Category: Practical Theology
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Robinson’s Housekeeping and the Promise of Desire
Read more: Robinson’s Housekeeping and the Promise of DesireIn a 2009 interview with Rebecca Painter, Marilynne Robinson responded to the question of loneliness in the religious life saying: “I am not sure religion is meant to assuage loneliness. Who was ever lonelier than Jesus? ‘Can you not watch with me one hour?’ I think loneliness is the encounter with oneself—who can be great…
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Twin Cities Marathon Recap
Read more: Twin Cities Marathon RecapThis past Sunday morning I took part in my first organized run; I ran the 10 mile in the Twin Cities Marathon. I had done the Tough Mudder back in 2012, but I hadn’t properly prepared for that and when you’re all covered in mud and queueing up for obstacles it just makes the run…
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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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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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“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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A Response to “The Statement on Social Justice and The Gospel”
Read more: A Response to “The Statement on Social Justice and The Gospel”I recently read “The Statement on Social Justice and the Gospel” formed by a group of fourteen men, signed by John MacArthur and many other Christian leaders with over 6,000 signers. They state how they do not see social justice issues as essential to the gospel and how the emphasis of social justice can detract…
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Letting Go of Moving On: Slavery, The Ugly Past of Lynchings and the Problem of “Dealing” With the Past
Read more: Letting Go of Moving On: Slavery, The Ugly Past of Lynchings and the Problem of “Dealing” With the PastAmericans don’t like talking about slavery and its aftermath. Of course, many countries and peoples have their truly dark chapters, and none of their citizens “like” talking about those things either. But as is often the case, we do things different in America. Whereas Germany criminalizes holocaust denial and has erected an ineluctable memorial in the…
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Three Biblical Steps to Having a Fruitful Discussion
Read more: Three Biblical Steps to Having a Fruitful DiscussionIn an age of increasing tension we, as a people, seem to have lost the art of dialoguing with one another in a fruitful manner. Neither side is able to hear the others and every discussion seems to reach an impasse that is insurmountable. After reading various online comment sections such as YouTube, Fox News,…
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How I learned to honor my father and mother
Read more: How I learned to honor my father and motherTo honor one’s father and mother both is one of the Ten Commandments and also squares with the universal moral sense that C.S. Lewis called “the Tao” in his Abolition of Man lectures. It is a tenet of Christian morality that many people obey before they explicitly learn it. Listening to my mother eulogize her adopted father…
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Jesus Prays in the Garden of Gethsemane
Read more: Jesus Prays in the Garden of GethsemaneThey went to a place called Gethsemane; and Jesus said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” He took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be distressed and agitated. And said to them, “I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and keep awake.” And going a little farther,…