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 […]
Tag: Truth
The undivided heart
Double-minded. A divided heart. Conflicting interests. A double life. These are some of the worst accusations the Scriptures and our culture can make against us. Saying one thing and doing another is evidence of a […]
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 […]
True love loves truth
Can we stop pitting love and truth against each other? I’d much prefer a radical commitment to both.
The true & generous life
I don’t get to edit the Bible according to what I like or dislike. I don’t have the arrogance of Thomas Jefferson, who chucked out whatever he found primitive and unenlightened and kept the moral […]
Tell all the truth, but …
One of my favorite Emily Dickinson poems goes as such: Tell all the truth but tell it slant — Success in Circuit lies Too bright for our infirm Delight The Truth’s superb surprise As Lightning […]
Telling the truth
I was reading excerpts from a Ryan Adams interview about his upcoming album and came across this gem: “How do I make a real distinct record where anybody listens to it and says, ‘That’s the […]
Truth & feelings
In a culture where feelings are king, we have little tolerance for truth. I’ve watched someone be shunned for the past two years by those my friend spoke a simple but powerful truth to. It was an […]
Integrity
An integer is a whole number, not a fraction. It is complete. Nothing hiding. Not cracked. Unbroken. Integrity has to do with being an integer — being whole, honest, unhidden, lacking deception. My oldest son is […]
I don't like what you said, but it doesn't make you wrong
My feelings were hurt by something I had overheard and I was determined to get even. So, I wrote a nasty letter. (This was back in the days when people wrote letters.) In it, I […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
The "authenticity" bluff — why our lack of self-knowledge undermines our claims to be authentic
Authenticity. We love it. We love the gritty, stripped down personality who says it like it is. We love the person who bares their soul. We dig musicians who reveal their innermost thoughts and hurts. We […]
How to kill a relationship in four easy steps
There are four sure-fire ways to kill a relationship. Most of us do aspects of each of them on a regular basis. And then we wonder why people are unhappy with us. Dr. John Gottman is […]
Smuggling the truth
I came across the following quote by movie director Danny Boyle from way back in 2005 in a great interview with Jeffrey Overstreet: “… you’ve got to be, like Scorsese says, ‘cunning.’ You’ve got to […]
Political posts and the 9th Commandment
On any given day, anyone using Facebook is subjected to a bunch of political posts. I know that some people block or unfriend people who get too political (especially if they hold the opposite view), […]