The Narrowing Road

Among the top ten things a lot of folks think are in the Bible but are not, such as “God won’t give us more than we can handle” and “God helps those who help themselves,” is this nugget: Forgive and Forget. The Bible does say “ He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west ” Psalm 103:12 (NLT), but that’s God, not us. We have plenty of instruction from scripture about anger, forgiveness, and vengeance. Our anger should be brief, vengeance left to God, and forgiveness reflective of how God has offered to forgive us. If we wish to reflect God’s forgiveness in how we express forgiveness there are some things we should remember about His way. First, all transgressions are sins against God, regardless of who else is hurt or offended along the way. The reason that sin is sin is that, by definition, it separates us from a completely holy and righteous God. Secondly, God withholds final judgement for the ultimate offense of rejecting Him, so every moment that ...

My granddaughter went away to church camp this week. I am certain she will have a great time, make great new lasting friendships, have a basketful of wonderful memories, and look forward to going to again next summer. That’s the way it should be. Assuming she doesn’t get poison ivy like I did. Anybody that knows anything about my childhood knows that I was not an easy living suburban kid. I grew up in the country. Although it wasn’t farm life, it was rural, and there were animals. Some of our animals were kept for food,  like our rabbits and our beagles and our chickens and our pigs. The beagles weren’t edible, of course, but they did chase squirrels and rabbits for my dad to shoot and skin and fry up for supper. For a brief time in my early years, we drew water from a well, cut wood for heat, and took baths in a galvanized silvery colored tub. We got a phone when I was in first grade. It was the heavy black kind with a metal dial that buzzed on the way around an...

I can’t be too cynical about the activism of the loudest and most media magnetized of the Parkland protestors. I can only vaguely imagine their experience, and realize that I, too, center my advocacy on matters that have personally affected me. We choose the color of our ribbon by what malady has touched us. So no one can blame those who were previously untouched by violence and, therefore, unconcerned about violence until they faced it. We are instinctive in our desire to fight or flee, or be frozen in silent immobility by, those things that we perceive to be an attack on our corpus, security, or sense of self. Having violent and sudden death stalk your hallways can do that. I also am wary of blaming activists for concentrating on things that are disproportionate to other important issues. Yes, I agree that drunk driving, texting while driving, abortions, and swimming pool accidents each kill more people every year than die in mass shootings or school shootings, but these d...

I loved growing up in a Southern Baptist church. I loved my youth group. I loved the men and women who loved me just for being a kid. I loved working at a Baptist college. I loved the era of homogeneity and respect, where being a Christian was a fine thing in society. Those days are history. Now, being a Christian is foolishness to the world, as in the Apostle Paul’s day - except in some places, the hedges are high, and the livin’ is easy - like most Christian schools and church youth groups. Here are some things you should know if you’ve been behind that hedge: 1.       Y our youth pastor probably didn’t prepare you for real life very well. I could be wrong, I hope I am, but the pressure on youth leaders to make everything fun and inclusive makes it hard for them to develop biblically literate disciples. Coke and pizza and rallies are fine, but this is a life of Jesus obedience we’re preparing for, not how to be good members of the Kiwanis club. If you can’t ar...

I've given up on a writing project that had been percolating for over a decade. The working title was Understanding Your Christian Friend. My intent was to respond to the misunderstanding about Christain faith and its adherents in the light of what appears to be an increasingly hostile anti-Christian sentiment in my country.  I can't claim any "minority" status. I am a white Christian heterosexual middle-class American male. However, I have voluntarily associated myself with groups that have been subject to "anti-isms" that cause me to be judged by the company I keep. I can't claim to know what it is like to daily live out life marked by my gender or race or disability shadowing my access to jobs, housing, or basic dignity, but I have been bitten by the pain of being lumped in with prejudices. Most imminently this has been my status as a police officer. Despite every evidence of the dedication of my colleagues, those who have anti-police bias have bee...