Taking a Closer Look
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Love your neighbor as yourself
As part of his teachings, Jesus reminded us of the second great commandment from the time of Moses, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” I am not even going to begin to speculate as to why, but many people get hung up on the idea of what it means to love yourself. There seems to be a wave of thought in Christian circles that looks at self-love as inherently bad. The idea is that we should be dying to ourselves, and placing the needs of others above our own concerns. The thought is that love for others should overshadow or replace love for ourselves. I believe we need to find a…
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How are you?
How many times during the course of the day do we ask each other the simple question, “How are you?” It is a brief question with expectation of an equally brief answer. We are usually not disappointed: “Fine. How are you?” “Can’t complain.” “Great, thanks.” And this is not necessarily a bad thing. What we are ordinarily trying to communicate by asking the question is
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Walking in the Dark
“My soul thirsts for God, for the living God…. My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, ‘Where is your God?'” – Psalm 42:2-3 (NIV) Have you ever felt like asking, “Where is my God?” Even those of us who have experienced great joy and delight in the presence of God will sometimes go through dark nights when God seems distant, or even absent altogether. It sometimes feels like God disappears just when we need him the most, when we are at our weakest and most needy. How do we reconcile this with the concept of a loving, caring Father in…
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The Word Became Flesh
A word is a separate thing from that which it describes. It is also linked by meaning to the thing it describes. Meaning unites the word and its object inseparably. A rose is a rose is a rose. The object gives meaning to the word and the word becomes inseparable from the object. One can no longer exist without the other. This is so true, that it is safe to say that no thing or concept can exist in our minds without us naming it.
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Our Disturbing World
Divide the human race into twenty parts. Nineteen of them are composed of those who work with their hands,... In the remaining twentieth part, how few men do we find who read! And among those who do read there are twenty who read novels for every one who studies philosophy. The number of those who think is exceedingly small, and they are not aiming to disturb the world. - Voltaire
