Mash-Ups, Parables, And Shovelfuls of Dirt
I can sometimes be obnoxious with music. Especially on Fridays. Friday is my day to listen to mash-ups.
If you don’t know, mash-ups are songs where DJs take two or more different songs and squash them on top of each other to (if they are good at it) make a newer, more complex song. Each additional track layered in adds nuance and detail into the song so that, basically, I now cannot listen to many original songs without them sounding empty. Just this morning, Peter Gabriel came on the radio and I added in a hip-hop verse…to which my wife promptly frowned at me until I stopped.
God is a God of layers. He is a simple Being, but He does and creates hugely complex things. And one of the ways in which we can best appreciate God’s complexities is through Scripture. When Jesus told parables, many people heard them as if they were a Top 40 single. They listened, they nodded their heads, they laughed at the funny parts and cried at the sadder parts.
Then they went on about their day, fishing or trading until dinnertime.
6,000 Denarii
I am at a severe deficit when it comes to my training as a writer. Looking back, I took maybe two courses during undergrad that were directly related to the task. One was for creative writing and the other was speech writing. Granted, most college courses are at least indirectly related to advancing one’s self as a writer, but i doubt if I would ever get published writing two-bit research papers for a living. Being in this position, I am often confronted with the feelings of doubt and insufficiency that I think plague people in nearly every profession. It starts as a whisper…you are sitting in front of the computer, the thoughts seem to be flowing nicely, and just as you dive into what seems a brilliant analogy between Star Wars and predestination…
Is Love All You Need?
The Beatles once told us that “all you need is love.” And, for many Christians that have experienced the more dogmatic and often-hypocritical parts of the history of the church during the past twenty years, a return to that simple truth is a breath of fresh air.
Didn’t Jesus tell us that His most important new command was to “Love one another” (John 13:34)? Don’t all the rules, traditions, form, and structure of the traditional church just get in the way of that?
Well, sort of.
Osama Bin Laden: The Luke 15:7 Response – Revisited One Year Later
Last week marked one year since Osama Bin Laden was killed. I wanted to go back and grab this post from a week after it happened. It was actually one of the most challenging things I’ve written, and got quite a lot of feedback. What are your thoughts on it now?
The Ralphie Analogy
It’s May. This post is about Christmas. If that is surprising coming from me, then…
…Hello, my name is Jeremy. It’s good to meet you.
Safe Is Not For Me: My New Job
There was a moment, sitting across from the HR manager in my first interview, where I knew that this was the job I needed to take. It didn’t click completely right away, and along the way were some other opportunities that for all other purposes seemed absolutely amazing.
But, throughout the course of the next few weeks, with each passing interview and conversation, it was the single-most visible encounter with God opening a door that I have ever experienced.
It all started with that first moment. It was the moment when she told me the risks.
Sunday Jesus or Real Jesus?
In writing a Christian book aimed specifically at people in the 18-29 age bracket, I realize that I am, in a certain way of speaking, asking for my book to not be read.
And it isn’t so much because it is one of those things or the other…but the combination of those two qualifiers means that my book is directly written for the smallest Christian population within the Church today.
People my age just aren’t hanging around a whole lot.
Thrift Stores and Desert Shoes: A Reflection on Promises
“I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn off your feet.” (Deuteronomy 29:5)
I love thrift stores. There is something primal and raw, at least to me, about hunting through the racks and racks of XXL t-shirts, cargo pants, and used trucker hats to find those rare, glowing gems. Like these guys:
Messy Faith
One of the first words that always comes to mind when I consider my faith is “messy”.
It is messy because we are a broken people serving a blameless God. We have a war waging around us and inside of us. The war around us is between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the world, the war within us is between our nature of sin and death and our redemption of love and life.
And it is messy because I mess it up…a lot.
Gaius or Diotrephes: Love in Action
(feel free to read 3 John before reading this post)
Gaius. The name means “I am glad”. The name itself leaves much to live up to. But in the letter written to him by the apostle John, we find that he more than embodies those three small words. He was living a life that true believers should strive for. We are told that the truth was in him, that he was walking in truth, and that he demonstrated love and hospitality towards the brethren and for strangers.
Those seem simple enough requests. After all, we as believers should be striving towards a life functioning in the outpouring of God’s love…a life that can only result in just the things that we find characterize Gaius: truth and acceptance through wisdom and joy. Because of God our Father, we should be glad.
But what about when our human side gets in the way? What about when we feel so passionately about some small aspect of theology that we divide our churches over it, end friendships over it…
…turn people away because of it?
