A friend of mine from work linked this image of a starving child from the Sudan on Facebook this morning, and commented "Ask me how to help kids in Africa. Or pray - that's the best thing actually." Here was my reply: pemiway's comment on that photo is shocking, but I think there's truth to it. As a species, we are very good at using knowledge of other people's suffering to distract us from our own. Sarah & I watched a play last night that speaks to that. Of course, I know that you are far from doing nothing. And prayer is not "doing nothing" either, though it is often hard for me to believe it does anything. The main thing I wonder is how we can send money to Africa or other parts of the world without doing harm. So much foreign aid ends up in the hands of...

The other day, I needed to write out a version of my testimony. At first I struggled to do so, but soon I found the sentences flowing into a familiar pattern. I remembered this is a story I have been learning to tell all my life, the story of my life in Christ. Here is the story, as I told it: I've been a Christian for as long as I can remember. My mom says she remembers that when I was four I said to her, "Jesus died for our boo-boos." I don't remember this, though. I do remember that every year at VBS, I was one of the first people to pray to accept Jesus Christ as Savior. I thought maybe God needed to do something He hadn't already done. Later on, I realized it was more important to know that I trusted in Christ than to be able...

Recently, Service Nation sent me an email reminding me it's been a year since the Serve America Act passed, and with broad bipartisan support (oh, those must have been the days...). My organization, TechMission, benefited greatly from the act, so I decided to join in their campaign to thank those who passed it, and urge them to continue their bipartisan support of national service legislation. Sen. Brown was not in office at the time, of course, but I'd like to think that, as a fairly moderate Republican, he would have supported it. I certainly don't view him in the same light of Michelle Bachmann, who somehow has gotten the idea that national service is socialist, even though her son did it for a year. Anyway, here's the letter: In a time where it's hard for Republicans and Democrats to work together, it's good to see national service is one of...

What does that strange comment of Christ's mean when He says that those who followed Him would do greater works than He? Possibly it means that, while Christ, in His earthly ministry, was rejected by most of His hearers, now that He is lifted up and has given His Spirit to the Church, He has committed to us the "ministry of reconciliation." Thus, we are empowered by Christ to reconcile whole cultures unto God....

On this dark Tuesday, as we seem to retreat away from spring, I am pulled back to the Chattanooga sunlight: Four years ago, I stopped in Greyfriar's and saw Aimee Wilson and said, "I see our salvation like a shining crystal, Many lights diffracting from the one Christ - His holy halo, His pure flame." Our gifts to God are given back, perfect, each time we turn our wills toward Him. His image echoes in our bodies' weakness and we are saved to show His likeness. The Word became flesh, the flesh became Spirit, the Spirit fills the Church....