I hadn’t planned on talking about 9/11 with my four-year-old son, so I had no idea what I might say. The topic came up unexpectedly in a children’s book we were reading. National Geographic has put out a series of books that address the curiosities of children with simple explanations and pictures. On one of […]
In a culture bent on movement, it’s important to remember the greatness of stillness. Oftentimes when I’m outside using the grill or watching the children play, I look up at the sky. There are usually a few red-tailed hawks circling in the air, floating on thermals. With their wings stretched wide, they careen through the […]
Who is Kenneth Pike? I’ve been asked this question frequently, so I thought I would set out a brief introduction, a sketch of one of the men who has had the greatest impact on my thinking. If you would prefer to hear an answer to this question rather than read one, check out the Reformed […]
This is another post in a series of reflections on anxiety, which I offer candidly as one who has struggled with an anxiety disorder for over a decade. In the other posts, I talked about how having an anxiety disorder is like being crushed. To be crushed by God is not to be destroyed by him, […]
One of the many reasons why I love Kenneth Pike is his unique ability to stretch traditional categories of thought and apply them to new situations. He does this by applying linguistic categories to other parts of life and human behavior. I explore this a bit in the conclusion of The Trinity, Language, and Human Behavior. […]
Some weeks ago, I finished reading through a collection of short essays by Karl Ove Knausgaard (see the posts on “Living in the Concrete” and “The Song of Sincerity”). One of his statements towards the end of the collection got me thinking about language (which is no surprise to those who know me). Certainly, it […]
We don’t get much time to just sit and observe. The smart-phone culture doesn’t value “dead time.” Even when we’re stopped at a traffic light or waiting in line at a drive-through, we find something to check, something to monitor, something to comment on. That makes those rare moments when we do observe the world […]
Each day on my way to work, I drive past the same field. It’s become one of my favorite landscapes. I can’t seem to go by without stealing a few glances at it, either in the mist of the morning or the lull of late afternoon. I’ve wanted to write about it for a few […]
In my devotions this week, I came across Matthew 9:10-13. And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” […]
One of the most common spiritual problems Christians face today is often expressed as “not feeling close to God.” I believe that this feeling is a symptom of a deeper spiritual condition: communicative malnourishment or CM. CM is a relational problem. Christians are made in the image of the triune God who communes with himself in […]