Seth Godin is one of my favorite bloggers. His brief and poignant observations are generally right on the money. This past week, Seth posted on “How to teach science.” But reading the post, I quickly […]
Tag: God and life and stuff
God hides nothing
Keep looking. You’ll see him!
Weakness is the way
As I grow older, I am becoming more and more aware of my weaknesses, my limitations, my inabilities. My eyes are growing worse. It’s harder for me to stay in shape. I forget things easily. My […]
The not-knowing of being a parent
“So, Mom, you raised five kids. What did you learn?” We were sitting in the small family room of our tiny one-bedroom apartment in Vancouver. My parents had come more than 1000 miles to see […]
Tired of myself
“I’m tired of myself.” The words struck me as I listened to an interview with author Donald Miller several years ago on Oregon Public Broadcasting. Miller is a writer who explores faith through telling his […]
The Lord of the Rings & the Bigger Story
I first read The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic fantasy trilogy, when I was in 5th grade. The books were having a resurgence after Tolkien’s death and bands like Led Zeppelin were referencing Mordor […]
The sanity of Sabbath-keeping
One of the most life-changing books that I’ve ever read is Marva Dawn’s Keeping the Sabbath Wholly: Ceasing, Resting, Embracing, Feasting. In it, she explains how Sabbath-keeping isn’t so much a matter of obligation, but of […]
Will I love God's baby as much as my own?
The book of Genesis is about babies. And as we read, we discover having babies is rough business. Abraham and Sarah are promised babies. Lots of babies. But when it comes down to it, getting […]
Following the Wild Goose & not the wild geese
Poets and artists are among our best companions in the life of faith. They come at things from unique angles and expose things about us and the world and God that we’d never seen or heard […]
Celebrating marriage — including the dark parts
“Marriage is the hardest thing I’ve ever done.” I was sitting in Eugene Peterson’s class on Ephesians at Regent College when he said those words. He didn’t elaborate and I think I missed the rest […]
Chuck Norris & the image of God
I’ve been thinking about the most powerful human being ever to live. And no, I don’t mean Jesus. I mean Chuck Norris — martial arts expert, movie & TV star, and Internet phenomenon. Here are […]
Living as dual citizens
Almost a decade ago, we removed the American flag from the sanctuary of the church I was pastoring. I don’t remember why. It was probably a part of decorating for Advent. But it got put in such a safe place that […]
Wendell Berry & living gratefully in the place where the past meets the future
One of my favorite authors is Wendell Berry, who has been writing novels and poetry and essays for more than 50 years. I’ve soaked in almost 30 of his books over the past decade and have […]
A simple spiritual health survey
What does spiritual health and maturity look like? How do I gauge where I’m at and where I need to grow? When I think of discipleship — a life of following Jesus — I see […]
The Force Awakens & the God who "never slumbers or sleeps"
Last night, our youngest child stumbled into our bedroom. He couldn’t sleep. Despite a bedroom encircled with Christmas lights to keep the midnight wraiths away, he’d had nightmares again. So, he slid between my wife […]
The keys to successful resolutions — incremental, measurable, achievable
As we prepare to step into a new year, I often do the resolution thing. I know that most resolutions that most of us set for ourselves don’t make it past the first few weeks of […]
Prayer is simply keeping company with God
Every now and then I come across a book where the title alone is enough for me. In fact, when I read it, I discover that the rest of the book is really just helping […]
A basic Bible-reading guide
There are lots of plans for reading through the Bible. Each has its merit and I invite you to try several. The most important thing is to actually do some and to do it as […]
Getting real — four pegs to hang your life on
Our lives are a complex mass of thoughts, emotions, relationships, and activities. And there is no time of the year that is free from experiencing personal traffic jams. With four kids in four different schools and all their […]
What watching Star Wars teaches us about reading the Bible
[Be forewarned. There will be spoilers from Star Wars: The Force Awakens included in this post.] Joining the masses who have made Star Wars: The Force Awakens the biggest blockbuster of all time (so far), I took my family […]
An alternative nativity
Click here for an Alternative Nativity. It is easily the most moving version I’ve seen of the biblical account. Rendered in modern images from the real plight of Syrian refugees, it comes alive for me freshly. Our Lord […]
White Christmases & other ridiculous expectations
We will have a white Christmas here at home in Bend, Oregon. It’s been dumping snow off and on for a month now and we’ve got heaps of it lining our icy roads. So, the […]
Missing Jesus on Christmas
I love the Christmas story. But there’s one part of it that haunts me. It’s the part where the magi make it to Jerusalem, not knowing where to go to finish their journey. No address or […]
The Christmas story according to my kids
On a snowy day in 2008, my kids acted out the Christmas story. I’m biased, but it’s still my favorite presentation. And you get the whole story in two and a half minutes! Click here […]
What does your sign say?
When our youngest was four, he was the only non-reading member in a household of readers. And he knew it. So, he decided that he wanted to know what all these words around him meant. When […]
11,000 miles of thanks!
If I were to run around the United States, I’d cover 11,000 miles. Not being a runner, that sounds miserable to me. But being a writer, reaching 11,000 views today was wonderful. I love writing, but I also […]
What do we do with our insecurities?
When I was in college, the city I was living in was hit by a powerful earthquake. And I was sitting on the toilet. As I sat there, I thought, “This isn’t where I want to […]
Paying the smart phone tax
Paying the smart phone tax by Seth Godin It might be costing you more than you think. Urgent or important?: Your phone has been optimized to highlight the urgent. It buzzes and beeps. It sorts things. […]
Christmas — God "for" us & "with" us
Christmas changes everything. It upends everything we think about God. And even more than that, it offers a completely different way of experiencing God. For in one event, it shows us that God is both […]
Destroying the "wall of hostility" — multiculturalism & the kingdom of God
It’s only in the past few years that Hollywood has finally become truly multicultural, with entire casts featuring lead and supporting actors who aren’t mostly white. And what’s been so great is that it hasn’t […]
Christmas lights & the beautiful life
I love Christmas lights. Any Christmas lights. There’s something to dangling white icicle lights and traditional colored bulbs, something to rope lights and net lights that warms a cold December night for me. I will always […]
Some civility, please!
Last night, my daughter showed me a meme comparing Donald Trump to Adolph Hitler. On one hand, it was a pointed critique of some truly disturbing rhetoric by him. On the other hand, it was […]
Morality vs. Moralism
Morality is a decision-making system which gives the ability to judge between right and wrong. It is a ruler by which things are measured and found to be worthy or not. It is a filter that strains out the […]
Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer & the birth of Jesus
Each December, we engage with the same stories over and over again. On one hand, we’ve got the birth narrative of Jesus. On the other hand, we’ve got a collection of well-loved holiday movies Year […]
Beauty for ashes
I’d had one of those days. Bad news followed by more bad news. All of it weighing on me. But then I took a breath. A deep, lung-filling breath. All of a sudden, a new […]
The saint behind Santa Claus
When my oldest son was 4, he and two of his little buddies were sitting in a row of carseats talking about Santa Claus. “I can’t wait for Santa Claus to come,” said the first […]
What our phones reveal about what we value
The entire time I was growing up as a kid, we used the same rotary phone, adding a second wall phone to the same line somewhere along the way. But after being given the first […]
Advent & the silence of Zechariah
One of the most-omitted Christmas stories is that of Zechariah and the angel in the temple (Luke 1:5-25). We all want to jump right to the birth of Jesus and focus on either Matthew 2 […]
Unemployed at Christmas
Unemployed at Christmas Joseph the carpenter Did not build his baby’s bed/// Shepherds left their field And their flock No longer shepherding But chasing the angels’ call instead/// Magi followed a star Not their career […]
Getting right what's wrong — why defining sin can be helpful
Sin is not a particularly fun topic, so I wouldn’t be surprised if most people avoid this post completely. But the ways we think about what’s wrong in our lives and the world around us […]
I'm not sure if I'm indecisive or not.
I’d flip a coin, but I don’t know if I want to choose heads or tails.
Liberty — our great ideal & our great idol
The Statue of Liberty stands in her solitary glory on Ellis Island, holding her torch aloft as a beckoning beacon and inviting those in need of her gift to seek it here in America. Liberty is a […]
Sorrow & joy in an age of terrorism
Evil is restless. Terrorists are amped up on a double dose of wide-eyed purpose and wild-eyed adrenaline. When you’re willing to kill in the name of an ideal and then go out with a bang, […]
The gift of thanks
It’s never too early to celebrate Thanksgiving. In fact, aside from the turkey and fixings which would quickly grow tiresome, it ought to be a daily observance. Recent studies have shown that if there is […]
If you were a drink, what would you be?
If we don’t drink, we die. There’s no question there. But what we drink and why; now, there’s a lot of room for variety with our beverage choices. When I go to coffee shops, I […]
Thanks 10,000 times!!!
When I started blogging earlier this year, I wasn’t sure I was cut out for it. I’d write something and only one person would read it. But rather than being discouraged by that, I was […]
Welcome to a post-Christian world (it's not as bad as it sounds)
We Westerners live in a post-Christian world. But don’t worry. It’s not what it sounds like. What it means is that Christianity as a cultural force is no longer the power it once was. What […]
The power of No — resistance is not futile
A while ago, I passed by a guy wearing a black t-shirt with the one-word sentence on it: “No.” I was tempted to ask him a question that he would have to answer with a […]
The problem with red cups & the problem with having a problem with red cups
So, people are upset about red cups at Starbucks. And other people are upset about people being upset about red cups at Starbucks. And how weird is it that my blog features a red cup […]
The problem with inventing your own God
I was heading to Orlando for a conference and had made preparations with friends there to have someone pick me up at the airport. I’d never met the picker-upper, so I sent not just my […]
The difference just a few seconds makes
Most of life is determined by just a few seconds here and there. Just a few seconds is usually the difference between success and failure, cleanliness and messiness, love and alienation. Turning the light off […]
Why are we always looking for a scapegoat?
Celebrities exist so that we can lift them up and adore them only to throw them to the ground when they fail us. We love to love them. And we love to see them fail […]
Praying the news
I’m a bit of a news junky. I come by it honestly, being the son of a news junky father. But living in this new era of being always connected to sources of information through […]
A reflection on reflection
Albedo. It’s not a common word, but it’s a common experience. It has to do with reflectability — an object’s ability to reflect light. Every night, when the earth has turned away from the sun […]
What will your epitaph say?
If you could sum up your life in a phrase, what would it be? And even more importantly, what would others say about you? What we think of our lives is one thing. But our […]
For all the saints
November 1 is All Saints Day. It’s kind of a catch-all day for all of the saints who couldn’t have name days of their own throughout the year. In one regard, it’s a cheap “and […]
Justin Bieber and what it means to believe
A few years ago, Justin Bieber came out with an album called “Believe.” (Yes, I’m writing about the Bieber. He’s made some very interesting comments about his own faith recently and has a new album […]
Toward a spirituality of eating
I love to eat, a lot. In fact, I love to eat a lot, a lot. Because of that, I find a certain tension inside of myself. I love to eat, because food is so good. […]
The Gospel According to The Martian
Every story is a take on the story of the world. Each one stands beside the actual story of the world, tweaking and critiquing it. The movie The Martian (and the book on which it […]
All of life is a gift
There are many parts of life that are easy to enjoy. They have some kind of reward built into them. Eating is generally its own reward. Hunger is satisfied. Taste buds are pleasurably engaged. Meal […]
What lies do I believe about God?
I believe a lot things about God. I have two theological degrees and a library of several thousand theological books. And yet when it comes down to the way I live, I find my theology […]
Going all in — the meaning of baptism
I had the joy of baptizing my youngest child this past Sunday. Each time I do a baptism, I feel both elated and mystified. Christians have been doing this baptism thing ever since Jesus himself […]
Plugging the holes in our spiritualities
A friend texted me recently about a deeply frustrating conversation he’d had with a client earlier in the day. His language was colorful. Workplace frustrations are a common experience of pretty much everyone who has a […]
How God's economy works
“It’s the economy, stupid!” Bill Clinton’s one-liner from his successful campaign against the first President Bush has echoed through every election since. There may be other issues on the table, but how the President will […]
Unforgiven
I love the Lord’s Prayer — except for one phrase. There’s one line in it that trips me up. It’s the second half of “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” I rely […]
The stories we tell ourselves & the truth of our lives
I know who I am by the stories I tell to myself. The same is true of my relationships. People who are happy in their relationships tell themselves happy stories from their relationships. They remember past […]
Choosing the old & the relational in our disposable culture
We live in a disposable culture. Not only are things disposable, but people are disposable. Anne Hathaway is only 32 years old and an Oscar-winner, and yet she’s already being passed up for movie roles […]
Is Christianity a militant faith?
As a kid, I grew up singing “Onward, Christian soldiers” and “I’m in the Lord’s army.” There seemed to be no hesitancy in using militaristic imagery to describe our faith. This was no Cold War […]
The power of passion, persistence & performance
This is the story of a boy and his piano. But more than that, it’s about how to live life well. Matthias is a whirlwind. The youngest of my four kids, we call him the Exclamation […]
St. Francis & the whole gospel for the whole person
One of my favorite characters from history is St. Francis. He and I share the same birthday, the same Lord, and the same desire to live missionally in all aspects of our lives. Granted, he […]
We're all winners! [OK. That's not true. But we can learn to lose well.]
“If you can dream it, you can achieve it.” The words were emblazoned on my kids’ elementary school walls. So. Not. True. There are things I can dream of that I simply can’t do. They’re […]
Getting what we give
If you act like a bull in a china shop, don’t be surprised if people treat you like one. If you’re a shrinking violent, don’t be surprised if people pass you by. While it’s not […]
A wider view of the Fall leads to a deeper engagement in mission
For most of my life, I viewed the primary thing wrong in the world as sin, particularly a brokenness in our individual human relationships with God. The most important thing, then, was to get people […]
Slow your breath down
Sometimes, it’s the speed of daily life. Sometimes, it’s words heard that keep bouncing off the walls of our hearts. Sometimes, it’s as series of worries that are out of our control. Sometimes, it’s a […]
Religion is dead — and that's good!
RELIGION IS DEAD. IT JUST IS. BUT THAT’S OK. IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE. Eugene Peterson points out that religion is like a tree’s bark — it’s the dead part of the tree. But the bark is […]
Kim Davis & when faith forces you to lose your job
There’s something appealing to watching a person stick with her convictions and suffer for them. It’s the stuff of inspirational movies about inner city teachers and coaches who turn around losing teams and such. And […]
Learning your neighbor's language
I lived in Canada for five years. It’s a beautiful and friendly country that I am extremely fond of. But never during those five years did I forget that I was in a foreign country. […]
Tom Brady, cheating, and forgiveness
So, Tom Brady got away with cheating. At least, that’s how all but New England Patriots fans see things. It doesn’t matter that he didn’t need to have his personally selected footballs deflated in order […]
The wisdom of worship
The Psalms is a wonderfully diverse compilation of Israel’s praise. It gathers glorious creation hymns and salvation thanksgivings together with a heaping pile of laments. And scattered throughout this sprawling mixtape are bits of what is […]
Everything that has breath — the goal of worship
What does worship look like? What does it sound like? Where does it get done? Who gets included? And what is the purpose of it all anyway? As the Psalms conclude, they do so with […]
Among quarreling neighbors
One Sunday we came back from worship to discover that one of our neighbors had torn down the short fence between our properties and replaced it with a taller, uglier fence. There had been no warning. […]
Erotic spirituality — the good, the bad, and the ugly of combining faith and sexuality
What is the relationship between sexuality and spirituality? In many ways, sexuality has become its own spirituality. And in the process, it has coopted church music and biblical language to articulate it. Ray Charles has […]
What's wrong with the world? I am.
In an often repeated story about the eloquently witty Catholic writer G.K. Chesterton, he replied to a request to readers from The Times to answer the question, “What is wrong with the world today?” with this response: […]
What would you be willing to sacrifice your personal happiness for?
Most of us would be willing to make sacrifices to be happier. We’d live in smaller homes, have less money, have less stuff, drink less coffee, and so on if it would guarantee that we’d […]
Get over it!
If you’re an adult, you’ve had experiences where people have said and done hurtful things to you. I have. We all have. They were painful. They were inappropriate. But they’re over. Done. Gone. In the […]
Dealing with fear by living in love
I am far less rational than I like to think I am. In all kinds of small and large ways, fear keeps me from doing small things that I might like to do and large […]
Trans Jenner — discontent in a culture of self-creation
It’s amazing how quickly the culture shapers have embraced gender change. Jenner won the courage award on the ESPYS and anyone who disagreed was shamed. Siri refuses to use the name Bruce Jenner, always changing it to […]
Three essentials for leading a meaningful life
The great Scottish writer George MacDonald isolated three essentials for leading a meaningful life Someone to love. Something to do. Something to hope for. When I first came across this list, I was surprised that the first […]
Guerrilla faith — a Christian spirituality for life in a post-Christian world
Losing is tough. I hate it. When George W. Bush won the White House, Democrats talked about moving north to Canada. And when Barack Obama replaced him, Republicans made similar grumblings. When Russell Wilson of the […]
Where trust comes from
It’s a simple formula. If we want to be trusted, we’ve got to be trustworthy. But too often we expect trust without earning it. How do we learn to trust and to become worthy of trust ourselves? […]
Sports and the myth of equality
Equality is essential to mathematics. To the rest of life, it’s both nonexistent and undesirable. Recently, my family and I went to the Oregon high school track and field state championship meet. After watching numerous […]
Death by packaging
We’ve got a packaging problem. A recent article in the venerable Atlantic suggests that those plastic coffee pods that make Keurig brewing machines so convenient and popular are adding tons of the non-recyclable, non-biodegradable plastic K-cups […]
For those of us who are grieving
As those who live in this tragic beauty called life, as those who live at the intersection of sorrow and joy, we approach death with a strange mix of emotions. As those who follow Jesus, […]
Doing, Being & Do-be-do-be-doing
What does it mean to be human? Does who we are lead to what we do? Does what we do lead to who we are? Or does Frank Sinatra have it right? It’s all mixed […]
Tell me I'm wrong
Some of the most important moments in my life were times when people who cared for me pulled me aside and told me I was wrong. As kids, people told us we were wrong all […]
The difference between judgment and judgmentalism
There is a Judge. And it’s not me. Neither is it you. Everyone who has suffered injustice longs for a judge who will render a just judgment, because that means liberation (from prison or slavery […]
Living in the moment & hoping for the future
We all live in an eternal now. Everything in our lives is in the present tense. The past is gone and untouchable and the future is unformed and unhatched. This moment right here is all […]
Can we "love the sinner and hate the sin" or not?
The phrase “love the sinner and hate the sin” has come under fire recently. Many question whether it’s really just a whitewashed version of hating both sinner and sin. Included in this questioning is the […]
"I thirst" — the 4th saying of Jesus from the cross
The first words Jesus speaks in John’s gospel form one of the most penetrating questions we as humans will ever be ask: “What do you want?” (John 1:38) We all have our wants. Some are […]