Here’s a four-minute clip of Pastor Tim Hawks of Hill Country Bible Church in Austin, TX trying to help some in his congregation understand why women have abortions. What I love about it is he uses Planned Parenthood’s own research and helps us all start with empathy. Again, I encourage you to watch the clip, but I have also written … Read More
What Does Following Jesus Look Like?
What does character and internal beauty look like– especially for a Christian? In truth, it is the same for men and women, and there is no better mirror of what internal beauty and godliness looks like than the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:1-12. Here Jesus gives his disciples eight characteristics to pursue or that evidence being in a state of blessing … Read More
Getting the Rest We Need
Even extraverts need regular times of solitude to stay spiritually healthy. Ian Marcus Corbin, philosopher and research fellow at Harvard Medical School, reminds us: “…Befriending oneself is a prerequisite for becoming a true friend to others. We do this by sitting quietly alone, coming to terms with who and what we are, forging some order out of the riot of … Read More
Listening Conversations and Diverse Friendships
Listening is rudimentary to being a good human; it’s one of the most fundamental forms of respect. Further, it’s a basic signifier of our humility. And our wisdom: Proverbs tells us it’s only the fool that utters all his mind[1] and “He that answers a matter before listening it is a folly and shame to him.”[2] The fundamental loss of … Read More
Responding to Culture Shifts
One of the many things I’m grateful to my mom for is passing on some of her dad’s books and correspondence to me. My grandfather, Ralph Whitson Seaman, was a Lutheran minister with excellent diction, a gift for learning languages, and a fascination for words. He also had a good sense of humor. At that time, his denomination and others … Read More
Learning from Eowyn
“Each of us is born with a box of matches inside us but we can’t strike them all by ourselves.” Laura Esquivel “The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire.” Ferdinand Foch Much that I’ve struggled to articulate and steal back about God’s view of women and raising daughters is captured in an intriguing scene involving … Read More
The Power of Introverts
I’m an introvert and maybe you are too. If not, I’m quite sure you care about some, as that’s what one-third of us are. The quotes below are from Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain. It’s a superb book that has not only helped me better understand some of my weaknesses … Read More
Gardening in Lent
By Timothy Austen There are good Christmas songs and there are bad ones. Stay with me, folks. I know it’ spring. The good: Some traditional Christmas music beautifully captures the spirit of waiting and patience that Advent—and, for that matter, our current season of Lent—requires of us. For example: “How long is this Mariah Carey song, and when will it … Read More
Deconstructive Thoughts on “Forgetting Those Things Which are Behind”
“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 3:13-14, KJV) (Phil. 3:13-14, KJV) This blog has always been about sharing “constructive … Read More
My 2021 Favorites
Happy New Year, dear friends! Besides a favorite pic of my grandkids above and one of our church plant below, here are my favorite quotes from 2021 on… How We Treat People: “The Bible calls on us to develop a theological imagination within which we see the world as a community and not a collection of hostilities.” -Esau McCaulley “Condemnation, … Read More