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‘An explanation of cause…’
“An explanation of cause is not a justification by reason.” –C.S. Lewis When I’m uncomfortable with a conversation, I feel myself changing. Like I can feel a little person inside my head choosing to descend to the downstairs brain, the lizard brain which needs to defend me. I know it’s happening but the rush of…
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Full of Love
My parents were going out on a date and I was old enough to be left home without a babysitter. Just not old enough to make good decisions. I was asking them about going to a friend’s house (he’s moving the next day! I pleaded. I won’t see him again!) They weren’t going to be home anyway,…
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There are two reasons to care about the tone of debate
One is that you care about human decency and how we get along. You care about me and don’t want to see me spiral into the abyss of outrage. Nor do you want to see another person’s outrage leveled at me. That’s why you care about the public square. You want things to go well…
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Hearts broken open
Why do they kill Stephen? Our lectionary jumps in at the very end of a two chapter story. A story about Stephen, our patron saint. After all the explanation of who he is, what he says, and why it makes the people angry enough to kill him, then they jump in. So let’s back up…
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“Each day…”
“Each day wake up and ask yourself what will make you feel most alive that day.” -Unknown One of the most significant break throughs for me was realizing the phrase “eternal life” wasn’t endless spiritual immortality – the kind of never-ending boredom of existential nothingness, but something far more profound and effecting. That Jesus offers…
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‘Rules for Revolutionaries’ and for Leaders
At once, Becky Bond and Zack Exley’s book, Rules for Revolutionaries: How Big Organizing Can Change Everything is both manifesto and history. It mines the revolutionary approach to campaigning they pioneered for Sen. Bernie Sanders in 2015 and early 2016 to build a template for organizing and campaigning in the future. They invite people to recognize how…
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Sharing Love
You’ve probably heard the story before. It’s told several ways, but often goes something like this. There was a man, living near the Mississippi River. He was a faithful man. He served on the church board and the evangelism team and was there every Sunday. One particular Sunday, the conversation at coffee hour was about…
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‘A Genuine Leader…’
“A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.” -Martin Luther King, Jr. Of all the parts of leadership with which we most struggle, it is the place of consensus and influence. It is an awesome responsibility with unmeasurable power. Given that reality, it is remarkable we share it at…
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