Drew Downs

Make a New Normal

#asimplelent

  • Don’t You Care That We’re Dying? (Day 15 of A Simple Lent) Friday In one sense, the idea that the disciples have that Jesus should at least be awake and aware of what’s happening is a pretty valid concern. The storm is raging and they’re scared out of their minds and here’s Jesus sleeping in the…

  • Trembling to One Another (Day 13 of A Simple Lent) People are funny. Sometimes “funny ha-ha”. Usually just “funny strange”. Either way, I laugh. There’s something telling in the Joseph story for today – about these brothers who go down to Egypt to get food to bring home to their father (Jacob) and they encounter…

  • Truth

    Truth (Day 12 of A Simple Lent) In a political campaign, it often seems like the biggest loser is sincerity and truth. It becomes easy for websites like FactCheck.org to parse every political statement or for confusions to blossom into controversies: such as fear of bias leading to a made up story of people chanting of…

  • Am I to Come to You With a Stick (Day 11 of A Simple Lent) As we get further into this letter to the church in Corinth, we are now starting to see what has Paul so mad. Not the specific stuff, that’s coming later. We’re getting the question of authority. As in the people are…

  • New Wineskins

    New Wineskins (Day 9 of A Simple Lent) One of the most familiar passages in scripture is Jesus’s famous line about not putting new wine into old wineskins. It’s one of those images with which I was always familiar, but it never fit in with my world. I mean, how many of us have a wineskin?…

  • He Said / She Said (Day 8 of A Simple Lent) I’m not really sure if I’m supposed to like Joseph. His Dad, Jacob, was a jerk. He was a liar and a thief, who seemed to take advantage of the blessing of GOD. And even after wrestling with his creator on the banks of the…