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chrisaltrock

Chris Altrock is an author, spiritual director and preacher, serving as the Senior Minister at the Stamford Church of Christ. He and his wife Kendra are parents to Jordan and Jacob.

Take The Other Street (1 Cor. 10:1-13)

At some point during most summers I go back in my mind to a time when I am eleven years old.  It’s just after sunset on the fourth of July.  I’m standing on the back porch of Grandpa and Grandma Weise’s house near Omaha, Nebraska.  Earlier that day Dad went into town and bought a cellophane-wrapped box filled with fireworks.  We’re circled around the box shooting the fireworks off in the yard.  It’s my turn.  Naturally, I grab the biggest firework in the box.  I don’t want my twin brother Craig getting it.  It’s a Roman Candle—the kind you hold after lighting.  The instructions say you should hold the Roman Candle away from you so that it is perpendicular to your body; light one end; and watch the colored balls of fire shoot from the other end.  But I am eleven years old.  I don’t need directions.  It’s just a Roman Candle.  Nothing’s going to happen.  So, in my arrogance I get careless.  I pick up the Roman Candle, light one end, and hold it at arm’s length.  But the unlit end is pointing towards my stomach.  I am not watching what I’m doing.  Nothing’s going to happen.  I am eleven years old.  But before I know it, the Roman Candle launches its ammunition into my stomach.  I scream in pain. Read More »Take The Other Street (1 Cor. 10:1-13)

Taking the Environment Captive (Psalms)

My earliest memory of facing an environmental issue is from my 5th or 6th grade year.  My mom had moved to Las Cruces, NM with my step-dad.  Las Cruces was a thirty minute drive from El Paso, TX which sat across the Rio Grande from Juarez, Mexico.  When I visited my mom (I was living with my dad elsewhere) we would often drive to El Paso.  There were shops there which we didn’t have in Las Cruces.  Each drive to El Paso took us past a large industrial factory on the outskirts of El Paso.  The factory was located near the homes of thousands of the poor in Juarez, Mexico who lived in cinder block homes.  From miles in any direction you could see thick colored smoke pouring out of the smoke stack of the factory.  Day and night smoke spewed out of the factory.Read More »Taking the Environment Captive (Psalms)