Strengthen what remains
I wonder what it was like to be on the receiving end of those seven letters to the churches named in Revelation 2 and 3. The words of Jesus to fellowships in present-day western Turkey were both encouraging and at points sharp with direct challenge. Jesus is serious about the health and vitality of his…
Are we living in the last millennium?
No one would doubt that Stephen Hawking, the Cambridge University theoretical physicist and cosmologist, is one of the more brilliant minds of recent times. The guy forgets more in a day then I’ll learn in a lifetime. The Theory of Everything, the movie of his marriages, his journey with early-onset Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS—more commonly…
Our heritage is . . .
Our family was invited to an Indo-Canadian family birthday celebration. A one-year milestone, particularly for a son, is a monumental occasion in our friend’s culture. The colourful dress, curried-sensations and dancing were a little overwhelming and invitingly beautiful for a white bloke like me who grew up in southwestern Ontario, where dancing was verboten and…
Learning to follow the Jesus way
You obey every day. You obey the legislations of government—even those you don’t agree with. You obey an employer, school teacher or parent. Some have to heed all three on the same day. Much of life seems to be about some form of compliance, doesn’t it? And, as a general rule, we are more ready…
Jesus loves his bride . . . to the point of death
So, after 22-and-a-half years of marriage to an incredible woman and friend, I may finally be starting to get it. She is a treasure, but, truth be told, I don’t always treat her that way. I do, of course, in principle see her that way, but, in practice, when it’s about dishes and diapers and…
Battleground
We have abandoned the battleground. In a hope-desiring but hope-diminishing article, columnist Robyn Urbeck asks: “How do we know when to stop praying for Orlando and Texas, and start praying for Nice?” This is a penetrating question, as wave after wave of terror and sorrow lap upon the beaches of our age. It’s one thing…
Are we missing the mark?
The team I serve with is blessed by the presence of an 80-year-old saint. He has lived a full life, including serving in high levels of government, so he’s garnered significant insight and healthy scepticism. In the last few years, he says he has realized the power of the Holy Spirit and the centrality of…
Lessons from spilled milk
“Don’t cry over spilled milk.” This little English phrase must have been coined by a parent watching her child pour milk into a cup. When our emerging independence turns to “needing” to pour our own milk, a parent can only watch with horror. The cup is off-centre, the pitcher trembles, and the liquid is like…
The beautiful mind of Christ
How does the body of Christ maintain her mental health? We often think about the church as the body of Christ functioning like a human body. In I Corinthians 12, we consider what it means to be a Jesus-centred community in which each part is honoured and each part does its work. Anabaptists, in particular,…
Optimism in an age of ‘isms’
In 2015, for the first time in nearly two centuries of publication, Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary chose a suffix as its word of the year. That word was “ism.” To name its winner, Merriam-Webster tracked two criteria: a high volume of look-ups and a significant year-over-year increase in look-ups. Who, pray tell, searches the meaning of suffixes?…
