I had a student recently ask, “Doesn’t it make you sad that there’s so many things in the world, and we can’t be an expert on all of them?”  Her frustration was stemming (I think) from her uncertainty about her future career path, and her interest in too many things. Actually, I think it’s precisely that problem that makes life...

What matters to you? If you asked me what matters most in life, I would tell you that the most important thing in my life is God. But would you see that from the way I live? If, instead of asking, you just watched me carefully, observed what I spend my time doing, you’d probably think that my job, my kids, my wife, and food are what really matter to...

I was recently co-leading a Bible study for teen workers at Morning Star Bible Camp. It was a great opportunity to stop and think about what’s really important in the Christian life. We decided to focus on discipleship – which, of course, is a pretty broad topic. One of the discussions we had was around counting the cost of being a disciple. Luke 14:25-35...

One of the chief criticisms that I hear levelled against members of the “intellectual dark ages” like myself (e.g. young-earth Creationist types) is that we’re so close-minded. In fact, a popular trend in anti-Creationism writing these days seems to be to argue that Creationism can’t be science because it can’t change. Any idea that...

Every few weeks, it seems, some state, county, or other unit of government in the States tables a new piece of legislation to appease the “far-right Creationist / Intelligent Design” camp. The new trend seems to be towards “academic freedom” legislation – shouldn’t we allow our teachers the freedom to teach competing ideas? ...

We had a visitor at church today, a guy who had never been there before. When I was talking to him between services, he was telling us how much God had been doing for him and working in his life. Then he gave us a specific example – it turned out that last night he slept outside our local bank, under the awning, after getting ditched by some friends miles...

I got reading a bit of Seneca’s On the Shortness of Life this afternoon. Seneca was a Stoic philosopher, meaning that he belonged to a camp that “preached freedom from passion by following reason” (Wikipedia). Seneca’s main point is that it’s pointless to complain about how short life is. Life, he says, is plenty long enough; the main...