We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.

Showing Up

Red Umbrella

Jonathan Kos-Read via Compfight

Shauna Niequist over at  Donald Miller’s Storyline blog shared some thoughts on Why You Should Stop Waiting for Life to be Perfect. She points out that sometimes this waiting for perfection gets in the way of noticing the goodness that is already here for you.

Show up to your life today, even if it’s imperfect and messy. God is here.

From Shauna’s reflection:

What I saw in her was a vision for how I want to live: in the midst of one her darkest seasons, twisted with uncertainty, bruised by the words of former friends, she sat with me, present and unarmed by busy-ness. She looked in my eyes and told me they’d be fine. She told me funny and sweet things about her kids, asked me about myself.

She wasn’t waiting for the good part. She knows that these are the good parts, even while they’re the bad parts. She wasn’t shut down, going through the motions. She wasn’t holding tight till this season passed. She was right there with me, right there with her kids, right in all the glory and pain and mess and beauty of a spring night in between everything.

That’s how I want to be. That’s who I want to be: deeply present in the present, in the mess, in the waiting, in the entirely imperfect right now.

Related Reading

Jesus Feminist

http://youtu.be/FBYELPZmdL4 Sarah Bessey’s book Jesus Feminist releases today. We’re so excited for her and for anyone who gets to read this book. She is first, and foremost a disciple of Jesus, and her embrace of feminism is inextricably wrapped in her identity as a disciple. Here’s a little snippet of something she’s written that beautifully…

God’s Goal for the World

 Helga Weber via Compfight In a world that is all about doom and gloom… In a time when we never seem to have enough… In the midst of messages that tell us that we don’t measure up… In an age when we are more interested in whether or not we can own automatic weapons than…

Good Gifts

Every good thing in our lives is an unmerited gift from God. This includes your specific skills, strengths, and talents. Here Greg discusses the importance of recognizing that our gifts are on loan from God, and we are entrusted with them to be a blessing to others. Click here to view the complete sermon and other resources.

Responding to Critics of a Pacifist View of the Syrian Crisis-Part 2

United Nations Photo via Compfight Yesterday I posted a response to Tyler Tully’s criticism of some of my thoughts on the Syrian crisis. The second blog I’d like to review is  Two Friars and a Fool by Aric Clark. Like Tully, Aric approved of much of what I said, but also like Tully, he raised several…

Sermon Clip: How Christians Should Respond to Ferguson

In this clip from this weeks sermon, Greg Boyd comments on how Christians should respond to the events in Ferguson St. Louis and how that response should always be in love and to help heal both sides. The full sermon is here: http://whchurch.org/sermons-media/sermon/heart-smart-qa

Trapped in a Constantinian Paradigm

A Response to James Smith’s Review of The Myth of a Christian Nation In my book The Myth of a Christian Nation I repeatedly call on Christians to engage in social activism. Followers of Jesus are called to be revolutionaries, I argue, meaning that we are to revolt against the status quo insofar as the…