3 Sep
Well, school is upon us. Not upon me, but upon many.
Speaking of school being upon people, I lost my virginity to one of my high school teachers.
Ah, my old erstwhile high school teacher. She was twenty-four. I was seventeen. She had a job. For funds I collected soda bottles and scrounged through my dad’s suits.
She lived in a house with her girlfriend, who also wanted to have sex with me (!).
I lived at home with my parents, who wished I would just once clean my room. Continue reading
2 Sep
I don’t watch TV. I mean, I watch stuff on my TV—but “only” DVD’s, since I don’t subscribe to any cable service. I would watch regular TV, but I have issues with commercials. So I don’t.
Ah, DVD’s. Right now I’m (back on) a Seinfeld phase. Last night I watched the “Yada, Yada” episode. Classic!
Another reason I don’t watch TV is because I’m afraid that if I do, I might accidentally watch Glenn Beck. And life’s too short for that. Continue reading
1 Sep
Today at 5:10 EST I’ll be on The John and Kathy Show, on 101.5 FM Pittsburgh. (You can listen to it live online.) We’ll be discussing what I touched on a bit with my post, “Praying When You Have Low Self-Esteem.”
I’m looking forward to this chat, because … well, here’s what I just wrote on the J&K Show’s Facebook page: “I’m looking forward to discussing the challenges of coming before God when we’re feeling particularly lousy about ourselves—which, of course, is when we tend to most want to isolate. How to open the most important door of all, when the last thing we want to do is be seen?” Continue reading
31 Aug
[Update: Just to be clear---because there seems to be some misunderstanding about this, for which I'm happy to take full responsibility---this piece is in no way meant as a commentary on either the political message of Sarah Palin, or the music of Lady Gaga. It's simply a look at what I believe to be the primary reason for their phenomenal appeal. Thanks! Love.]
To those on the left, a person inspired by Sarah Palin is like a person who rushes to pick up a road apple dropped by an oblivious, preening parade horse, takes a giant bite out of it, and cries out, “Oh, yummers!”
To those on the right, a person inspired by Lady Gaga is like a crackhead in a hot air balloon: at best aimlessly floating, and certainly headed for a crash.
For anyone who is or aspires to be a spiritual leader, there is something exceptionally important to learn from both Palin and Gaga. Because though of course their styles of delivery (not to mention their audiences) could hardly be more different, the message each is sending her audience is identical. And that message is the same one delivered by Jesus Christ in his Sermon on the Mount. Continue reading
30 Aug
A thoughtful commenter to my post What Is Prayer? expressed his concern that he’s essentially not good enough to come to God with his problems and prayers.
“God’s focus is deserved so much more by the millions with bigger issues [than mine],” he wrote. “Can anyone recommend a good book on the topic of prayer for people with low self-esteem?”
So, a quick word on that. Continue reading
28 Aug
“What is prayer? Thanks!”
That was the entire email recently sent to me by a reader. How could I not respond?
The short answer is that prayer is deliberately, attentively, and openly turning your mind to God.
The longer answer is that there are in essence two kinds of prayers: meditative and intentional. Continue reading
27 Aug
Objective!
Ha, ha, ha. That joke title was just my way of saying, “I overdrank this weekend.” (I’m kidding. I didn’t.)
But yes, now that you mention it, overdrank is a word.
Well, it is now, anyway.
If you keep up on the world of book publishing, you know that with blinding speed the industry is becoming radically and almost unimaginably decentralized; the entire business as we’ve just about ever known it is vaporizing before our eyes.
So soon that effectively it’s already now, every author will have to also become his or her own publisher. Continue reading
25 Aug
SLEEP
Here are the five main reasons for which I did not like the movie Eat Pray Love. Continue reading
24 Aug
One of the things that’s lately come up here in the comment threads are questions about the exact nature of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is God–fully God, not any sort of partial, almost God sort of thing–that any believer in Christ understands resides within him or her. It’s the means by which God maintains an immediate, unfathomably intimate relationship with those who understand His presence within them as being complete and of the same substance as the other two aspects of the divine Holy Trinity: God the Father, and God the Son. Continue reading
23 Aug
Aprops to some of our most recent discussions, I thought I’d share with you a short excerpt from my 2006 book, I’m OK–You’re Not: The Message We’re Sending Nonbelievers and Why We Should Stop. That book ended up becoming known for its look at the relationship between the Great Commandment and the Great Commission, but that topic only comprises the first one-third or so of the book. Two-thirds of the rest of the book addresses those dynamics at play in the relationship between Christians and non-Christians that are necessarily problematic. Here’s a bit from that part of the book: Continue reading
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