Tag: faith
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White Dress, Yellowjackets
Recently I officiated an outdoor wedding. It was a very nice October day, the bride was beautiful, everyone was where they needed to be, the order went great. It was a very smooth ceremony. Until it came to communion. The bride and groom wanted to take communion for the first time as a couple, but…
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Depths
I took the above picture a couple of weeks ago as I was with my boy up in the office of our church. He is a sweet kid that genuinely loves being around and with people. He brings the party. I thought the scene above was poignant. But as we are in Down’s Syndrome Awareness…
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Do You Really Want My Opinion?
I honestly hesitate to write this today. Not because I think what I’ll write will be controversial, but because I wonder at the effectiveness of adding my voice to the chorus of expressions that I’ve seen online reacting to the murder of Charlie Kirk. To be fair, I didn’t know who he was before it…
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Anchors
Sometimes in ministry I get the question about the chaos that Christians face. In the examples I’m thinking about, the person wonders if sin that they’ve committed has caused God to bring judgment down upon them. They then wonder at the passage that says there’s now “no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus,”…
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Hotels and Swamps
Ever visit a swamp? There’s kind of a creepy quality to it. While everything is green and vibrant, there can be a kind of stillness that unsettles. It’s not particularly the stillness or the quiet, but rather the fact that with all the green around we know there’s something living under that water, and that…
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Reflect
As we near the end of the summer, I wondered at a certain word: Reflect. In particular the context of this question came from me challenging my staff from Psalm 90:12: “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” It was a reminder to consider the great opportunities…
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Hey There Buddy
In the midst of several difficult posts, I felt like it might be a good thing to shine a little positivity. One of my favorite online video makers is a channel that goes by the name Old Time Hawkey. In the videos, a man who goes by Fritz shows recipes cooked over a campfire in…
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“I Missed the Moment”
“I missed the moment.” Currently I’m listening to the book Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky. I generally love the craziness that expresses itself through Russian writing, and especially how writers like Dostoevsky weave philosophy, spirituality, and creative thinking into their stories. The above quote comes from a passage where a demon (or the devil…book’s not very…
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Sometimes Backstage is the Darkest
Charles Spurgeon wrote in his Lectures to His Students an entire session on something he called the Minister’s “Fainting Fits.” It occupies the 11th lecture. I paused when I read that, thinking, “What does that mean?” While Spurgeon was partly referring to a lack of physical strength and weakness, in a greater fashion “fainting fits”…
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Pray for Rain
About a decade ago, there was an interesting phenomenon happening in Austin. We had been locked in a terrible drought and our local reservoirs were approaching and sometimes below 30%. There were widespread brushfires that afflicted Central Texas communities. Businesses near lake areas were shuttering. All in all, not a great time. The phenomenon that…
And yet, and yet... 