Category: brokenness
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Anticipated Restoration
I find remarkable comfort and encouragement in these stories from Holy Week. If Jesus couldn’t find twelve better disciples than these, then maybe there’s hope for me and my ministry. If Jesus, knowing the disciples would fall short when he needed them, still planned to forgive and restore them afterward,…
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SuperSoul Question #8: “What do you know for sure?” (Part 8, of an eight-part series of posts, based on interview questions Oprah typically asks on her SuperSoul Conversations Podcast.)
God exists… God is good… God is for us, not against us.
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Lament
I posted the following on my Facebook page in September, 2016. Someone reposted it today. I feel like I could have written it today…. Lament. “Listen to my words, Lord, consider my lament.” Psalm 5:1 For months, I’ve read many posts about issues ranging from gay marriage to the presidential election…
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Darkness covered the land… (A Good Friday Sermon)
I wonder when the sun shined again. Did the sun return that day, after Jesus was taken down from his cross, or did the darkness remain, as afternoon passed into the night? Was it dark, when they laid Jesus in his tomb? Did the sun rise with the dawn on…
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The journey toward greater health & wholeness…
We each can, and dare I say must, strive to become our best, healthy, whole, mature selves. After all, isn’t that who God created us to be?
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Privilege
As a white, straight, middle-class, college-educated, male, Christian, southern-U.S. citizen it’s taken me a while to grasp the place of cultural privilege I’ve been afforded. I never did anything to earn or deserve the opportunities I’ve had, simply because of the life I was born into. Nor have others, more…
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Taming Leviathan: in search of God, and an elusively acceptable explanation for suffering and evil
Though leviathan are mythical – especially tamed ones – and the real-life tragedies of this world are definitely not, this image – literal or not – reminds me that God is not defined by my simplistic definitions of good and bad, right and wrong, just and unjust, fair and unfair. …
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What follows your “but”?
There are times, we all need to lament. I’m thankful God is graciously willing and able to receive our laments, even when they are less than kind, respectful, or faith-filled, without holding our complaints against us.
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Who is My Enemy?
You’re not my enemy if you disagree with me. Your’e not my enemy if you yell at me. You’re not my enemy if we vote for different candidates. You’re not my enemy if we have different theologies, or interpretations of Scripture. You’re not my enemy if you leave an angry…
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Being a “cracked-pot” pastor…
I still find myself wondering, almost daily, “Is this what a pastor is supposed to think, say, feel, do?” I often conclude the answer must be “no.” After almost twenty-five years of ministry, I’m still figuring out this job every day.
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