Wearing Masks, Loving Neighbors & the Mark of the Beast
It is important to love one’s neighbor — but in America, individual freedom is often more prized than biblical admonitions.
A Holy Week to Remember
“This is going to be the hardest and saddest week of most Americans’ lives,” Surgeon General Jerome M. Adams said yesterday. This is a sober note to begin Holy Week on.
Quarantine Letters: Raise Your Arms!
What if as long as we are lifting up these warriors in prayer, we are gaining ground and holding back the enemy; but whenever we drop our hands and cease praying, the virus gains more ground?
Quarantine Letters: Illusion of Civility
The true mark of Christian love isn’t revealed merely when we have nothing to gain, but precisely when we have everything to lose.
Quarantine Letters: Illusion of Strength
There are many lessons to take from the famous story of David and Goliath, but one is the illusion of strength. The COVID-19 virus, like David’s small stones, is revealing the true fragility of systems and structures we thought were so strong.
Quarantine Letters: Illusion of Independence
The current COVID-19 pandemic is revealing the limits of our independence. Despite our cultural rhetoric, we are biologically, psychologically, and spiritually communal creatures. Autonomy is an illusion. From the very beginning, God designed us to exist interdependently.
Quarantine Letters: Get A Grip!
As the COVID-19 virus is spreads across our land and people practice social distancing, I’m reading about how the news of Jesus’ healing power spread so rapidly across Galilee, forcing Jesus to seek some social distance from the crushing crowds!
Quarantine Letters: Illusion of Control
So much of our growth happens through pain, and that pain comes in two forms. Pain we choose is called a discipline, while pain we do not choose is called a trial. Neither kind should be wasted.
Quarantine Letters: Peter’s Challenge
This spreading virus will reveal a lot about our national infrastructure, the strength of our healthcare system, the resilience of our economy, and the character and strength of our government leaders. Yet, for Christians, it will reveal just the “stuff” of which our faith is made.
Quarantine Letters: Holy Disruption
Insofar as this pandemic can help us kick bad habits and establish new and healthier lifestyle rhythms, we are experiencing what I want to call a “holy disruption.”
Quarantine Letters: Be Still
We need calm hearts, ears tuned to God’s frequency and a mighty fortress when the world is coming unhinged, not when we’re meditating at a quiet retreat center! We need Jesus’ calming presence in our boat not when the sun is shining and the fish are biting, but when the storm is raging and the boat is sinking.
