Category: Faith & Everyday Life
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Keep Learning
Some of life’s best lessons come from the days that go well. Some of the deepest come from the days that don’t. Both kinds of days are good teachers, as long as we’re willing to sit in the classroom.
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Why Do We Think We Need a “Them” to Be Against?
We live in an “us versus them” world. You can see it in politics, but it does not stop there. It shows up in sports rivalries, in school districts, in neighborhoods, in online comment sections, and even in churches. We seem to have a remarkable ability to draw lines of division between “us” and “them.”…
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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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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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Peace is a Person
I have never met a farmer who could make it rain. I have known a few who could read the sky better than the weatherman, who could smell moisture in the air a day before the first drop fell, but not one of them could reach up and produce rain by sheer will. Rain is…
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Why Peace Feels Impossible
We live in a culture that honors fighting, respects confrontation, and encourages arguing. It seems like everyone is always mad! Peace seems impossible because it is not something that comes naturally to us. And that is exactly the problem Paul is naming in Romans 12. Beginning at verse 14, he gives a list of hard…