I was driving my daughter Sarah to Dairy Queen about an hour ago to meet a couple of her friends.  In the dark, in my peripheral vision, I saw a car rapidly approaching my street from the right. In a flash, a teenage girl pulled into the path of our Traverse as she made a left hand turn.  She had not paused a second, much less come to a complete stop. She seemed to assume the street would be clear of oncoming traffic.  I hit my brakes and punched my horn.  My headlights briefly gave Sarah and me a clear…

Psychologist Alia Crum tells a story from her early days as a competitive gymnast: an injury at a regional competition threatened to disqualify for nationals. She had arrived several days early for the competition and proceeded to rehearse her routine. Unfortunately, in the course of practicing, she slipped up and her ankles knocked together hard. She was left in tears. Although there was pain, she did not want to accept defeat and bow out, so she iced her ankles and spent several days mentally rehearsing her routine rather than physically rehearsing it. Her parents encouraged her to understand her injury…

One last look at Ephesians for now. Here’s part of chapter 1: 3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. 4For He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His presence. In love 5He predestined us for adoption as His sons through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the Beloved One. 7In Him we have redemption…

Take a close look at those first three chapters of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. The “mystery” that I pointed out in yesterday’s post – the fact that God was combining both Jews and Gentiles to create one new humanity (2:15) reconciled to God through the cross – this “mystery” is the central thread.  It is Paul’s main point and the context for understanding every sub point Paul makes in the first half of the letter.  This includes the talk of being “chosen” and “predestined” in 1:4,5 – “He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to…

“And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment – to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.” (Ephesians 1:9-10) “This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 3:6) It is nearly impossible to overstate what a shock it was to the Jews to discover that the…

I was reminded tonight during a Zoom class in which the professor spoke on God’s nature as the Uncreated One: There’s always something more to Christian faith. There’s always deeper territory. I feel I have – by God’s grace and the leading of the Spirit – “figured out” some important aspects of the faith in the last couple of years, but I am well aware that there is plenty more to learn and experience.  The Apostle Paul certainly comprehended that there was always more to discover about faith. I like how he prayed for the Ephesians that they may “know…

Much of the material assigned for my classes has made for engaging reading. I find it very enjoyable. And some … well, some of the books are a slog.  I used to assume that the books I had difficulty reading were simply over my head. That is undoubtedly true for some, but now I recognize that some books are a slog for me primarily because they are poorly written. I think scholars in particular can be some of the worst writers. They have incredible thoughts but struggle to communicate them in a way that non-academicians can grasp and appreciate.  Take…

“Human history is the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.” – C. S. Lewis I have long maintained that every sin we commit starts as a search to satisfy some legitimate need or desire.  For example: But then our search to meet these legitimate goals takes us to all the wrong places. So we gossip to influence others, we lie to protect ourselves, and we deaden our pain with endless entertainment or chemical substances. If we truly recognize this in ourselves – that our sins are an attempt to…

Author Jerome K. Jerome once wrote, “I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.” My first trip to Ghana was fascinating in every respect. Unlike Jerome, though, it bothered me a bit that I was constantly surrounded by people working so much harder than I was! It wasn’t because I was being lazy. It is that survival is a powerful motivator. And I – the relative slacker – even went so far as to interrupt their work, asking questions and taking pictures. I interrupted fishermen, pepper farmers, traders, cooks, and hardware store owners.…

Technology issues tonight with my laptop are reminding me that I never regret taking a few minutes in the morning to write a rough draft of the day’s blogpost.  I often regret waiting until the end of the day.  I was able today to slip back into several routines without much thought. I ran the dogs and I made the bed, for instance.  But getting some writing done early in the day has not reached the point of automaticity. It is not yet a habit. It remains an “ought to”.  And without a firm decision to make early writing a…