Sep 26
One time, I told my friend Steve that I was going to ask God to humble me. Steve said, “I wouldn’t do that. Scripture says to humble yourself. You don’t want God to have to do it.”
Along that vein, about a year ago, I embarked on a self-imposed, humbling journey in self-discovery in which I did interviews with five different people, asking questions that elicited mostly-negative responses about ways I could improve my impact on others. Read more
Sep 21
In 2009, I was at a friend’s birthday party when my vision suddenly became distorted. I could hear and see everyone, but it felt like I was in a dream. About 15 seconds later, I came out of it. I walked over to my friend, who’s a doctor, and tried to describe what happened.
“Maybe you’ve got superpowers,” he said, and we both chuckled. Soon thereafter, I stopped chuckling. Read more
Sep 19
Last Sunday, I was standing at the back of the auditorium in our church, and all of a sudden during worship, I heard a loud commotion coming from somewhere nearby. I noticed it because the praise music is pretty loud, so whoever was making the noise was doing so at a high volume. Read more
Sep 14
I was about to start my freshman year of college, and I was afraid I wouldn’t have any friends at school. While there were plenty of people my age at the local charismatic church I was attending, I wasn’t sure I wanted to hang out with them. Read more
Sep 9
When I was in third grade, I had this dream I still remember. I was in a red-carpeted mansion with a wide staircase going up from the foyer. A beautiful woman was walking down the stairs in a white evening gown. She was my wife, and I loved her.
Then I woke up. Read more
Sep 6
Several months ago, my wife and I began the process of looking for a new church. We hoped to find something much closer to our home, which automatically made the search more difficult. That wasn’t the only thing that made it harder though. Read more
Sep 5
A few years ago, I was in a dysfunctional situation with a couple of other people — one was my boss, the other was my coworker. And like most dysfunctional relationships, it didn’t happen overnight. Things just built up over time. Read more
Aug 31
A massive evangelistic event was afoot in Washington, D.C. There was all-day activity, preaching, and Christian contemporary music. And there were Christians, lots of Christians.
I stepped onto the Metro one night after work, and I soon realized some of the attendees of the event were on the train. In addition to looking like fanny-pack tourists, they were wearing Christian-themed t-shirts. Two middle-aged women in the group were quietly talking about their strategy for sharing their faith with strangers on the train…. Read more
Aug 30
Last week, I received an email from a woman, whom I’ll call Janice. She read my essay, “Is Your Church as Friendly as a Gay Bar?“, and she was troubled that a number of Christians got so angry about a post that basically encouraged the church to be intentionally hospitable to people in the LGBT community. Read more
Aug 29
A few years ago my buddy Shon and I were working out at the gym when I saw something that baffled me: a middle-aged guy in the gym walking around in his T-shirt, sneakers and his underwear. Yes, his underwear, and no, we were not in the locker room. Read more
