This beautiful, animated short The Present has won over 50 awards, and it’s not difficult to see why. For reals, watch it…
Now be honest, you felt differently about the boy when he finally got up off the couch, didn’t you? I did. What a vivid reminder:
Knowing someone’s story changes how you see them.
Or, as Brian Zahnd has said… Read More
The picture above shows London Hagebusch carrying a heavy bag of groceries. Just behind her is Haven Wheeler. And a number of other children were there too…
They were helping at our Thanksgiving Grocery Give Stuffing Party – it’s the event the day before the event. We ask people to come set everything up for the big day. The Stuffing Party was noticeably, beautifully diverse – people of all ages and races and socio-economic backgrounds serving together. Perhaps most striking, though, was the image of young children throwing themselves into the task. I mean, they were actually sweating. And they were having a blast.
I’m not sure if we made a big enough of a deal about it.
I think it probably got mentioned a few times – like in church during our “main” services. But I wonder if we made a big enough of a deal about it with the kids.
Please take a minute to watch this… Read More
“Because then I would be enough.”
These are the words of Jim Carrey – presenting at the Golden Globes – making fun of himself and the whole spectacle that is celebrity award shows…
He said, “And when I dream, I don’t just dream any old dream. No sir. I dream about being three-time Golden Globe winning actor Jim Carrey. Because then I would be enough. It would finally be true. And I could stop this terrible search… for what I… Read More
Doubt, uncertainty, the “dark night of the soul,” finding yourself in unknown territory where the faith you’ve always known doesn’t seem to be working, hitting the wall…
Nobody wants to be there. And when we find ourselves there, we wish we could just cancel it, wipe it off the books entirely.
But hitting the wall is a necessary part of our growth and development.
In Brian Zahnd’s new book Water to Wine, he describes developmental psychologist James Fowler’s insights on the matter (I will paraphrase):
There are stages of spiritual development in… Read More
Shari checked out a library book for me the other day called Daily Rituals: How Artists Work. It’s a fun book I’ve enjoyed reading. One of the highlighted “artists” was Søren Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher, theologian, poet, and social critic. Here’s what the book had to say about his daily ritual…
The Danish philosopher’s day was dominated by two pursuits: writing and walking. Typically, he wrote in the morning, set off on a long walk through Copenhagen at noon, then returned to his writings for the rest of the day into the evening.
The walks were where he had his best ideas, and sometimes he would be in such a hurry to get them down that, returning home, he would write standing up before his desk, still wearing his hat and gripping his walking stick or umbrella.
Kierkegaard kept up his energy with coffee, usually… Read More
From best selling author Susan Cain…
Organizational psychologist Adam Grant, the youngest tenured professor at Wharton and author of The New York Times bestseller Give and Take, has been researching the difference between communication patterns – those who use dominance, and others who use questions and admit uncertainty. And he has presented a groundbreaking concept: the power of powerless communication.
Grant says that people who pose questions instead of answers, admit their shortcomings, and use tentative instead of assertive speech are some of the world’s most powerful communicators.
People who use “powerless” communication styles fall into two categories—some are… Read More
From Richard Rohr’s Falling Upward…
God must say after each failure of ours, “Oh, here is a great opportunity! Let’s see how we can work with this!”
After our ego-inflating successes, God surely says, “Well, nothing new or good is going to happen here!”
Failure and suffering are the great equalizers and levelers among humans. Success is just the opposite. Communities and commitment can form around suffering much more than around how wonderful or superior we are. Just compare the… Read More
From Professor Richard Beck…
A few months ago I was giving a chapel talk to ACU Honors students about what I called “the poetry of the Christian life.” The ideas were taken from Walter Brueggemann’s book Reality, Grief and Hope.
I shared three things with the students.
First, I said, when you look at the poetry of the prophets you see three different sorts of poetry, each with a different emotional tone. The prophets sing three different songs.
The first song is prophetic rage and indignation. This is the cry, “Let… Read More
Last year, I uttered the words #BlackLivesMatter in church and what came next took me by surprise… I wrote about it here and here.
Part of the push-back had to do with police officers… an assumption was being made somehow that if black lives matter, police don’t.
For some reason, if bad policing was called out or critiqued, folks assumed what’s being said is that police are evil. This logic just doesn’t add up though. If someone takes a stand against an abusive father, it doesn’t mean they are against fathering. They’re merely against abusive fathering.
I’m certainly not against policing ( I will admit there have been a few times while getting a ticket that I considered being against policing, but I’m over it now). I have friends who are police officers and can honestly say that I am thankful for their work and service.
And while I am not against police officers, I am against 12 year old boys like Tamir Rice being gunned down by a police officers. This is not acceptable. Never. Ever.
But this post today is not about bad policing. Actually, it’s quite the… Read More
We’ve forgotten how to argue well (hint: it’s not about yelling, swearing, or mocking the other person). The art of civil discourse seems to be lost in our country.
Maybe it is because the internet gives us the opportunity to read and say horrible things without having to look at the person, the victim’s face.
I was going to include a video here – one of the many Jimmy Kimmel “Mean Tweets” celebrity edition videos… (where celebrities read horrible things people say about them on Twitter) but they’re all way too rated R for… Read More
