Category: Community Life
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Guns, Children, and Suits: that which does not belong
I would rather talk about guns and children than wear a suit. I do not like suits. Whenever I have to dress in anything fancier than casual, I become nervous because I know I am dressing for someone else’s eye. It sounds childish because it is, as an emotionally traumatic holdover from my super-awkward middle…
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On Christian Radicalism
[Originally written for the Emerging Scholars Network blog, but you can see it earlier here. You should really check it out some day!] For its cover story last month, Christianity Today published an article on contemporary Radicalism. The article struck me as controversial and provocative because it held out criticism of controversial and provocative people: David…
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Can You Drink the Cup?
She said, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.” “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said to them. “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?” October 2005 found me bewildered, tearful, and dyspneic in a hospital bed.…
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Hands and Feet
[This was originally written years ago for a Christian campus publication, Revisions. It is one of my favorite reflections and will appear on the ESN blog tomorrow.] The patient came in for a refill of pain medications even though it was his first visit to the family medicine practice. The front desk staff had a letter…
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Selection Bias: Statistical Integrity in Christian Community
Originally a guest post for the Emerging Scholars Network (a ministry of Intervarsity Christian Fellowship): One day a number of concerned mothers met with the minister to express their frustration and anger over the unseemly conduct of a particular boy in Sunday School. They did not want their children exposed to this child and…
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As If They Were Jesus
“Let me love them with Your love, let me reflect Jesus to them…” I catch myself praying such prayers quite often – about my friends, family, church, patients, neighbors – I want to love with the love of Christ, to serve with His humility, and to touch with His healing. I image my love flowing…