Want to know how to ruin a good novel? I can tell you: read the end first. I suppose any reader is free to do this, but knowing the ending removes one of the great joys and one of the essential experiences of reading: how we get there. The joy, the significance in the task of reading, is in the process of getting from the first page to the last. The process is the thing. This principle is an oft...
“Do you want to see a picture of my dad I found?” “Sure. When was the last time you saw him?” “About twenty years ago.” My friend Matt* wheeled his wheelchair around the room and pulled out a faded bent polaroid picture of his father with a white shirt yellowed over time, a beer, a friend, and a gal who was not his mom. They were laughing in the picture. Time has forgotten why. Life has been hard...
Growing up, I somehow got the impression that grace was for other people—for people who slept around or committed adultery, who abused drugs or alcohol, who had uncontrollable tempers and lashed out with abusive words. But people like me—good, church-attending, Bible-believing, law-keeping Christians—why would we need grace? Of course, we made mistakes, or sometimes even messed up. Nobody is...
Do you ever think that fear and anxiety are wrong? After all, you keep reading “Do not be anxious.” That command, however, has much in common with Jesus’s words to a grieving mother: “Do not weep” (Luke 7:13 ESV). They are both words intended to comfort and assure the hearer that Jesus was going to do something. The Bible makes it clear that we live in a world with endless threats. In this world...
No one enjoys admitting they are wrong, or weak. But for every addict who enters recovery, this confession is the critical first step: My life has become unmanageable, and I am powerless to overcome my addiction on my own. Healing from addiction only begins after we admit our broken condition. But is there more to recovery than this first step? Does robust healing come from simply admitting...
