Safe Haven

Patrick Deneen, call your office!  [You probably think he has a phone with a cord, too.--ed.] It's Deneen; of course he does. He probably pedals to work like Fred Flintstone. [Doesn't Dr. Cross actually do this?--ed.] Yeah. In case anyone cares, it makes more sense to just hand poor people money, to make them not poor. Liberals need to stop trying to be "reasonable" with their economic agenda. Their political opponents don't care what works, anyway; they'll change tacks as necessary. Sorry. That's how I see it.

I meant to say this yesterday, and didn't get around to it. Have you ever noticed that sometimes we get into trouble when we just don't believe that our lives are going anywhere? "What's the point?" And I want to think about it beyond just the theological virtue of hope, mainly because I have probably asked for an increase of hope a million times in some formal prayer setting. I know I'm not the only one who has said things in prayer without thinking about them. And so I just asked, in plain words. I asked to be useful, and to know that I had a purpose. I know it seems a little dark, but I'm always honest with you. And seriously, how many of us feel this, and we don't do anything, or say anything, least of all to God? God is real, and He is here. In some way, we have to get beyond the, "thou shalt nots" and get to the heart. I'm not chasing some mystical "righteousness" of my own, but to be completely loved in the Beloved. M

One of the things I have no time for, as I spend more and more days growing into the label of a "theologian," is when I see people using theology as a way to run from themselves. Sometimes, they build extra fences around things, perhaps to keep away from sin, or to craft a carefully curated image of themselves. But the truth of who God is reveals who we are. There is no truth revealed in Jesus that ought to be used as a weapon against another person, or frankly, against ourselves. The Holy Spirit shines a light on us, so that we might go toward Jesus, and to be more like Jesus. I won't say it's always a painless process; in fact it never is. Yet there is a generosity in God that exists in no one else. OK, there is a generosity in the saints, but that is the power of God in them, not a power that they natively have within themselves. My invitation for you today is to abandon whatever is fearful, selfish, and worldly that happens to be dressed up in religious clothi

In the spiritual life, the focus is often rightly on the things we get wrong. In order to progress in that life with God, the first step--which we may never move beyond--is to uproot sin from our lives. We can't live in the truth unless we acknowledge the reality of who we really are. All that is to say, examinations of conscience are really good things, and if we should find that we are far worse than we imagine, we should not lose heart, because Jesus already knew that, and died to save us anyway. Yet I also think that self-hatred is often worse and more dangerous than a blissful pride. In the past year or so, I have really doubted the things I like about myself, the things that are good. I think I have thought of something that I really appreciate about myself, and I'm going to share it. I know there is risk that people will say that I'm incorrect. Oh, well. I would never intentionally disregard the thoughts and feelings of another person. Now it is fair to say tha