I wish I could remember the last time I held that icy cold barbwire in my hand…I let go, not realizing what I had done. It was such a casual thing to do on Thanksgiving morning, touching barbwire that is. There it was, right behind the old house separating the yard and the woods. OnContinue reading “Frosted Barbwire”
Category Archives: philosophy
The Christmas Card
At Christmas we return, however partially, to an analog existence. Our minds wander to the days of yesteryear when life was simpler, distractions fewer, and the smiles of extended family were directed at us when we arrived at those annual pilgrimage sites. We forego our propensity to be captivated by the digital morass of ourContinue reading “The Christmas Card”
Echoes from the Holler: Family Memory
This past week has been a year in the making. On July 23, 2022, my extended family would meet again for the first time since my late fathers passing in February of 2017. Like many large families, it seems funerals are about the only thing that still bring folks together. Even weddings aren’t quite asContinue reading “Echoes from the Holler: Family Memory”
Wasting Tragedy
It’s a sinful thing to waste a tragedy. Tragedy is so defined because of its sudden displacing capabilities, an event with the power to change a world, to shake a person to their core. If you must ask if something is tragic, then it’s not tragic. Tragedy is something you feel or observe to theContinue reading “Wasting Tragedy”
Roots
As a young boy, my grandmother would often tell me, with her full blown mid-western Michigan accent “pick up your feet.” I would often turn around, look at her, my face becoming flush with embarrassment that I did not in fact “pick up my feet.” It was such stupid advice, common sense. A person cannotContinue reading “Roots”
God Can’t: A Review
“We don’t need the bible to know evil sucks,” writes Tom Oord, who has now taken off the gloves in his forthcoming work, God Can’t. In what might be his most transparently honest work to date, Tom goes after the Golden Calf of Christian theology: the idea that God Can do anything. Hang on tightContinue reading “God Can’t: A Review”
Thinking Death, Suicide, Life
Imaging myself climbing into the casket and being buried with it was the last thing I had ever conceived. But there it was, the casket, my lifeless father, and suddenly an intimate closeness with death. After all, my father had just experienced death, how hard could it be? How bad could it be? Is itContinue reading “Thinking Death, Suicide, Life”
Leaning Into Death: An Alternative Reading of Acts 2.42-47
Preaching from Acts 2 this Eastertide, it dawned on me this familiar passage was saying something much simpler, yet more profound, than providing fodder for theological arguments between Pentecostals and, well, every other Christian. The early portion of this chapter (tongues of fire, upper room, etc.), gets most of the attention in the chapter, and rightlyContinue reading “Leaning Into Death: An Alternative Reading of Acts 2.42-47”
NO! You haven’t been here: The Singularity of Grieving Loss
“Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent” – Ludwig Wittgenstein Experiencing the death of a loved one is not fact to be stated, a proposition that is an absolute truth. That a loved one has died IS a fact; that one has experienced the grief of the death is not a fact; itContinue reading “NO! You haven’t been here: The Singularity of Grieving Loss”
We Are What We Do
There is an adage oft repeated by professors of history, theology and bible: form and content, form and content…are two sides of the same coin. To a fledgling student of these disciplines this statement sounds strange, even awkward. As people in cultures, we have preconceived ideas of the meaning of history, what we believe aboutContinue reading “We Are What We Do”
ParanormalChrist 