In Gennesaret

Have you asked Jesus into your heart? This isn’t a gospel presentation; it’s a question about verbiage. If you grew up in an evangelical church (or any church that does not baptize babies), I’m guessing there’s a good chance that it was explained to you as a matter of “asking Jesus into your heart”. Am I right? Particularly if you are at least a Millennial or older. But a recent podcast made me wonder about that language. They were making the valid point that young children are very literal; this description of the concept may not be very clear. One of the podcasters said she’d gotten a question from a kid about whether Jesus can taste the food she eats if he’s living in her heart. Cute, yes . . . but maybe a bit concerning. My kids told me that “asking Jesus into my heart” was the language they remember from their own particular decisions of faith (probably because they heard it from me and their dad). And they don’t remember being confused by it. But whether it’s confusing or n...

I don’t often find myself arguing with a “daily devotional” I’m reading. That’s probably because most people writing “daily devotionals” seem to stick to pretty general principles that all would agree with. The goal here is to lift our spirits and inspire us for a great day ahead. And last Saturday’s daily devotional was of that nature. It addressed a verse in Psalm 23 – the one about God preparing a table for us in the presence of our enemies. The author says that God is a place of refuge for us in difficult times (oh, yes). He says, “In his presence one can find comfort, cleansing, renewing, and peace” (amen). He says, “I never leave His presence disappointed, discouraged, or downhearted.” (Um . . . wait.) That statement stopped me short. I mean, it sounds good. It sounds like something that would get a big “Amen!” in a worship service. But then I really thought about it. Are you saying, sir, that when you spend time with the Father in prayer, all feelings of disappoint...

Because of the generosity of families at my school, I had a decent chunk of money to spend on myself for Christmas. So I started a list of things I needed. Top of the list was clothing – I’ve lost weight and most of my work slacks are falling off of me (which is a good problem to have, of course). Courtney, my fashion-forward friend who helps me not look stupid, told me where to shop, and I picked up some goodies. After that, though, I had a hard time thinking of what else I might want to spend this money on. At one point, I grabbed a shopping cart at Walmart and just started walking through aisles, looking for anything that might jump out at me. And nothing jumped. Which was weird.  I don’t shop much in stores anymore. Most of my purchases come from Amazon because it’s so easy . Also, the pandemic opened the door to curbside pickup for stuff I need to buy locally, and I’ve become a big fan. It's great to be able to just pull up in a parking spot and have someone bring my pur...

I haven’t blogged in a couple months. You don’t need to tell me if you noticed that or not. 😊 But now that I’ve called the fact to your attention, you might be wondering why. And that’s a valid question. But I’m not sure I have a good answer. At first, I just got very busy. We had a certification visit at my school, and being on the admin team, that meant I had a lot of responsibilities for the week. Then I was tired after that and gave myself permission to rest up. And then it was “Warrior Week” at school, our equivalent of Homecoming with all the craziness. And then was Thanksgiving with people visiting . . . and I got sick that week and took a while to recover (I was so stinkin’ tired ) . . . and then . . . oh, I don’t know . . . I just didn’t have anything to say. And frankly, that’s a dumb answer because in all honesty, how often do I have anything to say here? I mean, anything of real importance or significance? I’m mainly just dumping my brain onto my keyboard to keep...

I have something to confess: I don’t confess things often enough. And I’m betting you don’t either. I heard a really thought-provoking interview the other day with Jamin Goggin talking about his new book, Pastoral Confessions . They talked about the fact that Protestants really threw the confession baby out with the bathwater when they broke off from Catholicism. Scripture talks all the time about confessing our sins, and even specifically about doing so with our brothers and sisters in Christ. “Confess your sins to each other,” James urges, “and pray for each other, so that you may be healed.” And we SO don’t do that. We’re almost offended at the idea that we should. Forget that it’s clearly biblical teaching. We’re good at picking and choosing and re-interpreting scripture. It’s one of our biggest faults – one that we really need to . . . ahem . . . confess. We have made the Christian faith so very American – that is, so very individualistic . It’s all about me and God. End of ...

Don’t anyone get offended here, but I’m just not a megachurch gal.  I’m not knocking the phenomenon. Well, maybe a bit. But I’m definitely not knocking the people involved in the phenomenon. I have many loved ones in my life whose faith I don’t question one bit who do the megachurch thing. But it’s not for me. It just doesn’t feel right. On so many levels. It’s not just that they create a temptation for Sunday mornings (or afternoons or Saturday evenings) to become showtime -- although they do create that temptation. The fact is, when your service meets in a vast auditorium that seats a thousand, the struggle against the performative is real – whether you do worship in a contemporary style with a band and stage lights and special effects reminiscent of a rock concert or do it in a traditional style with a five-hundred voice choir and thirty-piece orchestra.  But no, the music isn't my main issue. It’s the ease of being anonymous in such a large crowd. Of being nothing more...