Show of hands: who here has ever approached a major life event—and I mean major, like starting in a new school or a new job or getting married or welcoming a baby into your household or retiring from work, you know, major—and because you did all the things to prepare for the big event and because you studied and learned what to do ahead of time, that everything went absolutely perfectly, no surprises, no regrets? Anyone? Is it even possible to ever be completely prepared? At some point,...

Take this moment to re-center your ideals. Whenever we gather to worship God, we’re not leaving the world behind, but we are gonna zoom out and get the wide-angle view of what God is doing in human history with this incarnation business. We cannot fully understand God’s motives, of course, but we can sit with what God is doing. Every Sunday, we read the Scriptures while asking, what does this have to do with the world I’m living in right now? In these weeks after Easter, we are reading...

How much does anyone worry about what it means to be saved? Saved as in eternal salvation. Okay, maybe it is important, to have a broader sense of time—eternity—and the power of God to bring abundant life. Yeah, but also I’m American and a product of consumer culture and the expectation that whatever I want should already be in my hand right now. Anything with importance at a distant time might as well be imaginary—what relevance does it have for today? Who really cares about being...