PhD work is difficult. You spend the first year wondering what in the world you are doing. You read and read, hoping to come across something specific on your topic that you can intensely focus on. You look for a weakness in the already existing research to exploit. This takes a lot of time and mental energy. It would be difficult enough to do something of this magnitude as a single person, but add a family into the […]
I’ve recently found myself surrounded by stories – I’ve been reading them, telling them, listening to them, and living them. It all started when I read East of Eden by John Steinbeck. I had heard that it was a good story, but I was entirely unprepared for its power. I found myself lingering over numerous sentences, admiring their ability to beautifully capture an idea with the perfect metaphor. I laughed, cried, and cringed with each character, […]
“Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit” (Gal. 5:25 NIV). At some point in the past week, each member of this Smith household has benefitted from those who have gone before us, who are steps ahead of us on the road of life. My husband had the opportunity to talk with an older coworker, who has been a life mentor to him for several years now, about his […]
A friend made a comment about a blog post that I recently “liked” called Hearing God in the Midst of Suicidal Thoughts by Matthew Wireman on The Gospel Coalition blog. In jest, he asked if me if I was doing ok, and wanted to make sure to talk me off the ledge. In my response to him, I told him that I was currently doing alright, and to not to worry about me, that I […]
Have the men of our time still a feeling of the meaning of sin? Do they, and do we, still realize that sin does not mean an immoral act, that “sin” should never be used in the plural, and that not our sins, but rather our sin is the great, all-pervading problem of our life? Do we still know that it is arrogant and erroneous to divide men by calling some “sinners” and others “righteous”? For by way of such a division, we […]
Committed Christians go to conferences. Or so the narrative goes. Christian conferences are everywhere, all the time. They are at hotels, convention centers and churches. They also come in all shapes and sizes. You can go to a big conference or a little conference. You can go to a regional conference or a national conference. You can go to a three-day conference of a week-long conference. As American Christians, we love our conferences. And yet […]
Last May we had our first meeting of the Ecclesia & Ethics conference. This conference was live, on-line, in real time via Webinar (gotomeeting.com). There were no airplane fees, no travel days, no accommodation fees, no annoying roommates, no special travel documents required, nothing like that. We simply asked that everyone make a small donation to one of our recommended charities, or another charity of one’s choosing. From our first conference meeting we were able […]
This week I asked my friend and officemate here at the University of Aberdeen if I could re-post a great blog he wrote about the ethics of Tom’s shoes and consumerism in a globalized world. Enjoy! Driving through Aberdeen city centre this morning I noticed a woman walking to the office in a business suit. It isn’t my habit to check out office workers on their morning commute, but I was attracted by a distinctive white […]
“This f-ckin’ sucks.” This is the phrase uttered over and over again by the four Navy SEALs pinned down in heavy enemy fire in Afghanistan during the firefight scenes in Peter Berg’s latest film Lone Survivor and it epitomizes the underlying thematic focus of the film. I’m not going to get into what the plot of the movie is because, essentially, I hate it when film reviews do that; if you wanted to read a […]
This past weekend, our youth ministry began a series exploring the ins and outs of worship. As a way to ease into the series, our middle schoolers (5th-8th) spent Sunday morning practicing prayer through the acronym PRAY (praise, repent, ask, yourself). The students progressed to different stations where they explored different Scriptures that related to each theme, and then were given space to write out their own prayers to God. As you can expect from […]
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