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Work: A Partnership with God

Charlie Brown and Sally are standing at the bus stop. Cars are rushing past them, and Sally asks: “Who are all those people driving in those cars?” Charlie answers, “Those are people going to work.” Sally: “Work?” Charlie: “They used to wait for the school bus like...

Knowledge and Wisdom, Cousins, not Twins

Knowledge and wisdom are related, but they are more like cousins than like identical twins.  Knowledge has to do with facts, data, and skill; wisdom has to do with significance, purpose, and intention.  Knowledge is concerned with “what” and “how”; wisdom is...

Non-negotiable

I sometimes ask the divinity school students I work with to consider their “non-negotiables”: the beliefs, convictions, and practices which are so central and crucial to their understanding of what it means to be a human being and to be a follower of Jesus that they...

Our Faith and the Faith of Children

Here are sketchy notes from a talk I recently gave to parents of children at First Baptist Church of Asheville.  A mother of two preschool children was cleaning her kitchen one morning, hoping to get the breakfast dishes put in the dishwasher, the milk and cereal...

Being and Being Loved, Before Doing and Duty

A lot of us aren’t living the kind of life we were made to live.  In our rare moments of clear self-awareness, when the fog of confusion lifts and the clouds of illusion melt, we can see the distance between who we are and who we’re meant to be.  The good...

Growing into It

There are things we can’t know instantly or do easily. We have to grow into them; our capacities have to develop, and our abilities have to expand. Quite often, practice and experience often precede skill or wisdom.  You don’t start playing golf at Augusta...