In Arthur Brooks’ book, Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life, he provides a way of thinking about gratitude that I thought was incredibly helpful. The short, simple, profound, thought is: “Gratitude is very similar to exercise. We all know it’s good to be grateful and show […]
Yesterday, Tim Keller went to be with the Lord. It’s hard to overstate the impact Keller has had on Christians over the past couple of decades. He’s certainly been used by God in my life. Matt Smethurst posted 50 of his favorite Keller quotes. I was encouraged by them. Perhaps God will use them to […]
Jerry Sittser and his family were headed back home from an event when a drunk driver drove head-on into their minivan. Although he and three of his kids survived, tragically, his wife, mother, and one of his daughters all died at the scene of the accident. While most people don’t, thankfully, have to go through […]
Douglas McKelvey’s Every Moment Holy vol. 1 provides liturgies, or prayers, for all kinds of different situations. I thought I’d share the one he wrote for “The Death of a Dream.” In it, he skillfully and beautifully puts into words what so many feel when this happens and how they should process it in the […]
“You don’t find community; you create it through love. Look how this transforms the way you enter a room of strangers. Our instinctive thought is, ‘Who do I know? Who am I comfortable with?’ There’s nothing wrong with those questions, but the Jesus questions that create communities are, ‘Who can I love? Who is left […]
“At the end of the movie Schindler’s List, there’s a heart wrenching scene in which Oskar Schindler-who bought from the Nazis the lives of many Jews-looks at his car and his gold pin and regrets that he didn’t give more of his money and possessions to save more lives. Schindler had used his opportunity far […]
“Jesus uses the younger and elder brothers [in Luke 15] to portray the two basic ways people try to find happiness and fulfillment: the way of moral conformity and the way of self-discovery. Each acts as a lens coloring how you see all of life, or as a paradigm shaping your understanding of everything. Each is a way […]