Four Words for the Great Adventure
To follow Jesus is the beginning of the great adventure in life. Here are four words that help us come to grips with Him, sketching out why His story is so compelling and transforming. Unique: There has never been another person like Jesus in history. He burst all known categories at the time, as everyone […]
The Unexpected Resurrection
I have always loved Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, especially the scene when the dying Beast finally gets Belle to love him. Then the unexpected happens: he comes back to life, no longer as a beast, but as a man, alive, filled with glory, hope, and love. I am always mesmerized by this scene because it […]
The Death of Dreams
In the eighth grade. I knew I had to shed my geeky mannerisms and enter the world of sports. I was terrified of football and had miserable experiences with basketball, but I discovered I was good in track, a spring sport. Yet I needed to play a sport one other season (a school rule), so […]
The Answer to Our Suffering
Suffering. Who wants to talk about it? Yet who doesn’t want an answer to their own suffering? The surprise of the New Testament is that no final, explicit answer is given for our own individual pains and tragedies. The answer presented instead is something unexpected: the suffering Jesus. Crucifixion is probably the cruelest way to […]
The Beautiful Defeat
When I read the story of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:32-36), I feel like taking my shoes off. I am standing on holy ground. Here we see Jesus beginning to feel the weight of His impending crucifixion as it bears down on Him. The terrible physical suffering lay ahead, but that did […]
Why We Are Like The Phantom
There is something about the Phantom of the Opera that has always spoken deeply to me. If you remember the story, the Phantom lives in the bowels of the Paris Opera House, fated to live alone because of the hideous face he was born with. He is a musical genius, yet he longs for love […]
The Secret of True Greatness
I need to admit something embarrassing: I’ve always wanted to be famous—to be great in the eyes of others. Despite the fact that I know many famous people live miserable lives, the longing has never gone away. It first erupted in my early 20’s when I wanted to be a recording star. Being born and […]
Searching For Happiness
Pascal, the French thinker, said this about our continual search for happiness: “The present is never our end. The past and the present are our means, the future alone our end. Thus we never actually live, but hope to live, and since we are always planning how to be happy, it is inevitable that we […]
Our Disappointments With Prayer
“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (Mark 11:24). These words of Jesus (and others like them) immediately raise questions: Jesus couldn’t have meant what He said here, could He? Aren’t there many exceptions to a statement like this? But doesn’t this turn prayer into […]
To Be Human Is To Be Angry
To be human is to be angry, whether it’s over political debates or marital spats. But it’s what we do with that anger that moves us toward destruction or redemption. Here’s a recent example from my own life. I have trouble projecting my voice when speaking publicly. To make matters worse, I often drop my voice […]