We call where we are staying— our place. Paul likened us to Bedouin-backpackers. He made a distinction between us and our address (2Cor 5:1). Another way this gets tricky is when we try to work out what Paul meant when he said, that when he did wrong—in his place, it wasn’t really him, but sin “living in […]
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.” Here Paul seems to give us a loose quote of prophets who saw that God has unimaginable plans for humanity (1Cor 2:9) (Isa 64:3-4). Yet even Isaiah and others could not conceive of […]
Childlikeness renews wonder that childishness reasons away. But if that’s the case, it may not be readily apparent in the the Apostle Paul’s often quoted, “When I was a child, I spoke, thought, and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.” What is clear is that, whatever Paul meant […]
Sometimes understatement says the most. The other day, I was reading an author who caught my attention with just a few words. He said, “If God is anything like a father, and… if I am anything like his child… then…” Since then, I’ve found no end to ways of adding to that one thought. May the most important if/then […]
What’s the difference between being childlike and childish? One gets higher marks than the other. We seem to speak warmly of childlike wonder, trust, and innocence while being less approving of those who are childishly impatient, demanding, and self-centered. According to the New Testament, God became a child who, upon becoming a man, overheard the […]
Why did the Savior of the world need to be born with so much acclaim— only to be followed by 30 years of silence— before stepping onto the stage for which he came? Why couldn’t the Lamb of God just show up like one of those Old Testament prophets who seemed to step out of nowhere… to get […]
Have you noticed now much of the Christmas Story takes place in the dark of the night? Joseph is told in a dream not to be afraid to take young Mary as his wife even though she is pregnant. The visitors from the East are told in a dream to get out of town by a […]
Have you noticed that we start out believing that nothing is as important as our own needs and desires? Then we gradually learn that everyone else’s needs are just as important— but, for us, and necessarily so, not in the same way. Something similar can be said for those we love. We begin believing that […]
National days of Thanksgiving happen for better or worse. Unless we stand together in gratefulness for a shared harvest— or unless our prayers are childlike enough to not stir up adult issues, our family and political differences can overcook more than the turkey. Thanksgiving Holidays seem to have the unintended result of reminding us of painful […]
Spirituality may be more widely regarded than sectarianism, denominationalism, churchism, or organized religion of any kind. Definitions and articles on the subject describe it as a sense of connection to something beyond our material selves from which we draw our source of meaning and purpose in this world. For many of us who grew up […]
