Sovereign of good and bad
What do you do when you maybe don’t believe the Bible—or at least a particular part of it? Amos 3 has a list of rhetorical questions from God: “Does a lion roar in the thicket when he has no prey?” “Does a trap spring up from the earth when there is nothing to catch?” And…
God as our inheritance
In late August, my wife and I became first-time homeowners. There had been many times we wondered if we would ever be able to afford a house, ever save up enough for a down payment, or if we even wanted to do the traditional homeownership thing. But, after 16 years of marriage, we bought a…
Praying for the prophets
I was sitting at the kitchen table, trying to read amidst my children having breakfast and building with Lego, and I read this verse: “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people, Your sons and daughters will prophesy. . .” (Joel 2:28). I had been trying to find something from the text for…
A spiritual disruption
“Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God” (Hosea 14:1). In this final chapter of Hosea, God bids the Israelites return to God and acknowledge their waywardness, but also to be assured they will find compassion and fruitfulness in God. It’s really not a unique theme, but I think it offered me a biblical image…
A living metaphor
It’s outlandish really, what God asks Hosea to do. To think that someone known for his holiness and intimate relationship with the divine would take up residence with a woman everyone knew was promiscuous. It would have been one thing if God had sent Hosea to Gomer to pass on a message, although even that…
An intentionally inconsistent cat
I’m reading through the Chronicles of Narnia with my girls at bedtime. We recently finished Prince Caspian and then watched the movie. Narnia has definitely influenced my Scripture reading lately. Prince Caspian had been my least favourite of the series. I recalled long aimless wandering through the woods, endless dialogue and nature-related descriptions that slowed…
‘You listened to my cry’
Dear God: I’m really not sure what to pray or how to feel these days. I’ve become a strange blend of anxious and relaxed, concerned and content, grateful and restless, ambitious and listless. Nothing really changes from day to day in my little life within these walls as I stay home. My biggest news is…
Smudged with humanity
It often feels like the God I encounter in Scripture is a completely different God than the one I profess to follow and worship. In Jeremiah 45, God speaks relatively tenderly to the Israelites displaced after the exile, saying: “Do not fear . . . I will surely save you. . . . Jacob will…
The gift of imagination
I remember the feeling with such clarity: that furious, terrified, sick-to-your-stomach despair one feels when you are numerous pages into writing an academic paper and the computer freezes and you’re unsure if it was saved. Rebooting and reopening the document brings about despair and tears as you discover it’s all gone. Every. Single. Word. These memories…
Lessons from the wheel
My best friend, Mike, is a potter. Our friendship has afforded me the occasional opportunity to sit at his wheel and try my hand at pottery. I’ve learned that it isn’t easy. Mike is a good teacher, though, and during my first time at the wheel I was able to fashion a half-decent bowl. There…
