Transformed Mind

  Valentines Day & Ash Wednesday (Feb 14), an interesting combo of holydays this year. Valentines Day of course we think of love and romance, a time to express emotions, hand out little cards, boxes of chocolates, and for some reason a fat baby with wings and a bow and arrow. Love in scripture goes deeper than some of the superficiality we get on the commercialized day of Valentine, for it proclaims, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) Ash Wednesday is the beginning of Lent, a time of self denial, fasting, prayer, and the giving of oneself to contemplate God’s ultimate act of love that culminates on Good Friday. It’s a time to think of our own mortality. During the imposition of ashes whereby a person makes the sign of the cross on the recipients forehead you may hear the words, “All are from dust, and to dust all return.” It’s a sobering thought. And working in a hospital I really think about this quite a bit, deat...

"You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life." - John 5:39-40  Book of Kells image Jesus here is talking to the Pharisees, the religious folk of his time and isn't too happy with their arrogant blindness. It's the equivalent of being a PhD in political science, writing articles for professional journals about current political affairs, pouring into students the knowledge you've obtained and then one day a living US president walks in and you have no idea who they are. He says, "Don't you know who I am I'm the one you've been writing articles about, those economic policies were my doing, everything that's right with this country has my fingerprints on it. My staff have been pushing my agenda for years to get things done." And nothing, you're clueless. You actually think this guy is pulling your chain ...

“Unless we regain the art of silence and insight, the ability for non-activity, unless we substitute true leisure for our hectic amusements, we will destroy our culture – and ourselves.” – Josef Pieper, Indeed. We in fact become idolaters when we immerse ourselves in work as an end in itself, when in reality it is simply a means to sustaining our lives, lives that are meant for more. We are to glorify God and edify others. These are the chief concerns of life. Leisure is the ability to let go of oneself and to engage the world and others in a deep and meaningful way. With that, take some time to reevaluate your life. Are you wasting away working for works sake? Take a walk outside and just be still, that is, listen to the world around you. Engage a thought-provoking book and just contemplate its message or find a friend and just talk about life. Take care and God bless.

While reading My Utmost for His Highest the other day something caught my eye and ear. We often hear at the end of services or after giving a testimony, “Have you made a decision for Jesus Christ?” and then of course there is an invitation to accept Jesus and everyone is happy, possibly tears, and the like. This isn’t a bad thing; I just think the wording needs to be changed, so that the seriousness of the occasion can emerge and bear greater weight. It all sounds so sanctified and holy, but is that what He wants? Are we to simply make a decision? It sounds mundane, like its just another box checked, “Oh hey I just made a decision for Christ, check.” Umm, no. When we come to the Holy, real, and loving Christ who was brutally scourged and humiliatingly hung on the cross, so that we could live an abundantly richer life here and now and forever its not a “decision” we make, it’s a yielding of self. It gets to the point that we can no longer live under the pressure of the world without...

We are now in the Lenten season, which commemorates Jesus’ 40-day fast in the wilderness before the start of his ministry. It is a time of reflection and repentance, leading us up to Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. On dwelling upon this season, I thought, “What does this ritual fast really mean to me?” I see and hear of people giving up certain foods, TV; my wife gave up Facebook and deleted Candy Crush from her phone, but is this just a show, a check-the-box type exercise that Christians are just suppose to do? On Ash Wednesday a few weeks ago now, I received ashes on my forehead that visibly marked me as a Christian to everyone that saw me. But then I thought, “What about the rest of the year? How do people know I belong to Jesus?” This brings me to an important clarification, that of Cultural Christians and of Born-Again Christians. The former are those that are Christian in name only. They identify themselves as such because that was the religion they are born into and ra...

Busyness, that stuff in my life that takes away from what I want to be doing, from what I should be doing, from the relationships I need to be nurturing and deepening to survive.  It’s that email or text I get at home that I just have to check on because I’m of course the only person that can fix the problem or answer the question.  It’s the saying yes to everything that comes my way, from ministry opportunities and extra assignments at work to filling up every evening or weekend with dinner dates and activities.  None of these things are intrinsically bad, but when they take away from the priorities in life, they can be detrimental not only to you, but to those around you.  Some say we, “…equate busyness with worth. A means of gaining recognition and being affirmed as a person, busyness also has nourished weeds that, in our adult years, now threaten to choke our ministries, marriages, and family life.” [1] Is this true, are we taking on the world,...

Hope.  This simple yet powerful word has come up quite a bit these past few days in my circle of friends and colleagues.  Struggles with relationships either ending or being strained, not knowing what the future holds for sick loved ones, and for a military acquaintance, the fear of death in a foreign land. All of these real life worries yearn and deeply cry for hope. If you’ve read my other posts this may seem redundant, but hope, true unadulterated, ever-present, and lasting hope can ONLY be found in Jesus, in his steadfast love and promise to shepherd and protect us, leading us to everlasting life with him. Psalm 23 paints a poignant picture of this hope in times of fear and uncertainty. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2         He makes me lie down in green pastures.        He leads me beside still waters. 3         He restores my soul. ...