Browsing Tag

Lent

Devotions,

His Last Road Trip

Until a year ago, I never connected Lent with a road trip.

But then I realized there was definitely a connection. Bear with me, and (with tongue in cheek) I’ll explain.

Jesus went on several road trips. He was walking, I assume. No first century minivans.

Scholars debate the timing and route—but scholars debate pretty much everything. If only there had been a first-century Rick Steves with a Rand McNally atlas recording it all. A missed opportunity. Still, everyone agrees that Jesus moved around a lot during his ministry, and he likely visited Jerusalem several times. 

So where in scripture, …

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Devotions,

Easter Road Trip

Happy New Year, everyone! It’s been over a month since I’ve posted here. Thought I’d touch base and share a fun announcement.

The Advent devotions were so successful that we’ve decided to do another series for Easter. When I say “we” I mean all the people who helped on the past project. David helped with the writing, Anne with the editing, the good people at PathLight with the donation landing page, and the team at Parable with the marketing and behind the scenes tech stuff. Everyone felt like Advent was a big success, so thank you!

The Easter series will …

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Belize, Generosity, PathLight, Philanthropy,

Alexandria

Lent starts on Wednesday. It’s never been a big deal to me. To be honest I was smug about it; all these people giving up chocolate seemed, well, shallow.

But a few years ago I read about the history of Lent and was impressed by the depth of the tradition. Lent could be summed up as a time to focus on three things:

  • Prayer to focus on our need for God’s mercy and forgiveness.
  • Fasting, or giving something up, to prompt reflection on God.
  • Giving as a way to respond to God’s love.

The last one is what …

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Random Thoughts,

Frustrating Parables

Parables can drive me crazy because they make me think. This became apparent to me, for the zillionth time, while writing the upcoming Lent devotions. Over and over Jesus speaks in parables.

I don’t really want to think; thinking is hard. Sometimes I wanted to grab Jesus by the shirt collar and yell, “Just tell me what you want me to know, damnit!”

And I’m not the only one. The disciples were often clueless. Same with the Pharisees, legal experts, and everyone else. Look, I’m being a bit flippant here, but everyone talks about what a brilliant teacher Jesus …

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Random Thoughts,

Politics, Lent, and Sloth

Found this graph on Twitter and laughed out loud. In our age of highly politicizing things, why not do so with the seven deadly sins? And why not bring it up as lent winds down?

Besides, I always have been a moderate, so I approve of sloth being the foundation of my political viewpoint!…

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