After recognizing my recent foolish desire to instantly master the spiritual discipline of fasting, I began to evaluate my spiritual growth over the years, and I can clearly see two things: 1) My growth has been very slow with occasional growth spurts. 2) God has been extremely patient with me (as He is with you, too!).  I can relate to what Robert Mulholland writes in Invitation to a Journey: “It is not surprising that we, as members of an instant gratification culture, tend to become impatient with any process of development that requires of us more than a limited involvement of…

Since we’re on the topic of fasting … In the 1700s, John Wesley observed, “Some have exalted religious fasting beyond all Scripture and reason; and others have utterly disregarded it.”  In 2021, the good news is that we have completely eliminated half of that problem. I don’t know of anybody who exalts religious fasting in any way.  I have done a little bit of fasting in my lifetime, usually over Lent, but I have never maintained a regular weekly fast. Now, since both of my current classes touch on the spiritual disciplines, I have committed to fasting once a week…

I heard a sermon recently on the subject of fasting. The preacher explained what it was and why we should do it, and challenged the congregation to practice fasting from food on a regular basis, perhaps one day a week. He had a couple of inspirational quotes about fasting that felt like they were gathered by Googling “inspirational quotes about fasting”.  But overall, he came across almost apologetic for bringing the subject up in the first place and made jokes about how fasting is everybody’s “favorite” topic.  I think it was within the first five minutes or so that he admitted…

My new interest in habits has blossomed into a whole new level of discipline than I have ever experienced before. And I am not quite sure what is going on.  One area that has surprised me involves exercise and it was born out of a major inconvenience of dog ownership. Ginger, our mutt from Haiti, seems to have developed a dislike of walking on grass! To get her to go out to the backyard in the mornings, before Melissa and Sarah and I all left the house for 8 hours or more, had turned into a battle. I would push…

I have a student this year whose last name is pronounced “Rude” and I can’t help but feel a sort of automatic kinship with him. It’s not easy growing up being Rude or Gross. I am sure he has heard plenty of similar lame jokes over the years (example: What’s your middle name – “Is”?) Recently, after discussing connotation and denotation in my classes, I wondered if there was any sense of “gross” that would have a positive connotation. If it’s been too long since your last English class, I will happily remind you that “denotation” just means dictionary definition,…

Occasionally I have seen apologists build a logical case for divine inspiration of Scriptures, but I have long been convinced by my own observation as I read and reread this Book: Either the Bible is inspired by God Himself or it is the greatest collection of circumstantiated musings by amateur psychologists and proto human behaviorists ever assembled by accident. (Long before the study of the human mind was formalized by scientists.)  From the particulars of the way the stay-at-home brother bristles at his father killing the fatted calf for the prodigal’s return to the overall arc of creation-fall-redemption, the Bible…

Tonight is another one of those nights when I can’t seem to think of anything to write here except to repeat the three words that have needed to be repeated far too often in recent years: Pray for Haiti. I keep thinking about the missionaries who have been kidnapped and how fearful they must feel moment to moment. God have mercy on the children involved, especially.  The ransom has been set at $1 million per captive. And although each life is worth immeasurably more than any dollar amount, the simple truth of the matter is that the experts strongly discourage…