
Is everything okay? Oh, it’s just a kid screaming near your table at Applebee’s. But you glance again when you realize it’s a 6 year-old kid.
You Are Where You Are
August 18, 2015 by
In last month’s Kaleidoscope post, I listed several presuppositions for approaching our study of the Bible as if we are looking through a kaleidoscope. This month I’d like to think about the first presupposition: each one of us stands in a unique place.
Kaleidoscope
July 22, 2015 by
Most of us probably had at least one kaleidoscope during our childhood and so we know what one looks like and what it does. It’s a tube with a lens at one end through which someone looks, telescope-style.
Formations 03.01.2015: Prepare for the Worst
February 22, 2015 by
It may be tempting to get lost in the maze of end-times teachings that often accompany a text like this. For you and your class, it may be just as easy to dismiss the entire thing as irrelevant speculations with no clear application to the world in which Christians live.
A View from the Pew: What We See in Worship Makes a Difference
February 4, 2014 by
As I age, I find myself not only physically sounding more and more like my Baptist-preacher father but repeating his aphorisms. One of my favorites about church is “You should always sit close to the front because the sermon gets worn out by the time it reaches the back.”