Let’s compare what the Bible requires of Christians with what Frank Viola uncovers in his blog post, “Warning: The World Is Watching How We Christians Treat One Another.” In his article, Frank used Google to identify the most frequent way searchers complete the question, Why are Christians so…? Among the top results were the words mean, hypocritical, and judgmental...
In the midst of major transition, I’ve reflected on what it means to live missionally in everyday life. After over a decade in East Africa, I recently returned to the United States to pursue a graduate degree in psychology. My days are now filled with tests and papers, counseling practicums and supervision meetings. Last year, I was working at a Kenyan international school and my job title...
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...
