Essays and Literature

When God and the Church Let Us Down


God is who God is. The Church is who she is. And I am who I am. I will never fully understand God. The Church will always be flawed. And I will continue to struggle with my own demons, sin, and shortcomings until the day I die. Nevertheless, I have found this to be true as well: my faith and relationship with God has filled my heart with a peace that surpasses understanding, with joy I could not produce on my own, with love like no other, and with meaning and purpose in a chaotic world that sometimes seems bent on its own destruction.

Does God Care?


What Jesus’ raising of Lazarus says about God’s heart.

Coping Better with Unwanted Change: Four Steps to Greater Peace and Joy


What unwanted change is wreaking havoc in your life right now? How are you handling it?
In this four-part series, I’m going to share four steps that have been very helpful to me when I have felt heartbroken, frustrated, disappointed, sorry for myself, or any number of other negative emotions due to some unwanted change in my life. These steps (See, Accept, Appreciate, and Delight) may take some time to work through, but when taken thoughtfully and prayerfully, they can help you to get unstuck mentally and emotionally and to find greater peace and joy again.

No Easy Answers in a War Zone


How can you answer troubling questions about God that have no easy answers? How can you talk about God’s love to traumatized people in a war zone, when God seems so distant and disengaged from their suffering? Tim shares how he is sharing faith, hope, and love to those in the current war zones of our world.

Politics


Horror and Hope in Africa

Imprisoned genocidaires on work detail in Rwanda


These essays illustrate the mind-boggling extent of both evil and God’s grace at work within the same context of great human suffering.