Looking for a good (true) story? Read the Bible!
January 1, 2025 § Leave a comment
Few things are as satisfying as a good story. From the time we incessantly begged, “Just one more before bedtime, pleeeze!” to “I think I can get this next chapter done before I have to get some sleep”—stories have captivated us. Although different people are drawn to different types of writing, the common attraction among all is the development of the story. It’s what keeps us reading. Heroes in impossible predicaments, sleuths combing through the scenes of “perfect” crimes, thawing of frozen relationships, tripping through the twists and turns of international intrigue—whatever the situation, we love the story and want to see how it ends.
Why, then, is it that we don’t approach the Bible this way?
« Read the rest of this entry »2016: A Year In the Word
January 1, 2016 § 1 Comment
I am not a believer in reinventing the wheel. What follows is my post from a year ago today. Nothing new, nothing fancy. Same charge: Read the Word!
Few things are as satisfying as a good story. From the time we incessantly begged, “Just one more before bedtime, pleeeze!” to “I think I can get this next chapter done before I have to get some sleep”—stories have captivated us. Although different people are drawn to different types of writing, the common attraction among all is, I believe, the development of the story itself. It’s what keeps us reading. Heroes in impossible predicaments, sleuths combing through the scenes of “perfect” crimes, thawing of frozen relationships, tripping through the twists and turns of international intrigue—whatever the situation, we both love the story and want to see how it ends.
Why, then, is it that we don’t approach the Bible this way? « Read the rest of this entry »
Act like men
May 19, 2013 § 1 Comment
“Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong” (1 Corinthians 16:13).
What is a man? For millennia humans have sought to answer that question, drawing both from what seems obvious to them from nature because of the physical make-up of males versus females as well as from the influences of individual cultures, philosophy and religion.
The image of masculinity in America has almost always been one of the rugged individual, though modern feminism has sought (sometimes, I fear, literally) to emasculate that image. A few years ago a funny phenomenon developed that I think says a lot about the American view of masculinity: Chuck Norris jokes.
- Some people can juggle chainsaws; Chuck Norris can juggle people juggling chainsaws.
- Fear of spiders is called arachnophobia; fear of tight spaces is called claustrophobia; fear of Chuck Norris is called “Logic.”
- Chuck Norris has a grizzly bear carpet in his room. The bear isn’t dead; it is just afraid to move.
- Ghosts sit around the campfire and tell Chuck Norris stories. « Read the rest of this entry »
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