On the ground, feeling like I had been shot in the leg, I kept repeating one word: “sh*t.” I had just badly pulled my calf muscle exiting the batter’s box in senior softball. This would end my play for a few weeks. I was frustrated. Was it okay to express my frustration like this? I…
Growing up, I was told to do devotions but seldom told how to do them. Other than the Lord’s Prayer, most prayers in my tradition are spontaneous. The structure might be ACTS (adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication) and they almost always end with, “in Jesus’ name. Amen.” The petitions are freeform. I think a place…
Muckraking is a game. There are operatives, opponents and reporters everywhere looking for dirt, and there is much to be found. I watched the show “Scandal” for entertainment, and scandal is a common story theme. “Oh, what tangled webs we weave, when first we practice to deceive” (as Sir Walter Scott said, not Shakespeare). Far…
“Good grief!” exclaims Charlie Brown, often when Lucy removes the football from his attempted kick, landing him flat on his back. His exasperation seems oxymoronic. How can grief be good? We all experience grief. Grief is a reaction to any loss, big or small. It can be at the death of a loved one or…
The Westminster Catechism opens with “What is the chief end of man? Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.” Is it? In church a few weeks ago, we sang the Chris Tomlin song “Better is One Day,” with the refrain “better is one day in your house than thousands elsewhere.”…
I am sinister. How gauche! Yes, I‘m left-handed. Both “sinister” and “gauche” mean “left” in other languages (Latin and French, respectively). This reveals the latent prejudices of the past. I did not receive the ruler slap in school for writing left-handed. In kindergarten I told the other kids that the scissors with writing on them…
I saw it again; a pastor said God told him his congregation would give him millions of dollars. I heard that a presidential candidate was saved by God’s hand from the assassin’s bullet, with no mention of the retired firefighter killed by the bullet. Was that by God’s hand? I remember an older colleague telling…
“Winning isn’t everything. It is the only thing,” said Vince Lombardi. But in striving to win, the joy of the game gets lost. Play includes merriment and pleasure and connotes fun interaction with others. Churches can help people play theologically. “But it’s not a game.” We have all heard this. I still remember a pastor…
“Fittingness,” surprisingly, is in the dictionary. I learned the word five decades ago in Dr. Nicholas Wolsterstorff’s Aesthetics course. It was key to his definition of beauty. Beauty and society are based on fittingness. We are defined by our relationships; our relationship to God, the world, and each other based on being in the image…
“It’s a fulfillment of Biblical prophecy.” Sometimes I cringe when I hear this. Is the Israel-Palestinian conflict fulfilling prophecy? What about the Ukrainian war or recent political chaos? Is the end near? Throughout history, well-meaning believers have tried to understand difficult times with the light of Scripture. End-time claims sell books and get publicity. Consider…
The philosophy exam question was, simply, “Why?” Many students pondered long and wrote much, but one student aced the exam quickly with the answer, “Because.” Why is a profound human question; is because a sufficient answer? The Gospel of Mark ends with the Greek word gar. “Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled…
“Jehovah Jireh, my provider, his grace is sufficient for me, for me, for me.” Maybe you remember this praise song from the 1980’s. It comes from the difficult, but climactic, story of God’s test of Abraham to sacrifice Isaac in Genesis 22. Jehovah Jireh is an expression of trust. In February we started the retirement…
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