Just as Scrooge re-evaluates his life and actions when he comes face-to-face with his tombstone, so too does the tradition of memento mori ask us to evaluate our lives in light of eternity.
“Further up and further in” is an imaginary concept, informed by legend and myth, and also Scripture. These are invitations for all to partake in bigger experiences, conversations, joy, and peace.
Clinging to my perspective while reading endangers my practice of reading as a method of gaining insight.
For creators and the participants both, there lies a danger in loving a story to its own detriment. A perverse love fails to love a story for the good within it, but rather desires it to go on and on, never ending.
God’s view of time operates entirely differently from the human view, as His omniscience of all history and future outcomes prevents Him from being negatively affected by any present moment.
If we struggle believing the best is yet to come, the first step is acknowledging that not all nostalgia is healthy.
We are called not to stay as we were found or as we wish we had been found, but to grow in spiritual maturity and knowledge of the Gospel; to remain focused on the past is to refuse to grow spiritually.
In spite of our drive to speed up growth and reach the goal of faith, perhaps the real goal is to trust the process. Rather than an object to be controlled, we can enjoy the blessing of time as a gift.
In essence, “What are my rights?” is private and individual. “What do we owe one another?” is personal and communal. It’s to shift from “What do I deserve?” to “What is best for us?”
We’ve forgotten (or refuse to see) that we are better because of our diversity, because we are a nation of immigrants, and because our collective experiences make us stronger.
And that’s real soul music. It assumes God is within the reality of life—all of your life. Dancing and dating are in the same universe as politics and poetry—this is all God’s world, anyways.
A list of our favorite things from 2019.
Like Rory Williams in Doctor Who, we are called to show up in the difficult places, called to be near broken people and called to uncomfortable situations.
The film’s intentional depiction of an all too real history invites reflection on the nature of the conscience and urgency of becoming a misfit.
We all, especially Enneagram Fours, must not sacrifice the sacredness of the mundane on the altar of self-actualization.
Simply upholding these tragic hero figures as warnings ultimately cheapens our understanding of both human depravity, and, more consequently, the extent of grace.
