A Christian invitation to engage with the full complexity of faith, life, and people.
A more pragmatic look on how our faith impacts our day-to-day lives
For 2024, I want to focus my time more intentionally on developing big changes by incremental and daily disciplines. Toward that end, I've picked a theme: "diff", a comparison between two states that may be nearly identical or substantially different.
My coming of age happened just in time for me to vote in 2016. (Can I leave a Yelp review on years?) I was sufficiently disillusioned with the reliability of human goodness that I supported Bernie Sanders as a countercultural candidate - a decision that has haunted me ever since, as there are people in … Continue reading Rushed Family
There are mantras and truisms aplenty about the difference between actions and words. There's perhaps one I know of ("the pen is mightier than the sword") which claims words as the more impactful of the two, though I think only because of the actions brought about by thoughtful writing. Many more speak to the weight … Continue reading The (Implied) Shepherd
An exploration of control as a universal motivation for sin, from Genesis onward.
As a heads up since I don't normally talk about recent events, this post is a discussion about the recent conflict in Israel and Gaza. I won't get into details of the recent or historical events, and I won't make any declarations about the morality of either or both sides. I write from the incredibly … Continue reading There Is No Other
Going into the last quarter of the year, I think it's important to talk about one of the most important tensions in our lives as Christians: Advent. The season of Advent is a time of meditation on the fact that we live between Jesus' first and second coming. Its traditions focus on this tension - … Continue reading Advent
In The Bible is for Everyone, I spent some time thinking about the long, long history and tradition that a twenty-first century Christian inherits when it comes to the Word of God. However, I think it's important to recognize some of the other traditions we inherit. For example, one I've already touched on is the … Continue reading The Christian Tradition in Babylon
There seems to be an understanding in secular culture that there are people who don't belong in church, or that to go to church one has to do something first - to get right with God, or to at least wear the right clothes, or to even get their life in order a little before … Continue reading Works-Based Salvation
Words are powerful. For such a cliche thesis ("the pen is mightier than the sword"), I figured I'd hear more about it in Christian circles; on top of my weekly church attendance, I listen to sermons from well-known Christian ministers as well as podcasts on theology. In fact, we hear about it so little, that … Continue reading Being Careful with Words
Friends of the blog know its founder put significant thought into its tagline, and particularly the content and order of “faith, life, and people.” I settled on this list and order in part because it emphasized, in many ways, the last item; “people” is at the end of a “rule of three” list, is longer … Continue reading People: An Introduction
Life in Tension 