Tag: Christianity

The Difference Between Real and Abstract Belief

I suspect that for believers it's easier and more comforting to face Christ's return or our return to Him in a sort of happy abstract rather than as a realistic possibility: those events are coming, they're out there, and they matter, but we don't always regard them with a profound sense of urgency. [Click title to read more.]

Finding The Significant In The Small

We should be about the big business of faith, and not about the little business of fretting over forgetfulness and fines and library books. But what if the big business of faith does involve the little things? [Click title to read more.]

Do Not Let Easter Be A Culmination

It strikes me sometimes that we Christians are great at events. We know how to do Easter. We know how to do Christmas. We can make killer dinners and plays and cookouts. But an event is not a ministry. [Click title to read more.]

Believers Don’t Need To Be Friends To Be Family

As Christians, I think we sometimes feel that if we're not good friends with all our fellow believers, we're doing it wrong. That if our brothers and sisters are not also our constant brunch buddies and going-out companions and soul siblings, we've failed or we won't be able to maintain a Christlike relationship. But that isn't true. [Click title to read more.]

The Old Ways of Serving Still Matter

I am a believer, and have been for many years. I am, as I mentioned above, used to "the food thing" churches do. But it was strange to see it with new eyes - to be the stranger in need, one of the people served by a church that knew me not at all. [Click title to read more.]

Congratulations On Doing What You’re Supposed To Do

We tend to celebrate the bare minimum as being exceptional, without realizing that we've simply set the bar so low for ourselves that we've made the bare minimum look like an accomplishment when it's not. [Click title to read more.]

Mind The Small Hurts

The answer isn't to compare pain or place it on a relative scale of suffering, but rather to address pain as pain, in context, regardless of the source. Yes, we absolutely must kick into gear the moment we hear a word like "cancer" or "death." But I hope we can also mobilize ourselves to respond with similar compassion to words like "frustration" and "fear" and "chest cold." [Click title to read more.]