Skip to content

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.

Three Cultural Myths About Pain and Suffering

 

Have you ever been to the Brookstone store?  My family loves to go to there.  Jacob and Jordan take their shoes off and try out every foot massager.  Kendra and I sit down in every one of the body massaging chairs and let the mechanical fingers work their magic.  Jacob, who has no shame, will climb up on the mattress made of NASA-developed memory foam and stretch out.  And I love just looking at their gadgets: bright-as-the-sun micro-flashlights for your keychain; range-finders so you can tell how far the next hole is on the golf-course; and even anti-gravity pens (used by the astronauts) which let you write upside down.  It’s a store centered on comfort—trying to make life as comfortable as possible.Read More »Three Cultural Myths About Pain and Suffering

The Gospel Truth About Forgiveness

The smallest player on my son Jacob’s soccer team last season was a girl named Paige.  Paige was very tiny, fairly slow, and easily distracted.  Every time Paige played goalie I had to tell her “Paige, keep your hands out of the net,” because she loved to play with the net during the game.  One time she got her hands so tangled in the net it took me several minutes to get them out.  And every time Paige got near the goal with the ball, we all got excited, because she hadn’t scored a goal all season.  Everyone else had, but not Paige.  She was too small, too slow, and too distracted.  Parents on the sidelines would hold their breath whenever Paige got near the goal.  So you can imagine our delight when, a few weeks ago, Paige gently nudged the ball into the goal.  Her kick was barely hard enough to propel the ball into the goal—but it finally strolled in.  Our head coach Dana was so excited he stopped the game, picked Paige up and threw her into the air.  There’s something in us that likes the underdog.  We want the underdog to win.Read More »The Gospel Truth About Forgiveness