What if God actually helped us? What if, in our moment of pain, we could pray and our pain would go away? What if, when we suffered, we could ask God for help and our suffering would actually cease? That’d be nice. It would be nice if knowing Christ meant saying goodbye to pain. But since it doesn’t, I’m glad that Christ suffered. As Jesus was nailed to a cross, God didn’t help him either. He abandoned him. And…
I’m not sure if this is just human nature or if it’s been indoctrinated into me by my culture: When things don’t go well, I’m tempted to think God hates me. When a series of unfortunate events unfold, I feel like God is out to get me. When I get lost, then get a speeding ticket, and then get chastised for being late, I’m having what my son would say is a no good, very bad day. And, I can’t…
Have you ever been annoyed when a spiritual guru has told you to do some self-exploration? I think that’s fair. There’s enough self-absorption in our country that when another Christian pastor or spiritual leader tells people to “look inward” or to “know thyself” that it sounds like New Age Narcissism. Often times, Christians object to this sort of counsel with quotes from Jesus about dying to self, Paul’s exhortation to sacrificial service and the like. But in a book on…
In Dave Gibbons new book, he argues that successful leaders will be third culture leaders–leaders who are liquid and adaptable to the changing cultural landscape that is globalization. Throughout the book he sets out to define what this looks like for the church and her leaders. One of the attributes of this sort of leader is what he calls the pain principle: The pain principle grows out of two axioms: (1) For leaders, pain in life has a way of…
There’s nothing like a close friend. When we were in seminary at Gordon-Conwell and after Mary and I were just married, we were friends with three other couples who were all living in the same on-campus residence. We shared values, interests, life-stage, cultural backgrounds, missions in life, and location! We also had unorthodox schedules because of our studying, which allowed us to drop by during the day or stay up late hanging out and talking about the ups and downs…
Over the last couple of years, I’ve heard or read about a number of people who want Jesus but aren’t interested in the church. They look up to Jesus, and they even want to follow him. However, when they look at the church they see a corrupt organization that doesn’t truly represent Jesus. They do not want to be encumbered by the shortcomings of the church, and so they become church-less Christians. I can sympathize with their feelings. I’ve gone…
A common Christian misconception that I’ve been fighting to overcome in my life has to do with the importance of ordinary, secular work. Over that past few years I’ve been working as a web developer, and before that I’ve worked as a computer engineer, IT helpdesk technician, and a 7th grade teacher. I wanted to know if there is and was any intrinsic value to my work. I had been taught by the church, either explicitly or implicitly, that secular…
Making big decisions has historically been a gut-wrenching experience for me. Instead of feeling liberated by the Christian truth that God promises to lead us, I feel burdened by it. The pressure of being certain about the will of God has weighed me down to the point of debilitation. The need to get it right and not make a bad choice has tended to destroy any joy that is supposed to be present in Christian freedom. Decisions have turned into…
There was a time in my life when I was terrified to open my mouth in the presence of Christians. I felt like everything I said was evaluated and judged, and people were constantly weighing my worth in the balances. If I said something that referred to a time in my life when I got in trouble or did something inappropriate I got dirty looks. If I asked questions about doctrine or God’s nature my questions would be dismissed with…
“In the night before his arrest, Jesus went into the garden of Gethsemance. He took three disciples with him and ‘began to be greatly distressed and troubled’, writes Mark (14.33). ‘He began to be sorrowful and fearful [troubled]’ writes Matthew….Then he throws himself on the ground in horror and fear (Mark 14.35). Earlier too, he had often withdrawn at nights to the solitariness of some mountain in order to be united with his Father in the prayer of his heart….