11 years ago today I woke up with my heart pounding out of my chest thinking “I’m getting married today”. Megan and I spent some time remembering what the day was like and, honestly, I couldn’t remember much. I don’t remember doing any activities or getting ready or driving to the church. I do remember a few things. I remember how loud it sounded when everyone sang “Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee” to open up the service. I remember saying “I do.” I remember cutting a rug at our reception. It seems like forever that I have been with Megan and I barely remember life before her. I can’t recall what it’s like to not have her by my side. We’ve been through a lot together and grown so much. As we talked today I realized what has made our … Read More »

Lots of people in the U.S. are turned off by Christianity because of Christians. The argument that Christians are judgmental has some truth to it and I’ve written about that previously. I’ve also found that people are turned off by Christians because they think Christians are stupid and/or weird. It seems that only uneducated, unenlightened people are Christians. That assessment is mostly true and that’s the way God wants it to be.

Jesus usually opened up his teaching with: “Blessed are the poor in spirit for they will see God.” and “Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth.” When his followers were accused of being uneducated and “sinners” he responded, “It’s not the healthy that need a doctor, but the sick.” So for those who think: “I have it all right: I’m educated, comfortable, happy.” God isn’t for … Read More »

There seems to be a prevalent attitude that religion is responsible for all the divisions in the world that give rise to wars and atrocities committed between humans. The popular “COEXIST” bumper sticker gives a trite “can’t you all just get along” message that goes along with the notion that religious differences are the cause for most of the viloence in the world.

Since Christianity is the dominant religion in the U.S., I think there is a particular thought that the world would be a better place if Christianity were given up for good. The collective charge seems to be “look how many wrongs have been committed in Jesus’ name” or “see how Christians are just judgemental hypocrites.”

I understand why this belief has risen in our culture. If you watch television or read the news you mostly see stories … Read More »

…for I always do what pleases him
- John 8:29

I was thinking about that statement. It’s such a bold thing to say that I can imagine myself being just as offended and turned off to Jesus as most of the hearers of this claim. I got to thinking about the phrase “what pleases him”.
In our post-puritanical society, we tend to take this to mean always doing the “right thing”. We read a statement like this and think about moral perfection being the way to pleasing God. I think that those outside the Christian faith perceive Christianity as a system of “do’s” and “dont’s”. Christians have reduced it to this.

A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what … Read More »

If you think about what the typical Christian looks like, you might think of a man who has a drawl and isn’t quite hip to the latest fashions. You might imagine a typical church with rows and rows of pews and mauve or green carpet and a large stage. If this is your idea of a typical Christian, you couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Following are some statistics which might surprise you about the Christian church. These were all taken from the book “Serving With Eyes Wide Open” by David Livermore who got them from other sources. Take the actual statistics with a grain of salt because the definition of what a Christian is can be fluid and research of this scale is difficult. But they will serve to give you a different picture of a “typical” Christian.

Worldwide 178,000 … Read More »

Yesterday I went to this great coffee shop in Cherry Creek where they do a coffee brewing method called the siphon method. It was a beautiful and amazingly complex process.

There are finer things which make life so enjoyable. I’m not referring to a BMW or a big house. I’m referring to those exquisite things that turn ordinary experiences into the extraordinary: A nice glass of wine with dinner, a great pipe smoke or cigar, a fantastic dinner, a cup of coffee made with the Japanese Siphon method. Sometimes we long for so many things that we don’t have that we don’t enjoy the beautiful things that are completely accessible.

When a man walks into a room, he brings his whole life with him. He has a million reasons for being anywhere. Just ask him. If you listen, he’ll tell you how he got there, how he forgot where he was going, and then he woke up. If you listen, he’ll tell you about the time he thought he was an angel and dreamt of being perfect. And then he’ll smile with wisdom: content that he realized the world isn’t perfect.

We’re flawed because we want so much more. We’re ruined because we get these things and wish for what we had.

People who know me have gotten used to rolling their eyes when I talk or write against Apple and Apple products. I’m starting to annoy myself with that kind of talk. But there is a valid point in there that has less to do with Apple and more to do with the use of technology in our lives.

The renaissance was a time when people began to rediscover the role of learning, science, and art in their lives and in their culture. Those values brought about the age of enlightenment which lead to many important social structures that affect us today (democracy and the American republic being one of the most prominent ideas to come from this period). When we think of men like Galileo, Pascal, Da Vinci, and Thomas Jefferson, we are astounded at how much and how many different kinds of … Read More »

Americans get tired of Christians. We have a reputation of being judgemental. It’s true.

If you think about it, there’s an inherent judgement any time you have a truth that you believe. That’s why it’s very appealing to say “what’s true for you isn’t necessarily true for me”. That kind of thinking is supposed to make everyone get along. What that phrase really means, though, is, “there is no truth” because truth, by it’s very nature is absolutely true.

Probably the most offensive judgement is judgement about someone’s moral decisions. Judging comes naturally to humans, especially when you have a moral code to judge by. It can get very annoying to someone who doesn’t accept that code. Now they’re being judged, not even by their own standards but by someone else’s standards. I was thinking about this and thought to myself, “how and … Read More »

I’ve been thinking a lot about Daniel recently. I hope to do some posts about him. Here’s a character sketch I did.

UPDATE: There’s a mistake in this sketch. The story of Potiphar’s wife wasn’t Daniel, it was Joseph.