From Loneliness to Love

A From the Seminarians Series by Draa Mackey Loneliness.  The odds are that you’ve experienced it firsthand. If you have, you’ll quickly recall how smothering it can be. Laura and Robert Illig in Business Insider write, “Even before COVID spread to all corners of the world and caused isolation, loneliness has been running rampant.” They … Read more

Nuance S1E5: GOD IN THE WORK PLACE VIA COMMON GRACE

There is so much packed into this week’s episode of our podcast, Nuance. It is hard to identify one main thing because there are so many juicy points. However, one of the big takeaways is perspective, which is good because we are constantly losing it. Our guest today is Dr. Matthew Kaemingk, a Christian ethicist … Read more

Nuance S1E3: Champion Your Colleagues with Rev. Rufus Smith

So often when the subject of hospitality comes up, people’s minds immediately gotowards the hosting of parties or dinners. The truth is coordinating gathering is a thinslice of all that hospitality encompasses. Our inability to properly define hospitalitytruncates our understanding of the Gospel and how we are to live it out in our dailylives. This … Read more

Astonishing Numbers

There are times when lists are more impactful than even the most eloquent narrative. This is probably why lists as blog content are popular…you know, things like Top 5 Ways to Be More Efficient, 10 Ways to Improve Your Overall Health, Top 10 Universities of the Year, etc. I am not sure what the best title for this week’s blog post is, but “Astonishing Numbers” may be the most descriptive and it too falls into that category of lists.

The Proverbs 31 Woman Is Not the Ideal Woman. She’s the Ideal Church

About a year ago, we bought a home. It has a long driveway, stretching from the road to a garage on the back of the property. That’s a lot of concrete to clear when it snows here in Iowa. I had not prepared for the first snowfall, which brought several inches of thick, heavy snow. It took our family of seven several hours (and shovels) to clear the snow. But this morning, when we woke up to five inches of snow, I did not fear (throwing out my back again). I could laugh at the snowfall. Because I had purchased a snowblower fit for our drive.

The Dark Night of the Soul…

Hit after hit after hit…they just seem to keep coming: Russia, inflation, covid, incivility and not to mention all the personal heart ache that we all experience. I must admit it is rather overwhelming right now.

WORK CRISIS OR IDENTITY CRISIS???

Workers are quitting their jobs at record rates. Frustrated by low pay, bad working conditions, and all the disruptions caused by the pandemic, people have become disillusioned with work and are searching for greener pastures in better jobs, their own start-ups, or in some cases doing nothing more than the bare minimum to survive. But the Great Resignation must become the great realization – people need to realize that work cannot fulfill all the desires and meet all the expectations that we have been conditioned to think it should.

LEADING BETTER WITH BIGGER QUESTIONS

On December 31, 2017, I started a new New Years tradition. I grab my journal, my Bible, a few pens or markers, and make myself cozy under a warm blanket. I skim my journal entries, think about the books of the Bible I read that year, recall the struggles and heartaches, and try to list the lessons learned.

Then, I wonder what themes from the past year God invites me to carry into the next. I choose a word to represent each theme, and I write the words on a sticky note.

Goodness in the Workplace

Ecclesiastes 3 begins by saying, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven” (Eccles. 3:1, ESV). Every day is an opportunity to demonstrate the goodness of God to our colleagues, but the new year provides a great opportunity to refocus our efforts on sharing the goodness of God with our coworkers.

O Holy Night

Winter Park is an incredibly charming community, complete with brick-lined streets and quirky intersections. However, the Amazon driver who mistook the railroad track for a road no doubt does not possess such charmed thoughts. Last week about 6:00 pm I drove-up on a bizarre situation.