How to Love, Part 1: Agape
I’ve lost count of how many times I see someone accusing Christians, particularly traditional Bible believers, of being “unloving” because they didn’t celebrate or approve of that person’s ideas or lifestyle. Yes, believers are sometimes unloving, judgmental, or prejudiced. And when they are, they need to repent and change. But that’s only a part of the picture. It is becoming critically important that people who identify as followers of Christ define and practice what God’s love / Christ’s love really is. New Testament Greek uses four words for love: Eros—physical love (of which plenty varieties are going around). Philos—emotional love…
Amazed at What I Didn’t Know
One of my richest aspects of living in the South has been learning about the African-American experience. Before I came here I thought I understood it. I could not have been more naively mistaken. I learned at the nation’s primary exhibits in Atlanta, GA; Montgomery, AL; and Jackson, MS. Month after month my church member and dear friend, Jerry, who’s with me in the photo, graciously interacted with me about what things were like in the past, and what still lingers. I’ve come to see politics and human rights at a much deeper level. Yet I’ve also seen how in…
A Tale of 3 Cities: #2: Jefferson
East Texas is home to the delightful, historic town of Jefferson, once the sixth-biggest town in the state. The whole place is like a beautifully well-preserved museum and makes its money from tourism. From 1845 to 1872 Jefferson was the terminus for riverboats that carried people on the Red River from there to north Texas and Oklahoma. The place bustled and thrived with people traveling and doing business in this prominent Texas town on the edge of the expanding frontier. It is said that the railroad magnate Jason Gould wanted to build a railroad through Jefferson and make it a…
Meeting O.J.
Kim and I don’t normally sit next to famous people on airplanes, but there we were next to the one and only O.J. Simpson. No, we didn’t ask for his autograph. And we only took the photograph because Kim wanted to, and as I’m writing this post, I’m glad she did. We elected not to make judgments or treat him like a celebrity. Mr. Simpson said that through his years of trials, he had a genuine encounter with God. He spoke like a true believer. We told him about ourselves, and he answered my question about how Fantasy Football worked….
Older and Closer
The late spiritual writer Henri Nouwen asked a question of himself, “Did getting older bring me closer to Jesus?” I ask myself a lot of questions as I get older. What am I doing with my life? Am I fulfilling what I was created for? Why have I not achieved what I thought I would? If a believer—a follower of Jesus, not just a religiously inclined person—does not get closer to Jesus as he or she gets older, isn’t it likely that something is probably wrong, or at least improvable? If a married couple doesn’t get closer as they age,…
