Theology Over Thrice Rewarmed Coffee

Well, I'm going to go ahead and say that, one week into no social media, I'm really glad I was able to take the plunge (I'm not connected for work reasons or anything), and that I had the gumption to do it. Here were MY main reasons (for anyone interested): I'm totally addicted to it. The mindless scrolling had me in its clutches for too long, and moving away from friends made it worse. I couldn't limit it. Deactivating helped, but I needed more help than that. It depressed me instead of lifting me up. Especially the constant rude political and theological scuffles between people I want to respect. I didn't mind polite discourse, but it was rather uncommon for even the most constructive of threads to avoid trolls. I wanted to free up emotional energy, time, and attention to discipline myself more. I've gotten a good planner, and I'm holding myself to Bible reading, exercising, staying on top of my news podcast, certain low-key reading goals for Ba...

"I am alarmed when it happens that I have walked a mile into the woods bodily, without getting there in spirit...What business have I in the woods, if I am thinking of something out of the woods? I suspect myself, and cannot help a shudder when I find myself so implicated even in what are called good works--for this may sometimes happen." -Henry David Thoreau, Walking Don't get the wrong impression--I don't sit around reading Thoreau. This was just fitting and I happened to know enough of the gist to Google it. Wouldn't want y'all to think I'd gone academic English on y'all: that's my brother's job. I don't even know if I just used that colon correctly in that last sentence. We're in a period of major potential transition, which, I think, can be just as hard as the transition itself. The uncertainty of the lead-up doesn't have the "luxury" of the forced busyness of the real bustle of change. It's all research and p...

I bet the Virgin Mary started out with a birth plan. It may have been simply: 1). Send for midwife when it’s time. 2). Survive. 3). Name the baby Jesus. I'm sure she would have liked to add a few details. If I were Mary, I probably would have tried to finagle some reduced labor pains out of God. “I am carrying Your kid. Is taking the edge off too much to ask?” But she knew she could do it because, well, either you did it or you died. She’d watched her mom do it, along with sisters and aunts. Her cousin Elizabeth had just had Baby John. It was scary, but God had chosen her, so surely the path ahead was prepared for her, right? He would provide? Then, eight months along and feeling like her tiny teenage torso was about to pop, Joe tells her they have to go on a 70-mile (one way!) trip on foot for some stupid government census. Seriously??? I mean, it was a long trip to begin with, but she’d far rather deal with the hemorrhoids, back pain, and frequent peeing at home, thank yo...

Chapel Message—Holy Week 2016 Gen 15:9-18a   The   Lord   told [Abram], “Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10  So Abram presented all these to him and killed them. Then he cut each animal down the middle and laid the halves side by side; he did not, however, cut the birds in half.   11  Some vultures swooped down to eat the carcasses, but Abram chased them away. 12  As the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a terrifying darkness came down over him.   13  Then the   Lord   said to Abram, “You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, where they will be oppressed as slaves for 400 years.   14  But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and in the end they will come away with great wealth.   15  (As for you, you will die in peace and be buried at a ...

"All the things that have ever deeply possessed your soul have been but hints of it--tantalising glimpses, promises never quite fulfilled, echoes that died away just as they caught your ear. But if it should really become manifest--if there ever came an echo that did not die away but swelled into the sound itself--you would know it. Beyond all possibility of doubt you would say 'Here at last is the thing I was made for'.  We cannot tell each other about it. It is the secret signature of each soul, the incommunicable and unappeasable want... While we are, this is. If we lose this, we lose all."   -C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain She became aware again and knew immediately where she was. It wasn't a surprise, but she didn't know what to expect. The first thing she noticed was the silence. A silence that made her realize that she'd never truly known silence before. There was no ringing in her ears, no pop when she swallowed. No rustling in th...

I set a goal in my calendar to write a blog post. Two weeks ago. So I should hold myself accountable and write something. But I don't really know what. I suppose I will simply share what the Lord has been teaching me lately. 1) I am learning that God can use dysfunction to challenge and grow me. I am responsible to my reactions and attitudes within my circumstances. I can't always change them, but I can let God change me in them. He won't put me in a perfect, holy place in a fallen world, safe from drama, frustration, and ineptitude. He will expect me (and enable me) to become holy within the places of drama, frustration, and ineptitude. 2) I am learning that I am so much weaker than I realize. When I look at what Christians (and those of other faiths) are experiencing in other parts of the world, I have panic attacks. I can't handle the thought of going through so much pain. My anxiety disorder makes me extra sensitive to such thoughts. I think I'm this toug...