rebelling against low expectations
“The Lord your God is in your midst.” – Zephaniah 3:17 2020 sucks, yes? Like Britta Perry of Community or Toby Flenderson of The Office, 2020 is the worst. But it’s not. In spite of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, national reckoning about systemic racism, economic upheaval, and a looming presidential election rife with discord, good stuff exists. I’ll start. In February, my...
I recently noticed this phrase on the phone case of a friend I work with in the church nursery. I shrugged it off after glancing and went about my duties, but the words lodged in my brain in the following days. “Good vibes only.” What comes to mind? I thought of California. Sun, surf, and sand. The Beach Boys and their 1966 hit “Good Vibrations.” But I suspect that there’s more to this popular...
“I AM WHO I AM,” he said. “Say to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” (Exodus 3:14). This is the name God told his reluctant leader Moses. He went on to explain, “This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations” (v.15). This verse is rich with many truths, but one word in particular emerges for me through repeated reading: remember. Flip forward a...
“Where shall the world be found, where will the word resound? Not here, there is not enough silence.” — T.S. Eliot Shortly after my son was born, we began putting him down for bed at night with a Kindle app that produces white noise. Mixes can be customized to include sounds of rain, thunder, lightning, and the ocean, but the final effect is uninterrupted hissing that can be likened...
The “gig economy”–a fancy tech term for an work that promotes flexibility–is growing rapidly. Think flexible income, flexible hours, and flexible forms of expression. Some 150 million workers in North America and Western Europe have dropped the “relatively stable confines of organizational life” to become independent contractors, according to a March-April Harvard Business...
Let’s be clear at the outset: Doing hard things is hard. In fact, doing hard things is exhausting. In June, I spoke of doing some simple but hard things this summer (i.e. attending church, reading the Scriptures, and praying regularly). Let’s pause for a moment and assess as the school year draws nigh. Did you persist or coast, lean in or nod off? Personally, I’m somewhere in the middle of these...
“What car were you in?” He asked. “I wasn’t in a car. I was running home and wanted to offer any needed assistance,” I replied. After thanking me for stopping and returning to the phone clutched in his hand, I resumed my Garmin watch, though home was a mere three-tenths of a mile from the intersection where multiple cars collided on a sunny afternoon. Did the Holy Spirit prompt me to stop and...
The author of Proverbs writes, “He who gathers in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who brings shame.” (Proverbs 10:5) Whether you’re a son or a daughter of the living God, resist the urge to slumber during harvest this summer. School’s Out For Summer Did you recently close the books on another school year? Well done. Graduating to the next grade is no small...
In a recent article for GQ, the editors said, “We’ve been told all our lives that we can only call ourselves well-read once we’ve read the Great Books.” From there, they proceeded to call out the “Great Books” for being “really, really boring.” J.D. Salinger made the list twice, as did Ernest Hemingway. Brace yourself – Tolkien appeared too for The Lord of the Rings. It seems his meticulous...
Not many people know about the race, though its popularity has drastically increased over the years. The number of people who actually run? That’s a small figure. The number who finish? Smaller, if any. On Monday, March 26th at 9:33 p.m. local time, The Barkley Marathons, which are held at Frozen Head State Park in Wartburg, Tennessee, ended with zero finishers. That seems strange, even for an...
rebelling against low expectations
