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For Andrew
A few months ago, I heard that a childhood friend of mine passed away. His name was Andrew. I met Andrew through his dad, who was one of my leaders in Stockade at my church. For those of you who don’t know, Stockade was the 3rd-6th grade program from Boys’ Brigade, something like a Christian Boy Scouts. It was great time: singing loud songs, camping, playing in the gym, woodworking projects, a pinewood derby, and of course Bible verses, lessons in Christian character, etc. Perhaps I’ll reflect more on that another day. Andrew was half a year younger than me, and because of where his birthday fell, he had been…
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Everything’s New
It was 2018. I was coming out of a low point. Months of struggling at church in 2017 resulted in starting over somewhere new. I was holding my new daughter, who an an infant was already one of the most determined people I knew. I had turned the corner on another big trial, one only my closest friends knew about. And I was listening to the new version of a song from my favorite band which had recently broken up (as all my favorite bands seem to do), performed this time by the band leader by himself. With the song playing on the laptop there in the kitchen, I danced…
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Reflections on Political Divisions
As I write this, it looks clear that Proposal 3 has passed in the state of Michigan, and that abortion is now considered a constitutional right. I have tried to back away from speaking about politics because there are more important things to talk about, and when I do speak up, I often choose to critique my own movement rather than preach to the choir and raise the banner. I don’t want to win. I want to get at what is true and good together. But today I want to why it is that so many people see this as a horrifying defeat while at the same time so many…
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I AM, Therefore…
In exploring Romanticism, I expected to find some key seeds of thought at the root of the movement, things that contrasted with Rationalism. I was not disappointed. I have taught for years on Descartes’ famous statement, later summarized as “I think, therefore I am.” In case you are unfamiliar, Descartes was a French philosopher/mathematician who was trying to bring about an end to the religious strife in his day by trying to discover truth that would unite, truth that could not be doubted. Not a bad wish. But his method was all wrong: first of all, because he tried to discover this truth by reason alone, shutting out the world…
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Meditations on God
Or “Stand in Wander,” part 2 The heart of theology is God Himself. What we believe about God undergirds everything else, and so what we have in common is that much more crucial, and where we disagree can be that much more divisive. As far as I am aware, I hold a very traditional Christian view of God. But this doesn’t mean that I don’t sometimes bump into people who disagree with me. I believe God is Trinity, one God in three persons. It is difficult to comprehend and difficult to explain to my kids sometimes, but I don’t believe it because it’s convenient. I accept it as the Bible’s…