My biggest problem with the focus in Christianity on getting people saved for the afterlife is how often it results in arrested development. It falls prey to the same mistake Adam and Eve made: assuming we can skip the hard work of growing up and just go straight to...
01287 – Acknowledging Pain vs. Inflicting Pain
There are too many people today who instead of feeling hurt are acting out their hurt; instead of acknowledging pain, they're inflicting pain on others. Rather than risking feeling disappointed, they're choosing to live disappointed. Emotional stoicism is not...
01279 – Nobody Knows Everything about Anything
As a company of Christ's people we should accept those who hold another view from our own in a spirit of Christian tolerance--which is not something that tolerates anything because it doesn't care which is right, but a spirit which accepts that as human beings we...
01272 – Belong without Belonging?
Some people want to belong without belonging. They are the ones whose obituaries read, "Dorothy was a lifelong member of St. John's Church"--except that no one at St. John's can ever remember meeting her, although ninety-three-year-old Mrs. Smith thinks that maybe...
01266 – Keep Your Mouth Closed!
It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.
01244 – Creating God in Our Own Image?
You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.
01223 – Go Ahead and Cry
People have said, "Don't cry" to other people for years and years, and all it has ever meant is, "I'm too uncomfortable when you show your feelings. Don't cry." I'd rather have them say, "Go ahead and cry. I'm here to be with you."
01213 – So Mundane, Even Satan Has No Interest?
Many people are seduced from time to time by the temptations to be relevant, powerful, or spectacular, and a few people have to wrestle with them regularly. But perhaps the more common temptation for most of us is to feel that we have little or no chance to be any of...
01196 – Doing Good
Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as ever you can.