Modern Hebrew speakers use the same word for “hello,” and “goodbye”—but for some Jews, it’s not kosher to use in the restroom because it also is a nickname for God. In the Hebrew Bible, it means peace, prosperity, or well-being.
Read moreColumn: On Freedom: Wisdom as Required Reading (9/22/2019)
We all want to be free—after all, America is the “land of the free and the home of the brave”—but freedom often alludes us.
Read moreColumn: On Wealth: To Conserve or to Lavish? (9/15/2019)
Icons of wealth are everywhere in the media. Everybody who is anybody has a luxury car, mansion, yacht, or clothing line. In this world, nobody advertises the fact that they saved money or bought something economical—with an interesting exception.
Read moreColumn: Retirement Can Mean Controlled Freedom (9/8/2019)
The period of life we call “retirement” means different things to different people. It may mean you hang it up and strike out into the sunset with the RV, or, like George Washington, it may mean you go back and run the army.
Read moreColumn: What is Success? (9/1/2019)
Our definition of success determines how we use our money and our quality of life. It can be difficult to define, but too often we look to others to define it for us—people we idolize like athletes, singers, or writers.
Read moreColumn: Of the Value of Money (8/25/2019)
There is no clearer picture of greed than in Charles Dickens’ character Ebenezer Scrooge. It’s interesting because even though he obviously values money greatly, his actions show that he has no idea what the value of money really is.
Read moreColumn: Welcome to Finance Class (8/18/2019)
There you are on the front row, the syllabus in front of you. It is short, simple, with the heading at the top reading "Finance 101: An Introduction to Personal Finance."
Read moreSo About That Column in the Newspaper...
On August 18, 2019 I wrote my first column for the Valdosta Daily Times….Whether my column appeals to people with a strong, clear voice is up to me and the craft. Whether it performs some function of change and reform is up to the Maker.
Read moreSummer Vacations
A reflection on our vacation season this year, the blessing of God to give us this opportunity, and what the meaningful work of the future holds.
Read moreHow to Start Writing Again
Go get your motivation. Stand up your discipline, dust him off, and say, Come on you sorry good-for-nothing lilly-livered sap-sucker, let’s get to work. And just do it.
Read moreThe Day I Got Suckered into Buying a Book of Poetry at a Pushy Author’s Book Signing
Last weekend I went to Disney with my in-laws and ended up going on several shopping sprees, one of which was a serendipitous pop into a book store in an outlet mall on the way from a leather goods store that smelled like Bonanza to the Nike outlet (which, incidentally, doesn’t smell like Bonanza at all).
Read moreJohn Allen Chau: a Case Study of Dignity and Common Human Decency in Journalism
Everybody knows it is bad form to kick a man while he’s down—everybody who is Human, that is. But in the world of the internet and modern journalism, Humanity is rare.
Read moreI’m back! And married and healing...
I have been delaying this long enough. Hopefully this will explain my previous two posts.
Read moreIn Defense of Poetry
"Poetry redeems from decay the visitations of the divinity in man.” ~Percy Bysshe Shelley
Read moreOn the Childishness of Cynicism
Some adults never mature through the adolescent problem of dread, so they adopt a view of cynicism as a coping mechanism against their inability to see the world as redeemable, which view they convince themselves and others is a more elevated and intellectual view of life. It’s my argument that this bullying of hope is simply selfishness and weakness and is only overcome by humility and the Gospel.
Read moreDocumenting 2016 in Mental Pictures
Following my Documenting 2015 in Mental Pictures, here are the highlights from my life in 2016. These are just some of the biggest lessons learned in a (pretty) random series of mental pictures. Here we go.
Read moreElijah, Mt. Carmel, and the Still, Small Voice
I spend the majority of my time in Bible study re-learning things I thought I knew, and this is especially the case in the Old Testament. I’ve written before of the story of King David and how I learned that he wasn’t the paragon of virtue I was taught that he was. In the same way, the prophet Elijah isn’t without his flaws. The real point is, if we don’t see these men as flawed, we miss the real point of their stories.
Read moreMy Suffering Led Me to Question God, and That Led Me to Sin
Call me Icarus. My God-given name is Adam, and what’s unfortunate is I’ve always lived up to that name. The miracle came when God broke my rebellion and named me Christian, but when I began to suffer, the miracle seemed like wishful thinking.
Read moreIntegrating Faith and Work for a Meaningful Life
Hugh Whelchel’s book How Then Should We Work? just keeps on giving. I was reviewing my notes and came across quotes that seemed to answer the very same questions I’d been asking recently. It was uncanny.
Read moreTheodicy and the Problem of Evil: Toward a Christian Theodicy Which Explains all of Evil
This was a paper I submitted for a Systematic Theology class at Seminary a while back, but I never published it here because it is flawed. It can be verbose, broad-brushing, lacking detail and subtlety, and annoying to anyone currently suffering. And yet, I stand by the thesis. God allows evil in order to have something to redeem, to start a holy war that would reveal His character and glory for all to see. But that is a hard pill to swallow.
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