I finally got a chance to see Silence a few weekends ago. The film arrived late in our town, and even then only in the second-run theatre (I imagine its themes were probably deemed “too religious,” and therefore not profitable…Read More→
When her father died she had immediately stopped going to church. If prayer could not even keep your family alive, she did not see what good it was. But after she and Hank moved to Houston, she had started going…Read More→
Each year around Christmastime for the last decade or so, our family has a tradition of watching the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy. We spread it out over six nights—a full week immersion into Middle Earth, as it were….Read More→
Most pastors know that the time immediately following a service can be a black hole for anything resembling deep conversation. This is probably appropriate, on some levels. A busy foyer full of people and conversation is not exactly the best…Read More→
When I was a kid, I was often puzzled by the way Jesus responded to people in the Gospels. From callously telling someone to “let the dead bury their own dead,” to calling a Samaritan woman a “dog,” to saying…Read More→
I’ve had some version of the same conversation a number of times over the past few weeks (over the years, I’ve learned to pay attention to this phenomenon—it seems to be God’s preferred means of provoking me). The conversations have…Read More→