Echoes and Stars

1.  Fear and love are at odds with one another.

2. I don’t think you could write a novel about a well-off pastor and that pastor be the hero of the story. It would at least be hard. And we need to think long and hard why that is the case.

3. My brother has been posting pictures of my parents from when they were young. One was from their wedding day. In another, my dad is wearing his army uniform and my mom is sitting in his lap. Their aliveness in those photos stands in direct opposition to their deaths. And what is more – that alivenes in those photos is nothing compared to their present aliveness.

4. I’ve been reading Andrew Peterson’s Wingfeather Saga books this past week. I am on book two and the next two should come in the mail today. I don’t know if it’s the post–Dostoyevsky need for something fun or what, but they are hard to put down. They are serious too. And full of beautiful writing.

5. Poverty of spirit doesn’t get you the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of Heaven is comfort when you have poverty of spirit.

6. Just when I should be giving my children more freedom, I instinctively want to tighten control.

7. I have a confession to make. This Summer I am teaching through the Psalms and my study and the very act of teaching the Psalms are doing an unexpected thing to me. I am simultaneously wanting to listen to music by Christians and feeling like something very substantive is missing from music by unbelievers. Let me be clear, this is not born out of a principal of what I should listen or can listen to. This is more of what I find helpful these days as I minister to my family, the church, and my students. But it isn’t only that. I find it easy to forget what I am waiting for. What is real. What the reality is behind the things I can see and touch. I feel as if I need songs that help me wait for the returning King, Who will make all things new.

Feel free to make suggestions outside of Peterson and Mullins.

8. Last night Bethany and I were talking with some friends about the travails of the life of ministry. There have been some awful moments and I’ve seen the worst of people on full display. Though I have been tempted to ditch the church, I have not for one simple reason. The King will one day return. And those churches are gatherings of those who also believe this. They are workers who gather at His embassy to remind themselves of who they are in the world and what they await.

9. All the regrets we have as parents will be also healed at the resurrection.

10. One of the reasons I am enjoying the Wingfeather series is they provide what we all tend to lose as we get older. Wonder. This world and even the Biblical world is so familiar we miss the mystery and magic of it all. Kids don’t. My kids still own the wonder of it all. They have yet to trade it away for rationalistic adulthood. And I’m a little jealous of them for that reason.