There’s an old story about a psychologist inching his way up a battered, gray-and-white speckled mountain. He scrapes and scrabbles his way up the cliff faces and ice walls, a breathless ascent, thinking all the time that he’ll enjoy in solitude an indescribable view with the knowledge of being the first person to ever scale
READ MOREWhy does God need my worship? The first response to this question, if one is really talking about God, should be “God doesn’t!” But why doesn’t He? A common objection to “going to church” is that an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-good God should not need anyone to get together and sing songs about him. It’s true
READ MOREI can still see my manager standing, frozen in shock, by the locker of our retail store’s breakroom. I was seated on one of the room’s foldout tables, and it had just come out that I, as a working teenager, did not own a phone. I belong to Gen Z, so my manager’s shock didn’t
READ MOREWhite House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced on Wednesday that she is leaving her position as the public face of the Trump administration. The announcement was a bit surprising, not only because Leavitt just returned from maternity leave, but also because of her comments in recent months indicating that women can indeed have it all
READ MORE“Ephphatha,” the priest explained during the recent baptism of a grandson, is Aramaic for “Be opened.” The word occurs in Mark 7:33-34, where some people in a crowd brought a deaf man with a speech impediment to Jesus for healing. And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and
READ MOREOne of the most talked-about movies of the year, for so many different reasons, is Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s “Odyssey.” The film has generated identity-politics controversies, classicist controversies, and Christian controversies (from Christians and anti-Christians). One of the lightning rods for arguments and thought-pieces is the proposed “Christianization” of Odysseus, illustrated by his guilt for the trickery of
READ MOREAs someone who loves the Fourth of July and the story of our country’s founding, I was pleasantly surprised to see all the hoopla that came out of the woodwork last minute to celebrate our nation’s 250th birthday. Firework shows were more fantastic, commemorative memorabilia abounded, and social media was full of people proclaiming their
READ MOREOf all philosophical questions, the deepest and most perplexing might be what to do with an ordinary Tuesday afternoon. The question of the purpose of human life coincides with the reality of daily living, with all its banality, boredom, and half-obscured beauty. I think humanity has a fraught relationship with the everyday. Ordinary, uneventful days
READ MOREIf you’ve grown up in evangelical Christian circles, you’ve heard it: “John Smith has surrendered to missions in South Africa” or “Timothy Name has surrendered to the pastoral call.” Usually, the phrase involves the word “surrender” along with some widely accepted “spiritual” calling: missions, typically, but occasionally pastorship or some other form of ministry. Yet
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