Category: faith and growth

No, Satan Is Not Responsible For Your Hangnail

In certain places, the following philosophy is prominent: Satan is responsible for all the bad stuff and everything that doesn't happen how it should. This way of thinking has bothered me for ages for two primary reasons: 1) it relieves humans of responsibility and agency for their own actions and 2) it reduces Satan in some cases to a merry mischief-maker, the Dark Lord of Inconveniences. [Click title to read more.]

Brutal Faith

Faith is not the belief that one day God will validate and explain everything that has ever happened to us. Faith is trusting that God is who He says He is, and that He knows what He is doing, and that He acts toward us in love. That's it. That's all. [Click title to read more.]

You Don’t Need All The Answers

God speaks and can speak through specific signs and symbols, and even through random-selection Bible verses. What interests me is that Christians can be tempted to rely on those things in an effort to dispel uncertainty and mystery from our lives. [Click title to read more.]

Yes, The Parable of the Prodigal Son Is Unfair and Uncomfortable.

I'd like to be honest and say that if the parable of the prodigal son doesn't sometimes irritate you just a little, you might be missing another truth inside it. [Click title to read more.]

Honoring The Past Without Idolizing It

If we value the past more than the present - if we perceive the best part of our lives as having come and gone - we run the risk of always trying to return to it rather than growing and living and being. [Click title to read more.]

You Are A Story You’ve Never Dreamed Of

God also knows all of our possibilities and strengths and what we have the capacity to do. More than we do, God has the vision of who exactly we are meant to be, what we might be like when we're everything He created us for. [Click title to read more.]

This New Year, Vow To Be Your Brother’s Keeper

A strong and unmistakable mandate of the Christian ethos - one of Christianity's defining characteristics - is that we are to love and care both for those who love us, and for those who do not. We are heart-obligated to the community around us. [Click title to read more.]

Prayer As An Attitude

Prayer is not just an act which one commits at a certain time and a certain place. It is a way of life and of being: an attitude. To "pray without ceasing" requires attention and mindfulness--it requires seeing people, or moments that are passing by, and to recognize them right then as meaningful to God whether or not you feel they are meaningful to you. [Click title to read more.]