Read the Whole Story

11 hours ago

2 Min Read

R

I love a good algorithm. I’ve stumbled upon many a great band because the autoplay feature made a suggestion based on my listening history. I’ve been exposed to countless new perspectives and ideas because an AI model answered a question in a concise manner that piqued further curiosity.

I love a good lectionary. (Our church utilizes the Revised Common Lectionary, in case you’re wondering). As a Bible reading plan, I’ve not found a better approach. Following a lectionary throughout the various seasons of the Christian year is like following a guide on an adventure through the wild and expansive landscape of God’s story. The discipline of yielding control of my Bible reading has been a vital grace.

The downside is that in using such tools, we abdicate a certain degree of our autonomy. In allowing someone or something else to make decisions for us, we give them power to take choice from us. If the Judeo-Christian anthropology is true, we are created to be thinking and willing beings. Let’s not be too quick to give up those freedoms.

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Moving and Remembering

1 day ago

1 Min Read

M

Sometimes God parts a sea.

Sometimes a river.

Sometimes maybe just a creek.

Sometimes it may simply be the gutter in front of your house.

No matter. The first point is to notice, and to keep on moving. The second point is to then not forget.

When God makes a way, keep on moving and remembering.

(See Joshua 4:1-24.)

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Left Out of the Story

4 days ago

2 Min Read

L

If you feel left out of the story, just wait.

The initial report that the spies gave Joshua apparently made no mention of Rahab. Nothing about the risk she took to show them kindness. Their report was all about military intimidation, not about a woman’s kindness.

I get it. The bros back at base camp are gonna be way more impressed by “All the people are melting in fear of us!” than, “A woman hid us under stalks of flax and let us slip out her window!” But still: What a typically male, biased report.

Nevertheless, we know that eventually Rahab’s part of the story was told.

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Unkindness / Kindness

5 days ago

1 Min Read

U

Unkindness

Rahab was treated unkindly. Feel free to use your imagination to wonder why prostitution ended up becoming her best professional option. And perhaps at what age she began working. Consider the men who used and abused her. Don’t forget the systems and silent neighbors that supported the unkindness.

We should not be surprised, then, that Rahab responded with unkindness—in the form of lying, obstruction of justice, and treason.

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Presence, Courage, Obedience

6 days ago

1 Min Read

P

God’s presence conducts courage. When he is near—when I am aware of his nearness—I am plugged into a different power source. God-sized grit and guts.

This courage emboldens obedience. I dare to swim upstream. To live a reforming life in the midst of a deforming world. Ready to say “yes” to God, not only with my lips, but with my life.

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A Creative and Beautiful Life

6 days ago

1 Min Read

A

The edges of the canvas constrain the artist.

The chosen medium narrows the sculptor’s options.

The key of the song reduces the notes the musician can play.

The genre provides parameters for the author.

The time limit forces the comedian to carefully chose his jokes.

The available ingredients restrict the flavors the chef can incorporate.

The laws of God liberate me to live a creative and beautiful life.

(See Psalm 119:41-48.)

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Find Someone Who Has Been With God

1 week ago

1 Min Read

F

Find someone who has been with God. Someone who is radiant because they have spoken with the Lord. Someone with that glory-kissed glow. That aura that comes from face time with the divine, like someone who has spent the afternoon in the summer sun.

They will be mostly unaware of it themselves. In fact, if they’re overly aware of it, if they talk a bit too much about their special intimacy with God, they may not be who you’re looking for. Smile and keep moving.

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Campsites

1 week ago

1 Min Read

C

Life is a long series of campsites.

Move here. Stop there. Pass through this place. Put down roots somewhere else.

Then there’s death.

While there is a lot of mystery whenever we talk about life after death, the Christian hope is rooted in two truths:

First, death is not the end. It’s not the final campsite, even if it is a significant turning point in one’s journey.

Second, resurrection is the end. Not merely life after death—in some disembodied state, as we often imagine it to be—but what N.T. Wright calls “life after life after death.” New bodies. New heavens. New earth.

Keeping this End in view bolsters hope—not only at death, but at every campsite along the way.

(See Numbers 33:38-39).

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Your Life Centers Around Something

2 weeks ago

2 Min Read

Y

Your life centers around something. There is some organizing axis around which everything spins, a magnetic center that holds it all together.

Moses told the Israelites that their center was the Law:

They are not just idle words for you—they are your life.

Many Christians also say this of the whole Bible. And it’s solid advice: Don’t treat the scriptures flippantly! Let’s not consume them the same way that we would a magazine off of the grocery store checkout rack, or a reel in our Instagram feed.

But the New Testament writers recognized a fatal flaw in this paradigm: The Law was never strong enough to hold the center. Or rather—to put it another way—humans were never strong enough to hold the Law at the center. And the Law had no power in itself to hold on to them when they got off balance.

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Your Story

2 weeks ago

2 Min Read

Y

Sometimes you need someone to tell you your story.

By “sometimes” I mean more often than you might think. And most essentially in those seasons when you feel unmoored and aimless. If you lose the plot, then it’s hard to remember your role and to develop your character.

By “someone” I mean someone else. Not you. We humans are famously inept at seeing ourselves, our contexts, and our stories with unbiased clarity. If you’re the only one ever telling you your strory, it’s probably merely the story you want to hear.

“Your story” means the the whole grand narrative. The whole big mixed bag of wins and losses, peaks and valleys, heroes and villains. The unvarnished version. The one that includes your mistakes, your parents’ mistakes and your grandparents’ mistakes. If it’s too highly edited, then it’s fiction rather than reality—and the aim of the spiritual life is to live in Reality.

Somewhere in the telling, as you just sit back and listen to your story as it is retold to you, and if you can receive it as freely as your life came to you in the first place, you will catch glimpses of your true self. And in catching glimpses of your true self, you will also catch glimpses of God.

(See Deuteronomy 32:1-14, 18)

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