Latest Posts
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The Power of Community and Friendship
Read more: The Power of Community and FriendshipAs I sat in a hospital’s cafeteria waiting for a ride home, an older person came to talk to me. After the initial chat was out of the way, he proceeded to tell me that I would go to jail for stealing. In jail, all the other women will pull my hair and fight against…
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Everyone Believes My Stories
Read more: Everyone Believes My StoriesMy life is a series of ridiculous, over the top, unlikely stories. I’ve confronted a neighbor on meth whose reply to me was, “The shadow people are coming.” As a kid, I was chased down by a teenager in a car who, in his own words, was hell-bent on killing us. The first time I…
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A Word on Character
Read more: A Word on CharacterSelf-mastery, ordered love, and self-examination are key elements to a life of character and virtue. In this post, I will unpack the myths and kernels of truth in each of these elements. Self-Mastery Self-Mastery is not akin to “finding oneself.” I heard a story of a young woman who was headed to medical school but deviated…
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Why BTS Fans Give Me a Little Bit of Hope in a Tribal World
Read more: Why BTS Fans Give Me a Little Bit of Hope in a Tribal WorldIt is getting harder to explain the BTS phenomenon to people without sounding like the facts are being made up. Industry execs and celebrities have resorted to comparing it to Beatlemania — which sounds like an exaggeration until one witnesses ARMY in person (the name for their worldwide and fiercely devoted fan base). ARMY generates…
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Wrestling with Gungor’s Doubts
Read more: Wrestling with Gungor’s DoubtsHow do we help people who are wrestling with doubts in their faith? Can we create a safe space for them to question and voice their doubts without being judged for their questions? How do we help give them this space, while also still pointing them gently back to the truth that God is real…
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What the Biblical Authors Skipped and Why it Matters Today
Read more: What the Biblical Authors Skipped and Why it Matters TodayReaders of the Bible may be shocked to discover that an important historical event is missing from its narrative. Most people have never heard of it, even though this event may have well changed the course of history. And more intriguing, it seems that the biblical authors and editors may have sought to suppress this…
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Twin Cities Marathon Fundraising
Read more: Twin Cities Marathon FundraisingI’m running a 10-mile in the upcoming Twin Cities Marathon on Sunday, October 7th with Team Venture. We’re raising money to support Anti-Trafficking in Nepal by providing young girls with a year of housing, accommodation, and education. Would you please prayerfully consider supporting my run financially to help me and my team meet our support…
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Check out my New Article on Pauline Chronology and Eschatology
Read more: Check out my New Article on Pauline Chronology and EschatologyMy new article in Journal of Biblical & Theological Studies is now officially out. The paper is entitled, “Eschatological Emphases in 1 Thessalonians and Galatians: Distinct Argumentative Strategies Related to External Conflict and Audience Response.” In this article I am addressing a couple of different issues at once. To begin, there is the issue of the chronological…
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“Hurrahing in Harvest”: Exploring an ‘inChristed’ Reality
Read more: “Hurrahing in Harvest”: Exploring an ‘inChristed’ RealityEven in the midst of the industrustrialization of England during the 19th century, poet and priest Gerard Manley Hopkins insists upon the sustaining and revealing presence of Christ in the physical world. In his Petrarchan sonnet, “Hurrahing in Harvest,” the poet, reflecting upon the late summer fields ripe with abundance, encounters Christ whose presence stirs…
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Climbing Down the Ivory Tower
Read more: Climbing Down the Ivory TowerI recently read an article by Leonard Cassuto on career diversity, and how David Porter, an English professor at the University of Michigan teaches a graduate seminar on helping students look at other job opportunities outside of teaching positions and academia. This article gives me hope as it shows how colleges and universities are finding…