Is it a sin to tell women that it’s a sin to wear yoga pants? I don’t know if I would go that far, but I do think it is wrongheaded for many reasons that our discussion of modesty and lust often get reduced to telling women what to wear. Every year about this time, online theobros think it is their Christian duty to remind Christian women that they have bodies and that Christian men are attracted to their bodies.... Read more
“Today, I will be continuing my Holy Week series on Jesus’ Final Words. Today, we will study The Faithful Life marked by Jesus’s final words, “Father, into your hands I entrust my spirit.” If you have missed the previous entries in this series, click the links below: “The Forgiving Life.” “The Merciful Life.” “The Gentle Life.” “The Humble Life.” “The Enduring Life.” “The Victorious Life.” Now on to today’s post. Author interruption: For holy week, I am posting on the... Read more
Today, I will be continuing my Holy Week series on Jesus’ Final Words. Today, we will study The Victorious Life marked by Jesus’s final words, “It is finished.” Jesus won us our victory. If you have missed the previous entries in this series, click the links below: “The Forgiving Life.” “The Merciful Life.” “The Gentle Life.” “The Humble Life.” “The Enduring Life.” Now, on to today’s post. Do You Believe in Miracles? It was February 22, 1980. The site was... Read more
Today, I will be continuing my Holy Week series on Jesus’ Final Words. Today, we will study The Enduring Life by examining Jesus’s words, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” If you have missed the previous entries in this series, click the links below: “The Forgiving Life.” “The Merciful Life.” “The Gentle Life.” “The Humble Life.” Now, on to today’s post. I have joyous news for you today: It’s baseball season! My beloved Cubs kickoff the new... Read more
The Humble Life: On the cross, Jesus’ words, “I am thirsty” demonstrate his humilty and just how low he has gone for the sake of humanity. If you have missed my previous Holy Week entries, which are focused on Jesus’ seven words on the cross, you can click the links below: “The Forgiving Life.” “The Merciful Life.” “The Gentle Life.” These words are deeply ironic given the imagery of John’s gospel: Jesus is the source of “living water.” Jesus is... Read more
Final Words: “This is your son.” Jesus, on the cross, shows us what the Gentle Life looks like. If you have missed the first two posts this week, click here: “The Forgiving Life.” “The Merciful Life.” It was almost 13 years ago. I was in the hospital just after the birth of our firstborn. I had obviously never been a dad before and had very little experience with newborn babies. She looked so fragile lying there in her bed in... Read more
Jesus show us what mercy looks like in his Final Words: “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” I remember my junior year of college I had to take a class called “The Life of Christ.” It turned out to be one of the most difficult classes I took while in college. The professor was new and not really great at her job yet and so we were always a little confused about what was expected of us. Turned... Read more
On the cross, Jesus shows us what forgiveness looks like. The theme at my church this year is Discipleship. We are focusing on what it means to follow Jesus, truly, in this world. One thing we learned was that a disciple is someone who learns to emulate his or her leader or teacher. Disciples of Jesus are learning to become more like Jesus. This means that we are trying to make everything we do in thought, word, or deed reflect... Read more
What if the first Christmas, the story of the birth of Jesus, was pitched to the executives who make cheesy Hallmark Christmas movies? Well, it might go a little something like this… Pitch Meeting: The First Christmas SCENE: Hallmark Christmas Industrial Complex Headquarters Writer’s Room. Three Hallmark Executives are meeting with their newest writer. Mel: Well, we can’t thank you enough for meeting with us. Belle, Caspar, this is Gabriel, our newest writer. Belle: (reaching to shake Gabriel’s hand) Belle... Read more
In recent years, it has become habit for snarky, theobro types to get all sarcastic and uppity about the classic Christmas song, “Mary, Did You Know?” Rather than just appreciating the rhetorical framing of the song—looking ahead to what the baby Jesus would do through a series of questions posed to his mother, Mary—they just like to say rude things like, “Yeah, dummy, Mary knew.” Since I quite like the song (you can hear the original here or, even better,... Read more
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