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Does God like football?
Does God like football? The on-field collapse of Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin has sparked a couple of good think pieces from Christian writers about theology and football, and my first and likely best instinct was to let them handle the thinking. Alas, here I am. Since I left a doctoral program in religion focused…
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Undivided Loyalties
At the beginning of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he says: By the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ I appeal to all of you, my friends, to agree in what you say, so that there will be no divisions among you. Be completely united, with only one thought and one purpose. For some…
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An Unlikely Christmas Movie
I know that nobody thinks of “Wall Street” as a Christmas movie, but hear me out. When April and I were in college, on weekends they would show a late-night movie on campus, as something to do for those who didn’t have cars and didn’t want to go to frat parties. By the time we…
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John 13: Wrong Summit?
So apparently mountaineers encounter this challenge of false summits. They think they’re climbing to the summit of a mountain, and when they break through the clouds to get to the top of where they are climbing, they realize that it’s not really the highest point. The next thing over is taller. (Sometimes, apparently, this can…
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John 12: Doing the Best We Can
What if there are no bad guys? We judge other people’s intentions by their actions, and we judge our actions by our intentions. Stephen M. R. Covey (the son of the “7 habits” guy) taught me that in his book “The Speed of Trust,” which anyone who works on my team is sick of hearing…
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John 11: Jenga
Sometimes I think that my faith is like a game of Jenga. A piece disappears, and I wonder, “Is that one going to make it all come crashing down?” We spend a lot of time covering for God. I don’t think He needs it, and I think we do more harm than good in trying…
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My favorite Jimmy V story
When Jim Valvano coached basketball at NC State, he asked a referee once, “Can you T me up [give me a technical foul] for what I think?” “No, Jimmy,” the ref answered, “I can’t T you up for what you think.” “Well I think you suck,” Valvano retorted. I was thinking about how we get…
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John 10: Prove It
Here’s another way I side with the Pharisees, and a major reason John is my least favorite gospel. Again thanks to Fr. Raymond E. Brown’s commentary, I now realize that John, like the other gospel writers, uses parables. But where the authors of Matthew, Mark and Luke start theirs with Jesus saying, “The kingdom of…
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John 9: Understanding the assignment
“They understood the assignment.” That’s been a popular phrase lately. I noticed it in social media posts about celebrities at the Met Gala who showed up in sufficiently avant-garde fashion choices, but I’m sure it long predates that (and will soon be passé). It calls to mind the kid who shows up to class having…
Reading Francis 