Trembling
“Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.” – Psalm 2:11 “Rejoice with trembling”? Doesn’t that seem like sort of an oxymoron? I mean think about it, how can you rejoice (def. “To feel joyful; be delighted”) with trembling (def. “To feel fear or anxiety”)? Actually, it’s pretty simple. Ever ridden a roller coaster? […]
Language (dis)connection
All around me are people, squished and squeezed and packed in tightly, seat by seat, row by row, waiting for takeoff. The woman next to me looks so lost, like she’s frightened a bit and just wishing the trip was over. It seems she knows no English, and I am struck by how my own […]
Small town snapshots
Small to mid-sized towns have a certain charm about them. Perhaps it’s the sense of homey community, or the feeling of history behind each landmark. With big cities, it’s easy to get so focused on the new things and the energy of mass population that you lose sight of the place itself. Not so with the small town. […]
Fishes in the Sky
I’m sitting in a straight-back chair with a fastened safety belt, 35,000 feet up on a hot summer day. All around me are clouds; the white, puffy, cotton-ball clouds that give young imaginations the best fodder you could ask for. I remember clouds like this from summer afternoons as a boy; from long, hot, lazy […]
Jesus’ Profile Pic?
“Why didn’t any of the gospels describe what Jesus looked like?” Ever get one of those strange questions that just makes you stop and say “hmm”? I was sitting at a cafe doing some devotional reading when I got this text message from a good friend of mine; “Very important theological question for you… Why […]
Lord AND Christ
“God has made him both Lord AND Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified…” Acts 2:36b (emphasis mine). Sometimes we instinctively think of Jesus as Lord, ruler, Master, the One who calls the shots. We are comfortable with the idea that we are called to serve and obey Him, and our life is focused on doing […]
Living in the mystery
Confession time: I’m an analyzer. Ok, make that an over-analyzer. I am the type that has a deep drive to take every fact or experience and try to fit it into a category or framework; some sort of structure to show me what it all means. It’s the never-ending push to understand, to know, that […]
Midnight and witness
“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them” Acts 16:25 (ESV) Previously, we saw that for Paul, Silas, Peter and the other apostles in the New Testament, suffering is not something to lament over, but rather to rejoice in, and that the reason for […]
Midnight and communion
“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them” Acts 16:25 (ESV) I’m sitting at my kitchen table on a warm, humid summer morning. The sky outside is mildly overcast with a light breeze, and I keep thinking I should turn the air conditioner down […]
Who I Really Am
It’s 2:00am on the morning of American Idol auditions, and I am remembering who I really am, and I’m switching my audition song… again. This will be the third time I’ve changed my main “audition song” in the past 24 hours. Mostly I’ve been thinking about what is a good fit for my voice, what […]
