In Word or Deed

We don't like to be out of control. Generally speaking, humans are very control oriented creatures and when things begin to slip out of our grasp we quickly become irritated, uncomfortable, and concerned. This is easily proven by examining nearly any random individual you care to look at deal with many of the minor inconveniences that assail us on any given day. Imagine, for example, that you are driving down a two lane road that does not allow for passing and you find yourself behind someone who -for whatever reason- has decided to drive five or ten miles below the posted speed limit. If you are anything like myself you will last perhaps five minutes before your opinion of the person in the car ahead has dropped drastically and in another few minutes you'll be devising all manner of creative nicknames for them. We don't like to be out of control, we don't like things simply happening -to- us, we don't like not being in charge; and I can't ...

Photo by Hasan Almasi on Unsplash The world often seems to be in a constant state of turmoil and distress. Opposing factions struggle for power in every corner of the world and our various world-views and ideologies combat for supremacy from the water cooler to the world wide web. People everywhere seem to be either searching for real truth or loudly proclaiming that it doesn't exist. Many have simply given up on a life that is meaningful; some of them cutting it short. Where can we go for any sense of reality, any solid foundation of real truth? We can argue back and forth about science and philosophy, we can debate theology and atheism, we can discuss anarchy vs. order, but let me propose that there is one thing at least that no can effectively deny. Humanity is flawed. It doesn't take much observation to prove this simple truth, you don't even have to look outside of yourself. You and I can look inside of ourselves and see selfishness, greed, li...

Photo by Milada Vigerova on Unsplash This is part two of a two part series, please read part one before you read today's post! I apologize that this a week late, I was super busy last week and the post just slipped through the cracks! Continuing where we left off last, it is important -even crucial- to understand that though we share some of the qualities of God we do not possess these qualities in the same way or to the same degree that God does. Just as a mirror that reflects our face is merely a flat image and not a whole other person so too are we representative of God but lacking in the depth and fullness of what He is like. We can be intelligent but not like God is intelligent, we can be creative but not like He is, we can love but not nearly as much as He does, we can be strong but our strength is as nothing against His. To take this a step further, the fact that God made us male and female doesn't have any reflective meaning on the nature of God ...

Photo by Nine Köpfer on Unsplash I just read an article today -and no, I'm not going to share it- that proposed that Christians need to stop saying that Homosexuality and other LGBT/Gender Identity concerns are a sin.  The articles author ran through a series of not unintelligent sounding but ultimately inaccurate claims to support their perspective but the one that I want to talk about is this: God is gender fluid. The argument in a nutshell was that God created mankind “in His image” and since God created them male and female than God is not just male nor even just female, right?  God created both genders in His/Her/Their image and thus must encompass and contain the whole 'spectrum' of gender identity. Well, if we're going to talk about this let's start by looking at the verse in question. “ Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and ...

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash Milestones have a tendency to make us stop and think. Significant moments in our personal history carry with them a sense of import that in my experience brings other things into sharp relief or at the very least cause us to ponder them in different way than before. These moments seem to our minds bigger and more important than the more mundane day to day and often we cannot help but wonder how many more significant moments remain for us in the days to come? Was this the last big thing? I recently celebrated my 33 rd birthday. Thirty-three years of living and breathing and trying for another new tomorrow. Thirty-three years of days. All in all I really have no room to complain in regards to these thirty-three years. I have experienced trial as well as blessing, pleasure as well as pain, sorrow as well as joy. Through it all; however, I have not been tested to any serious degree nor have I endured suffering to the same extent as ma...

This past week the world tuned in to see another extravagant royal wedding. Another Prince of England's royal family married his bride amidst spectacular fanfare, pomp, and tradition while millions of people sat amazed in person as well as in front of their televisions and computers. The ceremony yet again captured the imagination and attention of people the world over and amid everything that was involved was a sermon by Bishop Michael Bruce Curry. The Bishop's sermon focused on love and its great power to affect change in the world. In his sermon he called the world to seek the power of love and to envision a world where love was the driving force. In his words: “ There's power in love. There's power in love to help and heal when nothing else can. There's power in love to lift up and liberate when nothing else will. There's power in love to show us the way to live. Set me as a seal on your heart... a seal on your arm, for love is...

It's a bit of phenomenon really, our ability to live so much in the moment that even the passage of time itself can be a bit of a shock. We've all experienced this. Whenever a child seems suddenly older or we do just because we heard the exact number of years, or when we look back and suddenly realize just how long it has been since high school, or that your vacation is already over. The point is that although time moves on as it will, our experience of it tends to skew towards the now rather than the will be or has been. Our ability to accurately understand the time we have is woefully lacking. This plays itself out in a number of ways, not the least of which being our abysmal lack of respect for how much time we have left. Do you remember the first time you realized that you are going to die? I do. I was just looking in the mirror one day, getting ready for something I suppose, and the realization hit me that I am now older than ever I have been before...