Three feet above me, perched atop a ponderosa pine branch, squats a chipmunk no taller than my thumb. She embraces a pinecone slightly larger than herself. With nimble twists and turns and rapid flurries of […]
Tag: love
God is inconvenient
Faith is not a matter of convenience. If anything, the demands God makes on our lives are quite inconvenient. And yes, God does make demands. God doesn’t just ask, he commands me to forgive people […]
A better dad than I am
Like all dads, I make my fair share of mistakes. I try my best with my kids, but I am quite far from perfect. But despite my imperfect parenting, I think I’m a pretty good […]
A thought on ending racism
The way to tighten the bonds of a group is put them through an ordeal, to make their lives difficult, to make them feel persecuted, to make their cause seem unfairly attacked. The way to […]
Psalm 103
(A David psalm.) Bless Yahweh, soul within me. Bless Yahweh, every cell within my body. Yes! Bless Yahweh, soul within me. Don’t for a moment forget How good you’ve got it because of him. He […]
Psalm 36
A rendering of Psalm 36, which compares a life lived without God to a life immersed in God’s life and love.
True love loves truth
Can we stop pitting love and truth against each other? I’d much prefer a radical commitment to both.
Love is inconvenient
Love is inconvenient. Love is getting up in the middle of the night to clean up a child who has thrown up. Love is driving out of your way to be with a friend for […]
Hugh Hefner, Playboy & the death of sex
I remember the first time I saw a Playboy magazine. I was about 11 and an older neighbor has stolen a copy from the nearby 7-11. Not yet to puberty, it didn’t have the effect […]
Happy “Love One Another” Day (also known as Maundy Thursday)
“What the heck is Monday Thursday? And how can it be Monday when it’s Thursday? I don’t get it.” For most of my life, the churches I attended ignored the Christian calendar. But when in […]
Live love. Love life.
If God had a hobby, what would it be? Painting by number? Going to as many Dave Matthews Band concerts as possible? Racing monster trucks? We have a sense from the Bible that God is […]
Got silence?
The fruit of silence is prayer; The fruit of prayer is faith; The fruit of faith is love; The fruit of love is service; The fruit of service is peace. These are the words that […]
If the church isn’t a community, it’s nothing
The church exists to be a sign of the breaking in of the kingdom of God into a world of torn apart relationships. The church does not exist to sing songs; to listen to sermons; to […]
What’s the opposite of a terrorist?
After the terrorist massacre in Orlando, I’ve been thinking about this question: What’s the opposite of terrorism? We have grown accustomed to acts of terror in world news, but when they happen in our protected […]
God is furious (in his love for us)
God is not boring as many have made him out to be. Far too often, how we represent God and his love for us could not be more milquetoast, tepid, and nauseating. Saccharine and sentimentalist […]
At the center of God's heart
Lord, forgive me for forgetting those you love. Forgive me for hearing the Scriptures as if they were all about me and my salvation and not about you and your reconciling redemption of what is […]
If God had a hobby, what would it be?
What is it that God is up to? What is it that God preoccupies himself with? If he had a hobby, what would it be? The answer is simple and obvious and yet we get it […]
Evil is real — the Gospel according to Harry Potter, part 2
My kids were too little to read and take in the Harry Potter books when they were being written and released, so my wife and I waited for, bought, and read aloud to one another each […]
Being right, but acting badly
I hate it when I lose my temper and the moral high ground. I hate that part of me that blows it when I’m in the right and damages the truth in the process. I’ve […]
Love is a relationship, not an event
Today is Valentine’s Day. Not only is it a day of mandatory romance as dictated by Hallmark, but there’s a “Love Rally” planned for nation’s capitol, promoting love and denouncing hate. Now, I’m all for […]
How we know God
The only way to know God is to live in his love and to share it with others. This is how the Scriptures put it: Beloved, let us love one another, for love comes from […]
Caring for our neglected souls
We live in a culture that knows almost nothing about souls. The word is used so rarely, it may soon drop out of the language altogether. And who treats us like we have souls? We […]
Listening to MLK with my daughter
Like everyone else, I’m grateful for a 3-day weekend, thanks to Martin Luther King Day observance. It has given me the chance to take my daughter to a volleyball tournament, where she is playing teams from […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
The importance of patriotism (and its limits)
I am an American and grateful to be one. I have visited more than 20 countries and have lived for five years in Canada. Living outside of my home country and traveling widely around the […]
How to deal with a world hostile to faith
These are tough days to be a Christian. They always have been difficult, and each generation deals with different difficulties in different ways. But the hostility nob is getting turned up and it’s easy to want to […]
Thanks to my kids for making me the dad I am today
It’s pretty typical on Fathers’ Day for us kids to tell our fathers thanks for making us the people we are today. Same as with moms on Mothers’ Day. But I’d like to turn that […]
Things that make my heart hurt about the Charleston massacre
As the news unfolds about the young white man who entered an historic black church and killed nine people there, a number of things have passed through my head and heart, making me hurt along […]
Parenting is a long goodbye
The oldest of my four children is graduating from high school in a couple days. When he moves out of our house to attend University of Portland, he will be two weeks short of his […]
When "skipping church" isn't skipping church (and when it is)
I love the meme that accompanies this post because it points to several mistakes about what it means to be the church while intending neither. 1. The first mistake is equating being in a building with church. […]
Everybody's good at something (and I'm good at making crumble)
She’s hilariously quirky. Her song is trite. Her musicianship is weak. Her presentation is garish. But it works. All of the pieces come together in a wonderfully light-hearted way that is both self-expressive and ego-free, […]
"What do you want?" — How to want what you really want
“What do you want?” It’s the first thing Jesus speaks in John’s gospel. A question. And a simple one at that. But it’s one of the most powerful questions any of us is ever asked. […]
How to receive a gift
Gift-giving can be tough business. But often, receiving gifts is even more difficult. And some of us are downright terrible at it. Recently, my 15-year-old daughter gave her friend a $15 gift card to the […]
It's better to be loved than to be awesome
St. Augustine began his Confessions with his most basic prayer: “May I know Thee, O Lord, and also know myself.” Dr. James Houston, founder of Regent College, calls this the double-knowledge. The two kinds of knowing […]
The cross & the empty tomb — bringing love and power together
The cross of Jesus is the love of God in action. The empty tomb of Jesus is the power of God in action. The problem with human love is that it lacks the power to […]
Life after Mom — Sufjan Stevens and how to forgive your parents
I got a phone call after midnight last night. It was my Dad. My Mom had fallen down and he needed my help getting her up. So, I quickly got dressed and walked over to […]
Becoming fluent in love languages
“Don’t give her any attention. That’s all she wants.” “He’s such an attention hound. Just ignore him.” I’ve heard countless variations on the same theme my whole life, especially during my teenage years. There’s something […]
The cross, the dishes & the unpleasantness of love
Love is easy when it’s fun. Going on dates during the first days of romantic attraction is blissful. It almost doesn’t matter what you’re doing, simply being together is magical. Holding your newborn child is […]
Of love and technique
My three boys and I love soccer. I played as a kid and have coached my boys during their early years of playing the game, stepping aside when I got to the limits of my coaching […]
Equality: a poor substitute for love
When our culture treats one group of people badly, we seek justice through attempts at making a level playing field for everyone. At such times, these attempts at equality are necessary and helpful. But that’s […]