Body

There’s a nine pound newborn sleeping in our bedroom down the hall. Cooing and grunting in a bassinet next to my wife, this small stranger currently resembles me more than her. It’s uncontested that his lips are his mother’s. It’s an alien phenomenon… to glimpse a couple-of-hours-old baby and know at the deepest level it’s […]

john

There are sounds that wake you up, even when your eyes are open. Your heart, the depth of your life, is pulled to the surface. Anything stagnant is stirred at once. These moments happen often, though we don’t realize them. They happen despite our paying attention. Directing our eyes with fierce conviction that this event […]

Eucharist : Enough

There’s a gift we’ll forsake, a presence we’ll miss, if we choose to be distracted by our own perceived failure, anxiety, and regret in the midst of an Event. I’ve lost count how many times I’m caught up in an article or app on my phone while my wife or friend is sitting beside me […]

Accommodation

The more I search the scriptures and navigate my own life, I’ve begun to realize just how much accommodation precedes love. At the heart of God is a desire to pull people toward a vision of wholeness, not motivated by coercion or shame, but by self-sacrifice and condescension. The condescension of Christ, as found in […]

Truth-Telling

Prophecy is telling the truth with your words and your actions. It is always encouraging to the recipient and always life-giving. This does not mean that there is not a brutal element to telling the truth about God and the world. It only means that the truth is beautiful and mysterious and mostly different than […]

Salvation

More interesting (and more helpful) than listing all of the theories and pictures of the cross I find to be unhelpful and not useful are the ways that the cross can be helpful. I believe that the cross meets us at our deepest need to bring about far more than personal salvation power. Additionally, and in […]

Parabolic Narrative

One of the greatest and most ancient ways to tell a story is by using parables. Like a metaphor or symbol, a parable is larger than the actual story. Parable tells a story that is more-than-true, even if it never historically happened. Our emphasis (mostly in the west) on historical accuracy and reliability has greatly hindered the […]

BuddhaBowl

quinoa + black beans grilled veggies: sliced portobello mushrooms, red bell peppers, onion …. on top of a bed of warm mixed greens feta cheese crumbles, sliced almonds, sliced avocado, sliced apple homemade dressing: balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, honey, pepper #kirstencreations

Paths

I’ve always read the parable of the sower as a religious litmus test or a warning to the culturally-spiritual rebellious. A decision as to what type of person God looks at with favor. Jesus addresses a crowd at a lake in Mark 4 by telling a parable, a story. He uses a word picture that […]

How to Make a Neighbor

From The Divine Conspiracy, Willard notes in chapter 4, concerning the beatitudes, that the Kingdom of heaven (the things God is most about) is centered in hearing leading to heart change leading to action resulting in love of God and love of neighbor. Nothing can be substituted for love of neighbor, Willard asserts, because it […]