Once upon a time (last year), after I’d moved to yet another state (NY) and found a place to live in a tough market in a rather unreasonable amount of time (three weeks), someone who loves me very much called me “determined.” I translated that affirmation as “willful,” and I laughed as I thanked her for it. Willfulness […]
Not hope. Imagination.
“We have this hope” has been a Seventh-day Adventist anthem for at least five decades. “We have this hope that burns within our hearts,” we sing. “Hope in the coming of the Lord!” There’s not much like hearing 70,000 people in a single stadium banging those lines out and insisting through the emphatic, vaguely Soviet, […]
Without reservation
Student leaders at Pacific Union College (PUC) have published a remarkable statement affirming the diversity within their campus’ student body. The undated statement, signed by twenty students who consider themselves “representatives of the future generations of leaders in the Seventh-day Adventist church,” commits them to standing on campus and in their communities with women, LGBT+ […]
Dusting off some seats
Who gets to declare a cultural debate over? According to a recent RNS column, late debate participants, critics, and allies to those directly impacted by the issues being debated are the ones who get to declare differences “unbridgeable” and the debate itself a draw. I find this fascinating, and perhaps you will too. In order: […]
Unnecessary ties
Dependence of church members on civil government for material support should be avoided if possible, especially where such dependence would interfere with the Christian’s freedom to testify to the government of Christ.” —Friends of Truth / Glenside Friends Meeting, Christian Conduct Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, […]
Dying from an inability to say no
I was going to title this post “Say no so you can say yes,” but I googled the phrase first and found that Zen Habits’ Leo Babauta has already written that thought down. “We have to clear up some space [in our lives],” Babauta writes, “by saying No to things we’d like to do, but […]
