Social Observations
Do I Love the Church?
As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to…
Read MoreA Legacy of Fear
For much of my life I have been plagued by fear. When I was a small boy I would have debilitating anxiety attacks; most kids are afraid at night, but I was hysterically, irrationally afraid of something getting me in my sleep. So I wouldn’t sleep.When I was a little older, I was terrified of…
Read MoreLet’s Talk About Non-Violence
I made a commitment to non-violence in 2009, after surviving the coup that ousted Honduran then-president Manuel Zalaya. It wasn’t that singular event that persuaded me to commit to peace, but was rather a long series of events that culminated in a so called “moment of clarity.” AntecedentsMy spiritual heritage finds its roots in the…
Read MoreThe Older Brother
This post is inspired by Erwin McManus’ sermon of 14 December, 2014.Have you ever felt like you are on the wrong side of a story? Like the things that happen to you should have happened to someone else, or that the things that happened to someone else should have happened to you?Have you ever watched…
Read MoreWhy Am I A Christian?
After a long conversation with an atheistic friend, he turned to me and asked–with great gentleness and compassion–“so why are you a Christian?” It seems that after the conversation he was unable to see how anything I was saying (and let me be clear, this was not an evangelistic conversation) needed a “god” figure to…
Read MoreBlind Spots
I just finished reading Mark Labberton’s new book Called. It is a wonderfully thoughtful and pastoral exhortation to live life in such a way as to be the gospel in an embodied way. I highly recommend it. As I was reading it, I began thinking about the ways I do and do not live into…
Read MoreOn Value vs. Sin
This post in inspired by Caroline Vandenbree.I have grown up in the tension between being loved and being sinful. I’ve grown up in no man’s land, between the “liberal” trench of grace on my left and the “conservative” trench of the reality of sin on my right. I’ve heard and seen many leaders berate the…
Read MoreHow Do You Say Nothing?
There are times in life where I simply have nothing to say. While I generally can’t sleep because I have so many thoughts and ideas racing around my cranium, recently I have been sleeping like a baby. I love it! But that means I have nothing to say to the world through this little blog…
Read MoreBiblical Texts We Ignore
I got to thinking the other night about how every Christian position seems to orient itself towards certain interpretations of certain biblical passages while ignoring others. It seems that any doctrinal statement is at the expense of a comprehensive reading of the bible. Why is this? “Numbers. Nothing good here; just a bunch of numbers…”–…
Read MoreBleed.
This has been a summer where every ounce of optimism I had about being a Christian was vaporized like so much water in the California drought of public opinion. This has been a summer like so many others that will stand as the harbinger of things to come. From ISIS to Ukraine to Ferguson to…
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