Although I have been a CGO contributor for years now I do not know if I am free to do the following.  I hope so.  If not, Glenn, just hit delete.  Read more

I knew Kirk when he was an undergrad at the University of Virginia. He was one of the student leaders of a big campus ministry at UVa, then served as a missionary to Bolivia. He and his wife, Amanda, are called by God to serve the poor in their hometown (and mine), Houston.

I subscribe wholeheartedly to the Reformed understanding of vocation: when you serve God with your all in whatever line of work that He has called you to, the work is a sacred task done for Him. Pastors and missionaries are no more "holy" than a plumber, accountant, teacher, etc. Read more

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I quit my job with the law firm about 6 weeks ago, to pursue some new opportunities.  It is still a bit surreal – I wake up on Monday and no longer need to rush off to the gym, then rush home, then sprint to catch the last bus downtown that will get me to work on time, wondering when I will be home.  I now have all the time in the world.  While it was time to move on from the job, I do miss the security of a routine that gave me clear identity (even if it wasn’t me).  I am now in the in-between.  The next thing is in view, but not yet in place.

While leaving the law firm right now was my choice, I have friends who, with the economic downturn, have lost their jobs involuntarily.  That is a bit scarier.  I expect we will all “make it” in the end, but there could be some stomach churning days ahead. 

Now if I had a choice, what would I want my posture in this situation to be?  Strength and courage.  I want to the kind of person who faces such uncertain future with strength and courage, the kind of person who says “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”  Not with bravado, or blissful ignorance, or cocky American self-assurance, or detachment, but with a steady awareness of self and situation that allows for the appropriate response in the moment (whether passion or peace).  This posture would be a lot easier to maintain if I knew everything – like how the story ends and how it gets there.  But I don’t.  It would be easier if I were in control.  But I’m not.  It would be easier if I thought I was an absolute rock star in every area of life.  I know myself too well, though.

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 A year and a half ago when I was raising support for my trip to Rwanda, I received a check that astonished me. The giver wasn’t someone I knew very well. That made the check, which nearly covered the cost of my flight, seem all the more astonishing. That gift had a funny effect on me. It made me want to live up to the trust that friend had reposed in me.

Just last week, Jose Abreu, a dear friend of Prison Fellowship, the ministry for which I work, died. Jose and his wife Mayra had once been crack addicts. For a time, Jose supported his small family through breaking into homes and stealing what he could to pay for both food and his addiction. Read more

Our staff Christmas party is tonight; it’s at one of my co-worker’s homes.  I’m glad it’s at a house – seems more Christian, which is probably a good thing seeing that this is a church staff.  I say “more Christian” because no one let Jesus into their house when he was being born, so it’s seems like the church should have repented of that by now and open our homes to others, especially around Christmas.  But when we let people in what do we have to offer them?  Egg nog?  I like egg nog.Read more

I once taught a course, in a secular university, called Biblical Themes and Values.  (The colleague who wrote the course thought this a jazzier title than, “The Bible as Literature.”) The Bible abounds with themes—you can take your pick!  Current preaching emphasizes the theme of the Christ’s Kingdom. Jesus ascended to the throne when He was raised from the dead.  (See Bill Wilder on this—it is one of his favorite teachings.) We are exhorted to see all of culture brought under the rule of Christ.

But a major theme that I find everywhere in the Bible is the theme of sacrifice.  Not the ones we are urged to make, but the ones commanded or orchestrated by God, culminating in the one Jesus made, when he chose to die.  From Eden, where God sacrifices the life of his newly-created animals in order to clothe his naked children, to the Great Throne in Heaven, “the throne of God and of the Lamb,” the theme of sacrifice predominates.Read more

In 1992 Juliet B.Read more