Due to my underlying suspicion of the people’s motives (and other smokescreens I use to justify my general avoidance of anything requiring discipline), I’ve always steered away from memorizing scripture. However, in a recent lapse into militant mode, I decided to join a few friends at 7:00AM once a week to memorize entire chapters of…

Spreading her wings above a large section of my front yard is a vary large and very old oak. My family and I have lived under her watch for over seven years now, and I’m convinced that there is a not messier tree in all of God’s creation. She drops her acorns in the fall,…

I have recently been reintroduced to a man named Clarence Jordan (If you visit this link, I recommend watching the 7-minute tribute). The following quotes continue to cut and turn within me like a plow to the soil: “But you know it’s hard to reshape our lives to conform with the Gospel. It’s so much…

So I’ve almost finished reading Bonhoeffer As Martyr: Social Responsibility and Modern Christian Commitment (my brother-in-law’s new book), and before the impressions fade any more than they already have, I thought I’d jot down a points (still a bit fuzzy for me) that have been bouncing around in my head: There are two ways of…

Yesterday afternoon at Subway, while I was answering questions about my preferred ingredients to the lady behind the counter, a young guy walked in and asked if they had any job applications. To me this seemed like an innocent enough question. Well, maybe it was the way he was dressed… maybe it was the color…

Do these words remain relevant in today’s context? On one occasion an attorney stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” He answered: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and…

I continue to be drawn toward the ideas of redemptive suffering and incarnational living. Along the road, I’ve discovered several writers who have expressed these ideas in ways that continue to shape my thinking: Shusaku Endo – “Silence” Georges Bernanos – “The Diary of a Country Priest” Graham Greene – “The Power and the Glory”…

God is “strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the sun; and every evening, ‘Do it again’ to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got…

For awhile now I’ve felt lost in the gutter between the left page and the right. Faith defenders seem unwilling to sacrifice much if anything for the sake of less fortunate people, while the kind acts of those on the other page often seem plagued by arrogance and a fundamental disrespect for authority. Both sides…

A good friend of mine once said that he believes God tells jokes. I happen to like the idea, and with that in mind I offer a brief excerpt from my commute the other day. I don’t remember the last time I’ve enjoyed my ride home so much. Pulling onto the Interstate, I was reflecting…