Category: Christian Life
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The Insidious Nature of Gossip
By John W. Crowder Some sins announce themselves. A lie told to your face or a fist thrown in anger is easy to spot. Gossip is different, and that is what makes it insidious. An insidious thing does its damage slowly and quietly, usually out of sight, and by the time you notice it, the…
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Ready Before It Was Relevant
I still remember when QR codes first showed up. Those small black-and-white squares would appear on a poster or a magazine ad, and almost nobody bothered to scan them. You needed a special app just to read one, and most people did not have it or did not know why they would want it. The…
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The Person You Don’t Like Probably Isn’t Even Real
We were in San Antonio enjoying all the touristy activities. At the Market Square (El Mercado) we came across a caricature artist. I wondered what he would see when he looked at me. I sat for a few minutes while he sketched. When he gave me the final product, the first thing I noticed was…
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Is Anyone Listening?
Last week we marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of September 11 attacks. In the days and weeks following that darkest day in modern US history, we heard the same question surface again and again, in different words but with the same ache underneath it, “Where was God?” That is not always an irreverent question. Often that…
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Peacemaker or Peacekeeper? The Difference Is Everything
Almost every pastor knows this scenario. Two church members who haven’t spoken in months, sitting in the same room, both of them loving Jesus, both of them loving the church, and both of them absolutely certain the other one is in the wrong. It’s tempting, in a moment like that, to just smooth things over.…
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Anger Road is a Toll Road
Anyone who has driven one of the newer toll roads knows how it works. There is no attendant waving you through, no booth where you hand over a few coins and go on your way. There is just a camera overhead, and the charges keep adding up the farther you drive, whether you are watching…
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Decisions Seem Easy When They’re Not Yours to Make
By John W. Crowder Difficult decisions always seem easy to those who have no responsibility for them. There is a certain kind of confidence that comes from standing outside a decision. You can see it in the coworker who knows exactly what he’d do if he were the boss, the fan who knows exactly which…