I have been struck recently by the different ways that children are viewed in the life of the church. This past Sunday, I was late getting my crew to our weekly worship service and so we entered after the singing had already begun. I have more babies than arms now and I was unprepared for… Continue reading The least
Quotation of the Week
I am convinced that the time has come for Christians to develop an exit strategy from the public schools. Some parents made this decision long ago. The Christian school and home school movements are among the most significant cultural developments of the last thirty years. Other parents are not there yet. In any event, an… Continue reading Quotation of the Week
Where?
Mercy has a new curiosity surrounding death. She has brought it up more frequently lately, and I have found myself talking to her about death and resurrection and heaven. I just read an interesting interview with N.T. Wright (and have been following this same discussion on Scot McKnight’s blog as he is currently reviewing Wright’s… Continue reading Where?
The devil is in the ants
So my hopes for a spiritual start to the Lenten season have been derailed by a total ant onslaught inside our apartment this morning. Living in an old house, we have numerous cracks in our walls and ceiling, and there is one such crack (where we experienced terrible flooding a few weeks ago) through which… Continue reading The devil is in the ants
Lent
One of the legacies of some of our cultural trends concerning where and how we live has been decreased proximity and contact with actual human need. Whether it is the pain of neighbors, fleshed out secretly behind manicured lawns or security gates, or the pain of strangers in neighborhoods we can simply choose to avoid,… Continue reading Lent
Bones and sinews
I came across this invitiation at a good friend’s blog this morning: I am asking my blog’s readers to consider a challenge for Lent. No, it is not giving up anything. Instead, it helps move Lent into 40 days of living out the gospel: I am asking you to begin and end each day of… Continue reading Bones and sinews
Quotation of the Week
“Church becomes a defense against falling into the arms of the living God.” Will Willimon in a lecture at Fuller Seminary
Hero
Before moving to Portland, I lived in Spokane, Washington for a brief season, and it was when I was living there that my brother joined our family and I spent many hours in my little Honda Civic driving across the state on weekends to hang out with him and my folks (and to catch as… Continue reading Hero
To lust or not to lust
This past week I read two things that struck me concerning how we view the homes and space where we live. The first was a review of House Lust, a book earning a fair amount of press for its examination of our nation’s obsession with the size and status of our homes: Add to this… Continue reading To lust or not to lust
Quotation of the Week
“We know from our own lives that we overlook the unhappiness around us. If we were fully aware of all the things the people around us struggle with—in our family, in our office, in our place of work—and if we were fully aware of the cries of the hungry, the degraded, and the suffering in… Continue reading Quotation of the Week