MomminginMinistry

 "The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed , took the bread, and when he had given thanks , he broke it and said, 'This is my body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of me.'"  I Corinthians 11:23-24. Our dear Lord, Jesus. On the night he was betrayed. Gave thanks.  I had never thought about this verse in such a way before reading Ann Voskamp's 1,000 Gifts.  And this verse might mean more this Thanksgiving for many of us than it ever has before. I preface this by saying that none of us will ever experience the kind of betrayal that Jesus faced that night. We'll never know because he loves us too much to let us experience what he went through in the garden of Gethsemane, at the home of Caiphus, or standing before the angry mob in Pilate's courtyard- the creation set on destroying its creator and ignorantly shouting "Give us Barabbas!" Our betrayals are much smaller than that. But they hurt none the less. And who among us hasn't ...

 "Come now, let us reason together."  Isaiah 1:18 Is it just me, or does it feel like we're being shoved further and further into neatly labeled boxes? We can quickly scan which box someone fits into in a matter of seconds, and easily know all we care to know about them based on a few comments. Social psychology would say this kind of categorizing (aka-prejudging) used to be adaptive once upon a time. It helped us quickly assess a risk and sort out predator from ally. But now it's just lazy.  Amazon does it...."People who bought this, also bought..." Netflix does it....."People who watched this also watched..." Pinterest does it..."You might also be interested in..." Facebook does it..."Other articles related to this are..." If you're a public figure, you've probably done it to yourself...we can it branding. We do it to each other, even if it's subconscious.  "You've researched the death penalty, and what yo...

Photo Credit Ryan Albaugh   This is Dan. He is my favorite human. And it's his birthday. He's the guy who always makes me laugh, always roots for the underdog, and always wins at Scrabble. He wins all the games, actually. He's witty, patient, and knows way too much. At 41 he still plays Weazer, Cake, and the Beastie boys way too loud when he's alone in his car, still plays Minecraft with his boys, and still owns the same pair of sandals he owned in high school. He's kind of simple that way. Dan and I met at a pool party with the college group at Red Mountain Community Church. A few weeks later we were sitting at a table with a huge group of friends at TGIFridays, and he went to wash his hands in the bathroom and came back with water down the front of his shirt. I looked at him and said, "Everyone who's cool pees their pants" (a line from Billy Madison with Adam Sandler). I think he's said that was the moment he knew. Soon after that he called me an...

 "There is no holiness but social holiness." John Wesley. If you're living in the USA and reading this you might not be aware, but we're intensely independent. We could easily have stamped, "You Do You" onto our coins. It's hard to see sometimes, because it's all we have ever known. This doesn't have to make us stumble but we have to be aware of our default so that we know where the enemy is most likely to attack.  I just finished a long six weeks of reading John Wesley's theology. And he's not simple. Being quite ecumenical means he agrees with Luther on this, but not that, Calvin on that but not this, the early Eastern Orthodox on most things. He remained loyal to the Church of England until his death, but started the Methodist movement, seeing a need for a religion of the heart that saturated every area of life. Sometimes he made my head hurt so I should be celebrating the end of this class by mindlessly binge watching Somebody Feed Ph...