On walking the Way

I hate 3 am. It’s when I often wake up only to realize it’s not morning. Most nights, that’s all it is, and I go back to sleep. But some nights, 3 am is the hour of fear and doubt—the hour of worry. The hour of questions I can’t answer, and the hour of questions I am not sure I even want an answer to. Not long ago, I had a night exactly like this, and it gave me a new take on a familiar passage: 1...

When Deb and I were young, we thought about our “calling” a lot. We were obsessed with it for a while because we felt we were being called into mission work. It turns out we were. But now we are often asked, how did you know? The best advice we ever got came from an old missionary. His words sounded like a joke, but as the decades passed, I slowly realized that it was the best advice we ever recei...

Our appetites drive us, but our appetites distort our identity. Our perceived identity shapes our decisions, and our choices define our lives. Given this, the question, “What am I hungry for?” becomes very important. It gives us insight into our present state and predicts our direction and destination in the future. The passage for today is short, but it has long legs under it. It is found in Prov...

Identity seems to be all we hear about these days. It makes you wonder why. Wondering who we are and why we are, I guess, are fair questions because, without God, we have no identity and no purpose. I will explain a bit about why that is later, but the shocking thing to me is that now people are adding the question, “What am I?” to the list and getting some shocking answers in reply. Who and why a...

As believers, we have a new life within us that wants to please God. But what does pleasing God look like on a Monday morning? Let’s ask Jesus: “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love...

Today, I want to look at giants. The story of the Exodus tells us that 12 spies were sent into the promised land. They came back with tales of a beautiful land rich in produce. But 10 of them broke the people’s hearts by telling them of giants so large and powerful that they were like insects by comparison. The upshot of this story is that the people lost faith and refused to enter God’s promised...

There is a lot of talk about how “entitled” people are today. People speak of “self-care” as if focusing on yourself is a virtue. After all, as the saying goes, “I can’t love others until I learn to love myself.” As if learning to love yourself is akin to understanding quantum physics or something. Every toddler I have ever met seems to carry an advanced degree in loving themselves, so I have neve...

Easter is hands-down the most important day of the Christian calendar. Unsurprisingly, the powers that Jesus defeated that day resist celebrating his resurrection. The resurrection is the single most important fact in the Bible and history. It is the event that makes Christianity different from all other religions. It is based not simply on a belief or an idea but on a historical event. Jesus is a...

Every day, we are drowning in news and information. Everyone seems to be screaming at the top of their lungs that everyone else is lying. As Christians, we are to be salt and light to this world; our commission is to proclaim and demonstrate the Kingdom of God to all those who are enslaved to the cultures and kingdoms of this age. But how do we engage in a conversation like the one our culture is...

As I look back on my life, it occurs to me that God has led me on an unusual journey. For a missionary, I have an odd work history. It’s a history that has taken me many years to appreciate. I was raised on a small dairy farm. I studied music. I have worked in construction, as a prison guard, and for the last 33 years as a missionary—things that, on the surface, have absolutely nothing in common....

Last week , we talked about the soil of our lives and how we should respond to the grace of God by adding certain virtues to our lives, thus bearing fruit for God. This week, I want to return to the topic of our work vs God’s work. Last week, I looked primarily at our response to the grace of God, adding virtue to the grace in thanksgiving. But I want to be clear: as hard as any farmer works, no f...

Jesus once told a parable of a sower. This sower went out to sow and spread his seed on four different types of soil. Only the seed that fell on the good soil bore fruit, and it bore a lot of fruit. Whenever I read that story, I want to be that good soil. But do I have any control over what kind of soil I am? Peter seems quite convinced that our fruitfulness does have something to do with us. In t...

Last week, we looked at how Jesus responded when interrupted on a very important journey. He stopped to heal and affirm a woman with a long-term illness while on his way to heal the dying daughter of a desperate father. This story deeply challenges me because I know how I feel when I am interrupted. Especially when I think I am doing something “important.” The world we live in often leaves us feel...

Every day, we hear statistics, and we listen to people discussing trends. People are discussed as if entire groups are a single entity. But Jesus was often surrounded by what the gospel writers euphemistically called the “crowd,” yet he somehow never failed to see the individual whose voice was being smothered by the crush and the noise. The story today is about one such person. A person that no o...

Matt 4:1-11 is the famous story of the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, where, after being baptized, Jesus walks off into the desert alone. But we quickly learn that he was not really alone. The devil himself soon joined him. This week, we will examine this story to learn how to follow Jesus through temptation. There is a famous Sunday school joke where the teacher asks little Timmy, “What i...

Theologians and philosophers have discussed the so-called “hiddenness of God” problem for centuries. The question of God’s hiddenness or silence is typically discussed in times of trouble and suffering when our felt need for something more tangible is pressing hard on us. Today, I want to look at hearing God and experiencing God. I want to examine what it means to seek God and how we know we have...

Today will be a guided meditation through the 24th psalm. I read this last week in my daily reading, and it stuck with me, so I thought I would share it this week with all of you. As I let this psalm soak into my soul, I started to see it as a song in three parts. It is a song of God’s glory first and foremost, but in the middle of the song rests a beautiful promise of blessing to all who respond...

From the start, I have determined to steer this podcast away from politics. So, I apologize if this title hints at politics; my point for today will not be political. It will be “anti-political” if that is even a term. The question of who is in charge has been eternally answered for Christians. Jesus is the king, now and forever. However, it is easy to say, “Jesus is Lord” or “Jesus is the King of...

The author of Hebrews once described the word of God as a double-edged sword that is able to separate down to the soul and spirit, discerning the thoughts and intents of our hearts. Today, we will look at a passage that does exactly that; it will show us what drives our everyday decisions and actions. Once again, we find ourselves in the book of James. Who among you is wise and understanding? Let...

Another year has passed, and I think we can all see that the road ahead looks anything but smooth. In worldly terms, hope is scarce to non-existent. Chaos rules, and since people hate chaos even more than they love justice and freedom, violence and the resulting authoritarianism seem inevitable, barring a miracle of God’s grace. What does “The Way” look like to a follower of Jesus in times like th...

Have you ever thought about what the world would be like today if Jesus were never born? We have probably all seen the movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life”, where George Bailey is shown by the angel Clarence what the world would be like without him. It turned out that George Bailey, as ordinary and outwardly unsuccessful as he was, still profoundly affected everyone in his circle and far beyond. Now ima...

The manger scene at Christmas is one of my most loved images. Every year we clear off the top of our sideboard to make room for the stable and all the usual (and some unusual) Bethlehem characters. And when we are blessed to have a grandchild or two to help it gets even more entertaining as we set up the “birthday party for Jesus” as our grandkids used to say. But as much as I love thinking about...

Last year as the advent season began I discussed tradition and its value. I reread that article this year as I was thinking about advent and almost re-posted last year’s article . But rather than repeat last years article I want to probe a bit deeper into the idea of tradition and its relationship to faith, hope, and purpose in life. To destroy tradition is to erase memory, memory requires rehears...

It seems to me that there are many things that I worry about far too much. But at the same time, there are a few things that I don’t worry about nearly enough. Today, I want to look at a couple of passages that should probably worry us all more than they do. As I look through the New Testament, I see a few evils that are singled out and condemned very harshly. Before I begin, I want to make it cle...

The title of this article is a bit provocative, I confess, but the really scary thing about it is that I think it is sometimes much more accurate than it should be. At some point, we have probably all been guilty of this sort of thing. Let me explain. First, some definitions: witchcraft is using magical spells or rites to coerce beings in the spirit world to help you. It is trying to manipulate th...