“It’s a boy!”, said the doctor.

Two years later he said the same thing when my second child was born, “It’s a boy!”

Three years later the midwife announced something I was hoping for, “It’s a girl!”

The doctor and midwife were not assigning a gender as each of my three children made their debut in the world. What they did was count their fingers and toes, tested their eyes and ears, measured their weight and length, listened to their heart, maneuvered their joints, and noted their genitalia.

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This next season of blogs is all about the subject of human identity from various positions. In this first blog, I want to lay a foundation for what follows that supports a biblical understanding of human identity. The reason for this series is self-evident in our world, at least in the West: identity politics[1] is now atomized and organized in such a way that history is now anti-history, religion is anti-religion, and culture is now anti-culture. A brief explanation will help.

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This is my final blog about Advent as we approach Christmas Day where we traditionally celebrate the birth of Christ. The theme of Advent in this final week is love.

In the mid 20th century, a lady called Avid B. Christiansen wrote a poem that later became a hymn. You might not know it in this blog, but I guarantee you’ve heard it at some point. It is called, “Love Found a Way”.

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Once upon a time – 1674 to be precise – a baby boy was born to a loving husband and wife. Their names were Isaac and Sarah. It was during this time that people began to pull away from the established church – or the Church of England to be precise. Those who would not conform to the State Church were known as dissenters. People of that time, like Isaac and Sarah, could not enroll at Oxford, Cambridge, or any other prestigious university for their education unless they were members of the Church of England. Without this membership, they could not run for any public office or become a member of Parliament.

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Jesus would often say to his disciples, “You have heard it said…” (Matt. 5:17) and then continue by quoting various sayings that were common in his day. Likewise, we’ve all heard it said many times, “Listen before you speak.”[1] It not only makes sense, it’s good manners as well, right? Well, Jesus would follow his comments with, “But I tell you…” (Matt. 5:18). It’s the conjuncture “but” that I’d like to capitalize on to contradict the saying that is allegedly filled with sense-making and manners.

[1] First coined by American author William Arthur Ward (1921-1994). He created numerous inspirational maxims in his poems, articles, and meditations.

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Where are you right now? Not your location, but your current circumstances. What word or phrase describes your situation? Happy or depressed, included or lonely, healthy or addicted, joyful or grief, focused or aimless, or something else? Wherever you are, it is precisely from that place where you can begin a meaningful journey through the season of Advent.

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Easter is always a high point in the church calendar. But how do we understand resurrection for the living and the dead? I want to make this blog personal, so I am going to frame it within the death of two loved ones. The first was my brother who died on November 16, 2014 from a brain tumor at the age of 47. The second is my mother, who died almost four years later to the day on November 15, 2018 from cancer after suffering for five years

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It’s still Lent, and Easter is getting closer!

In my last blog, I painted the portrait of Jesus as a child. In this blog, I’m going to paint a different portrait of Jesus as a man. And again, when exploring characters like Jesus, the Bible is our main source of information. However, we must be cautious not to embellish the image of Jesus in the text.

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It’s Lent and Easter is coming!

So, in my next three blogs I’m going to explore Jesus as a child, as a man, and as the resurrected man. When exploring characters like Jesus, the Bible is our main source of information. However, I want to throw out a cautionary note, or three of them to be precise.

There are three things we must remember in looking at the childhood of Christ:

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The older I get time seems to speed up. And despite the distinction of days, weeks, months, seasons of the year, and years by themselves, it seems to me that time itself becomes homogenous; or a mere succession of one thing after the other with no moments, events, or occasions to set that time apart for its own unique significance.

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What, you might say, has the renown C. S. Lewis, A. A. Milne’s donkey character called Eeyore, and Jesus the Son of God have in common? Well, quite a bit. So, let’s start with C. S. Lewis.

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Once upon a time – 1674 to be precise – a baby boy was born to a loving husband and wife. Their names were Isaac and Sarah. It was during this time that people began to pull away from the established church – or the Church of England to be precise. Those who would not conform to the State Church were known as dissenters. People of that time, like Isaac and Sarah, could not enroll at Oxford, Cambridge, or any other prestigious university for their education unless they were members of the Church of England. Without this membership, they could not run for any public office or become a member of Parliament.

Read More

Jesus would often say to his disciples, “You have heard it said…” (Matt. 5:17) and then continue by quoting various sayings that were common in his day. Likewise, we’ve all heard it said many times, “Listen before you speak”. It not only makes sense, it’s good manners as well, right? Well, Jesus would follow his comments with, “But I tell you…” (Matt. 5:18). It’s the conjuncture “but” that I’d like to capitalize on to contradict the saying that is allegedly filled with sense-making and manners.

Read More

Where are you right now? Not your location, but your current circumstances. What word or phrase describes your situation? Happy or depressed, included or lonely, healthy or addicted, joyful or grief, focused or aimless, or something else? Wherever you are, it is precisely from that place where you can begin a meaningful journey through the season of Advent.

Read More

Imagine sitting at a banqueting table where civility qualifies you to be there in the first place. Set before you are the finest tableware. Eleven pieces of silver cutlery are precisely situated: a fish knife and fork, dinner knife and fork, salad knife and fork, soup spoon, oyster fork, butter knife, and a dessert spoon and fork.

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In this new season of blogs, I will be writing about something that has touched every area of American culture: civil dialogue, or rather, the lack of it.

What is civil dialogue?

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