What Phil Dunphy, Football Fans, and Workaholics Have in Common

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Sorry for the lack of posts, but I had to wash my hair.  No, it was actually that old demon of impending school application deadlines choking out all of my creative fervor.  As much as I would have rather been spouting ego-centric philosophies and meaningless opinions on here, I had to reserve those for the application essays.  Oh, and I’ve been in Colorado for over a month (check out the gallery for photos).

I will get to Colorado and its mountainous splendor in the next post, but I wanted to start things back with something truly fun.  A topic that is contemporary, relevant, and altogether captivating:  worship of false idols.

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Earthly Dominion or Creation Care?

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An hour and a half of bland highway scenery passed before the occasional pot hole began to break up the monotony of pavement.  Another couple of minutes of resistance, then the asphalt finally submitted to the gravel’s reign, as the smattering of trees on each side gradually grew into full-fledged forests.  After only a few nauseating curves of bumpy gravel road, the path turned sharply to the left, exposing several football fields worth of flat pasture out the right window – the foreground of a painting dominated by rolling, tree-covered hills, the occasional winding trail, and bordered by the bowing Cahaba River.  The small sign on the side of the road read, “The Future Home of Living River: A Retreat on the Cahaba.”

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Mere Metaphors

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[A Christian] does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us; just as the roof of a greenhouse does not attract the sun because it is bright, but becomes bright because the sun shines on it.                                         -C. S. Lewis

I read C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity today for the first time.  Besides the Chronicles of Narnia, I must admit this was the first of his writings I have read.  Some probably consider it blasphemy to have called oneself a Christian for so long without knowing his work through and through.  It’s just that I get suspicious of authors who acquire the sort of universal admiration that he has acquired.  Something about it seems squirrely.  The thing about Lewis, though, is that he actually deserves it.  I discovered I had been missing out on an extraordinary writer – the way he turns the most difficult notions into seemingly obvious matters of fact is the stuff that makes my skin tingle.

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“The 6 Things that Divide Christians”?

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So reads the title of an insightful analysis by Brett McCracken published in Relevant Magazine recently.  It outlines the most divisive issues among Christians.  It is poignant, helpful.  And it is altogether misleading.

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Episode 3 of “The Church Hunter”: Mmm…Fresh Presbyterian

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Well, that month flew by like a Rolling Tide of War Eagles.  Or would it be like a Crimson Tiger?  Oh, the mascot blasphemy!  Yes, like all incredibly formational and eye-opening experiences, my month with the United Methodists of Birmingham, AL must come to an end.  Time flies when you’re beating 6th graders at Mario Kart.

But this town hasn’t seen the last of me.  I’ve gotten a new scent.  I’m on the trail.  The season is open.  And I’m in the mood for…Presbyterian. Continue reading →

What’s a Poor Man to Do?

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I have entered a new phase in life…at least in the eyes of the church:  No longer pushed into the marginalized wasteland of “college ministry” and long since cast out of the paradise of the “youth group,” I have finally reached the promised land:  Young Adult.  It wasn’t until I was actually sitting in a host home, chowing down on some Tzatziki with oreos, and talking to people who had real-life jobs like nurse, pharmacist, and graduate student that I realized I now belonged to this most prestigious Holy of Holies. Continue reading →

5 Stories in 5 Minutes

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It turns out that graduate schools have not yet received the gospel of the Common App, that holiest of 21st century technology that made my undergraduate application process seem like a sacramental experience – at least in comparison to this toenail-ripping tedium that is sucking every creative life force from my fingertips.  In other words, I am sorry for not updating the blog recently, but all of my writing has been devoted to crafting responses to about twenty different essay prompts on divinity school applications.

As such, I thought we could play a little game of catch-up, rapid fire style.  Here are the disjointed and mangled thoughts that have crept into my head over the past week and a half of experiences at my UM church in Birmingham:

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