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Thin Places

I was recently asked by an editor at Patheos to respond to a “theoblogger” challenge, and to answer the following question in 100 words or yes: “Why do you take communion?” My answer: I’ve been to seminary and heard the debates about symbolism and transubstantiation and everything in between. I’ve read the Bible stories. I’ve meditated…

My friend Ellen Painter Dollar has two reflections on pain for her.meneutics. Both offer interesting reflections upon the nature of pain, the value of pain, and the hope for healing: Is Pain Relief a Human Right? and Does God Want Us to Suffer? I was also interested in Time’s cover article about the impact of…

I’ve written, in various forums, about the topic of my forthcoming book, A Good and Perfect Gift, quite a few times already. Its the story of coming to understand that every human life is a valuable one, with something to offer the rest of us, if only we have eyes and hearts to see and…

Last week, I wrote a post for Motherlode called “Is it Harder to Have a Child with Down Syndrome?” Many readers (only some of whom actually have children with Down syndrome) responded with a resounding, “YES!” and many comments implied that once Penny is an adult, we will begin to see her as a burden,…

My son Austen* looks like most nine-year-olds, except perhaps a bit taller, with long legs that carry him swiftly across the ground as he races you to the car or the door of the house or the mailbox. He has curly brown hair, golden brown skin and painfully long, lush eyelashes ringing his deep brown…

I have a new post at her.meneutics: “How Christians Could Save America’s Public Schools.” It begins:  Sixty-eight percent of eighth graders in the U.S. can’t read at grade level. 1.2 million teenagers drop out of school every year. And 44 percent of dropouts under age 24 are jobless. These statistics, from the Broad Foundation for Education, are grim.…

Picture this scene. I’m in a bar with two friends, Jen and Alice. Alice punches Jen in the face. And then Alice turns to me. And I say, “I forgive you.” If I’m Jen, I’m thinking, “Who are you to forgive Alice? I’m the one she punched!” It’s this same scenario that Jesus asks us…

Peter and I have a weekly ritual. It usually occurs on Thursday nights, when my mom comes to visit her grandchildren and we have a free babysitter. But it started even before we had kids, when we moved into a dorm with thirty boys and realized that we had to get away from the incessant…

I’ve written before about how I hope and pray for Penny that she will live a “full” life, even if the fullness comes in unconventional ways (Full or Functional?). The idea of a “full life” came up in a number of comments on Motherlode last week, and most people used the phrase to describe the…

I know. You know my answer to the question already. But the purpose of this post is to point you to Emily Colson’s new book, Dancing with Max. I have a review of it in this month’s Christianity Today magazine: “A Gifting Child.” Although the review is written with a Christian audience in mind, I…
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