A niece of mine was born with Craniosynostosis, a condition where the bone plates of the baby’s cranium grow together too early. Then, as the child’s brain attempts to grow in the restricted space, the skull ends up misshapen. Surgery was required to separate the plates.  For months after the surgery, she had to wear a protective helmet to prevent accidental damage to her brain since it was (temporarily) not fully protected. Now, twenty years later, you would never know she had ever required such risky surgery. Author Rebecca Solnit writes, “Human infants are born with craniums made up of four plates that…

Some people are addicted to coffee. I am not.  If the price of coffee doubled tomorrow, I wouldn’t just cut my consumption in half – I would stop drinking coffee altogether.  (That would be so that Melissa could continue to drink her coffee at her usual rate with no impact on our family budget. Because that’s the kind of guy I am.) And if I stopped, it would be cold turkey and it would not bother me a bit. (Although it might be a bit more difficult in the winter than in the summer.)  I really only enjoy two things…

In Ephesians 4:28, Paul has advice for thieves who come to know Christ. The first part is pretty obvious: “Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer“. Again stating the obvious, Paul offers the alternative: instead of stealing, “he must work“.  Paul then clarifies what kind of work he has in mind: “doing something useful with their own hands“. What the NIV translates as “useful” is the Greek word for “good”.  Paul ends his advice with the reason why the repentant thief is supposed to get a job. Notice he does not say, “Get a job so that you can…

After the Apostle Paul describes how he strives to “win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:14), he says that he expects other “mature” Christians to believe and behave in the same way.  But he is open to some may not be as gung-ho as he is: “If on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.” (3:15) Then Paul drops a sentence that is one of the most underappreciated in all of Scripture: “Only let us live up to what we have already attained.” (3:16) When I…

One of my assigned books this semester has got me a little down. The title is The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self by Carl Trueman. One of the blurbs on the back cover says Trueman’s book will help “the church understand why people believe that sexual difference is a matter of psychological choice”.  But the book is a whole lot bigger than that.  The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self traces the historical roots of the “woke” tide which is rising in our culture. Trueman makes a compelling case that those roots go back hundreds of years.…

Warning: this post might cause some discomfort. It does for me. But here we go … Have you noticed an epidemic of American Christians preoccupied with building their own little “slice of paradise” here on earth. We spend lots of money to bring comfort and pleasure to our ourselves and our families. (Sometimes we spend money we don’t even have.) If I am honest, I fight the temptation myself.  Other times I just give in.  Thankfully, so far this particular temptation has been consistently held in check for me by the fact that God has never put enough wealth into…

Back when I was a teen, I learned an important lesson on politics from my father. I don’t recall the exact circumstances – maybe the U.S. was in the midst of the Iran-Contra mess – but I remember hearing my dad say something critical of Ronald Reagan. I was shocked.  “Wait a minute – I thought we were Republicans!” Dad responded, “Well, he’s wrong.” Even without any further explanation from dad, the lesson lodged tight in my brain: Don’t let party loyalty blind you to the facts. (The lesson has applications beyond politics, too.) To this day I believe that the…

I have been poking around a bit on Substack recently. It is unfamiliar to me as a platform, but a friend uses it as a launch point for his business newsletter, so I thought it worth checking out. Maybe it is something I could use for Mission Resource or my own personal projects. There are categories listed on the Substack landing page from which one can choose, with dozens of newsletters for each. Most of these are subscription based, so the authors are making money from the website.  I clicked on “Faith and Spirituality” to get an idea of the…

I have drifted away from my sleep discipline. Every good habit is susceptible to drift. Some good habits swim entirely against life’s currents and will be lost without vigilance.  An early, regular bedtime is one of those habits, at least for me. Now I miss the greater productivity and alertness that I experienced the few months I maintained a strict 10:00 pm bedtime. The Daylight Savings Time switch this weekend seems like a good opportunity to get back on track. So I am cutting this post short and heading to bed. Good night!