Every time I go look for God amidst sorrow, I always find Jesus at the cross, in death and resurrection. This is our God.
When all of it is given meaning in the larger story of Jesus Christ, it destroys us, then pours our melted selves back into another form that still bears the marks of how we got there. Then we beco...
That's the crazy thing about Christianity — the idea that the finite can contain the infinite. After all, what is the incarnation if not that? So there's an incredible physicality to the spiritual wit...
So often in the church, being a pastor or a spiritual leader means being the example of godly living. A pastor is supposed to be the person who is really good at this Christianity stuff — the person...
Seeing myself or my church or my denomination as the blessing — like so many mission trips to help those less fortunate than ourselves — can easily descend into a blend of benevolence and paternalism...
Maybe demons are defined as anything other than God that tries to tell us who we are. And maybe, just moments after Jesus' baptism, when the devil says to him, If you are the Son of God… he does so be...
It would seem that when we are sinned against, when someone else does us harm, we are in some way linked to that sin, connected to that mistreatment like a chain. And our anger, fear, or resentment do...
I say no when I should say yes. I say yes when I should say no. I stumble into holy moments not realizing where I am until they are over. I love poorly, then accidently say the right thing at the righ...
But the only true currency in this bankrupt world is what we share with someone else when we’re uncool.
When I tell other Christians of my time with the goddess, I think they expect me to characterize it as a period in my life when I was misguided, and that I have now thankfully come back to both Jesus...
We bring the holy things of the church onto the holy streets of the city because on some level, the violence and despair of Good Friday is still a human reality. Unfortunately, we’ve never lacked an o...
So are demons forces that are totally external to us who seek to defy God? Are they just the shadow side of our own souls? Are they social constructions from a premodern era? Bottom line: Who cares? I...
Repentance in Greek means something much closer to thinking differently afterward than it does changing your cheating ways. Of course repentance can look like a prostitute becoming a librarian, but it...
Purity most often leads to pride or to despair, not to holiness. Because holiness is about union with, and purity is about separation from.
Mary Magdalene would have very little tolerance for the Christian platitudes and vapid optimism that seem to swirl around these kinds of tragic events. Those platitudes are tempting, but they’re nothi...
Many of us would pray not to die in a car crash before we were baptized, like other people pray to not get sick before their employee benefits kick in.
Knowing all of this makes me love and hate Jesus at the same time. Because, when instead of contrasting good and evil, he contrasted truth and evil, I have to think about all the times I've substitute...
Jesus says, Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. He says, The first shall be last and the last shall be first, and infuriating things like if you seek to find your life you will lose it bu...
In ancient Greek, the root of means to throw apart. That which causes us to fracture, to become less whole, is demonic. ... I like to think that when Jesus sent the disciples to cast out demons in hi...
I may feel used to the idea that if I live a certain kind of life, I can make myself worthy of God. But what if God’s Word is so much more powerful than our ability to become worthy of God? I mean...