Drew Downs

Make a New Normal

Faith

The search for meaning, purpose, and relationship. Our need for love compels us to seek it out, and when we find it, share it.

  • On the 12th Day of Christmas

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    1 min read

    I love vigilantly keeping the Christmas decorations up through Christmas.  Take a look at what we did for the kids at my tumblr page.  My wife did the fireplace and I did the logs and fire.  We also had a great time counting down the days! Tonight the Wise Guys show up.  What do you…

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  • The New Authority: Trust

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    5 min read

    It comes down to trust.  Our current behavior demonstrates that we don’t trust the system, we simply rely on it and expect it to function.  Then when it doesn’t, we condemn it.  Sometimes we even argue that the system can’t do it.  And even then we still don’t hold the community responsible for cleaning up the mess. Perhaps this…

    2

  • More Important New Year Markers Than New Year’s Day

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    3 min read

    The longest tradition in my life with regards to New Year’s is the annual double-date my wife and I would do with her best friend and husband, Kelli and Doug.  We would go out to a fancy restaurant, eat well, go back to their house and wait for that big Ball to “Drop”.  The guys…

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  • Mike Friesen: The Science of Forgiveness

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    1 min read

    In a quick read, Mike Friesen describes the scientific underpinnings of why some are so easy to forgive and why others are so challenged by it. I remember a Sunday School teacher threatening my class with a verse when I was a little boy, “Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” I remember him teaching that…

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  • Fixing What We Got Wrong

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    2 min read

    My mentor during seminary, The Rev. Darren Elin once remarked that we get our two biggest holidays backwards: we celebrate Christmas the night before and Easter the morning after when it should be the other way around.  Boy was he right. This is my first Christmas in 5 years in which I wasn’t one of…

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  • (Dis)order and Witness

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    3 min read

    Since the Occupy protests began, I’ve been struggling with what is so objectionable to so many people about protest.  Perhaps I am as pinko as my former rector, Matt+ says I am, but I’ve never found protest in itself to be ugly.  Between my own limited experience and the research I’ve done, criticisms of protests of…