http://www.flickr.com/photos/medmss/3879056764/sizes/m/in/photostream/ A friend of mine, Jason Knight, has started a new blog. He’s reading through the Muslim Quran and blogging regularly about the experience. Jason… Read More »A Christian Reads the Quran
I ate lunch earlier this month with a man who had recently moved to Memphis. His sixteen year old son was having a hard time transitioning to his new school and neighborhood. His best friends were still back in his Florida hometown and he hadn’t yet made new friends in Memphis. The son felt like an outsider. “I guess the move has hit him the hardest of anyone in our family,” the father said.
It’s hard to be an outsider isn’t it? We want to be included. We want to be accepted.Read More »Fringe: The Fringe Conduct of Peacemaking God Favors
On her 2004 album, Natasha Bedingfield released a song called “Unwritten.” The song imagines that our lives are stories which are in the process of being written. Here’s the first part of Bedingfield’s song:
I am unwritten, can’t read my mind, I’m undefined
I’m just beginning, the pen’s in my hand, ending unplanned
Staring at the blank page before you Read More »Right Turn: Turning Lives Around Through Conversation
A movie called “The Book of Eli” is a parable illustrating the sometimes chaotic power of Scripture. The story takes place in the near future of America, after a nuclear apocalypse leaves the country a desolate wasteland. Through that wasteland travels a loner named Eli. Eli believes God has sent him to bring one of the few remaining copies of the Bible to the west coast. As he travels, Eli wanders into a ramshackle town ruled by a villainous man named Carnegie. Most in the town no longer know how to read. None in the town have ever read the Bible—except Eli and Carnegie. Both believe in the power of Scripture. And as they confront one another on the dusty streets of this western town, their talk of Scripture turns the town upside down: Carnegie: Is that thing loaded? I don’t think it’s loaded. Eli: Only one way to find out. Carnegie: Look, I need that book. I mean…I want the book. And you. But if you make me choose, I’ll kill ya—I’ll take the book. Eli: Why? Why do you want it? Carnegie: I grew up with it. I know its power. And if you read it, then so do you. That’s why they burned them all after the war. Hey, just stayin’ alive is an act of faith; building this town is an even bigger act of faith, but they don’t understand that. None of them. And I don’t have the right words to help them, but the book does. I admit…I’ve had to do things…many, many things I hate to build this, I confess that…but if we have that book, I wouldn’t have to. Now imagine…imagine how different, how righteous this little world could be if we had the right words for our faith. Well, people would truly understand why they’re here and what they’re doing and wouldn’t need any of the uglier motivations. It’s not right to keep that book hidden away; it’s meant to be shared with others; it’s meant to be spread. Isn’t that what you want? Eli: With all my heart and soul. I always believed that I’d find a place where this book belonged, where it was needed…but I haven’t found it yet. Carnegie: I love this guy. I love this guy! Shoot him…please.” Guns flare. People scream. But as the dust settles, Eli walks out of town. He has other places to go. He’s got a mission to accomplish.
Read More »Right Turn: Turning Lives Around Through Closeness