Tens of thousands of college students from around the country sat on the edges of their seats. From a circular stage centered in the massive arena, the speaker spoke into a wireless microphone, an atmospheric instrumental track underscoring his somber delivery. "Would you leave behind your families, jobs, friends, colleges, and familiar surroundings if God…
Continue reading ➞ Making Your Life Count For God (and Other Christian Anxieties)
When I was ten years old, our church library ordered a book called Dinosaurs and The Bible. I couldn't have been more excited. Like most ten-year-olds, I was a huge dinosaur nerd. When I grew up, I wanted to be a paleontologist, and I could rattle off the Latin names for all my favorite dinosaurs.…
Continue reading ➞ At the Beginning of the World: Dinosaurs, Genesis, and the Gift of Science
Another day, another reason to be outraged. No matter your position on the political spectrum, you're more than likely mad at somebody. Being angry, frustrated, or stressed out are our country's new favorite pastimes. Nothing brings people closer together quite like a shared enemy. But what if we're wrong? What if the problem isn't top-down,…
On December 4, 2015, Jerry Falwell, Jr. - the president of Liberty University - stood in front of 10,000 Christian students and faculty members during a weekly chapel service and said, "If more good people had concealed [handgun] carry permits, then we could end those Muslims before they walked in." Falwell was referencing the terrorist…
Continue reading ➞ A Biblical Case for Christian Nonviolence
During Super Bowl XLVII, the Coca-Cola Company set the internet on fire. The one-minute ad titled "It's Beautiful" aired during the pregame commercial break, and by the end of the night, public response to the ad quickly outpaced interest in the game itself (a 43 - 8 blowout win for the Seattle Seahawks against the…
Continue reading ➞ Scandalous Grace in an Era of Moral Outrage and White Supremacists
Have you ever been embarrassed by something in the Bible? Or wished the Bible just left some stuff out? And I'm not talking about a hard teaching on money or a convicting verse about orphans and widows, but one of those passages that makes you pause and go, "Uh-oh." Like, you're chugging along on your…
Continue reading ➞ The Good Book, or How I Learned to Stop Defending and Love the Bible
In a bare, windowless room, you are told to sit down in a chair hooked up to a strange device. Moments before entering the room, one of the researchers confiscated your phone and handed you a remote control. You are given a simple instruction: Stay seated for fifteen minutes and think. However, at any time,…
In the poetic opening of Genesis, the Bible says God formed man out of the dust. Dust. Cosmologist Carl Sagan famously said, "We are made of starstuff." Stardust. It is both incredibly humbling and beautiful to recognize the God of the cosmos crafted our bodies out of the same material found at the heart of…
Continue reading ➞ Dark Days, Starry Skies: Hope in the Aftermath of the Presidential Election
On Monday, November 16, 2015 a number of states – all of them conservative “red states” – said they would no longer accept Syrian refugees. A short update on current events: The current Syrian civil war has killed more 220,000 people and displaced over 11 million people. More than 2,600 people have died at sea…
Continue reading ➞ The Christian, the Refugee, ISIS, and Fear
During the 12th Century, crusaders often hired mercenaries to fight in their stead during the Crusades. Because the Crusades were viewed as a religious undertaking, the mercenaries had to be baptized before being deployed to the Holy Land.
Instrument of Mercy 