As I write this, a week before your birthday, I am sitting four hundred kilometres away from you. It is nine o’ clock in the morning and it is already 30 degrees outside. The air is heavy with the heat. The cicadas hum steadily in the background and somewhere in the nearby acacias I can... Continue Reading →
To Nathan on his 6th Birthday
I have been to enough of your concerts now that I am no longer surprised that you do your own thing and refuse to just follow the crowd. While all of the other children at your graduation sat, still and compliant, you participated fully in each moment: you mouthed the words to other classes’ songs,... Continue Reading →
Hypernormal Christianity: a Legacy of Fear
Alexei Yurchak, in his book Everything was Forever, Until it was No More: The Last Soviet Generation, describes what it was like to live in the Soviet Union prior to its collapse. He argues that its flaws were readily apparent to everyone, and that people could see that the system was failing them. But because... Continue Reading →
Father, Forgive Them…
Arguably the single most important concept in Christian theology is that of forgiveness. In fact, I am willing to suggest that without the uncompromising prioritisation of unconditional forgiveness, Christianity is only one more brutal expression of the kind of divisive religion that has plagued humanity since the beginning of our history. Now anybody who... Continue Reading →
Where to Find God: Learning to Look Down
It takes a big effort to wrap one’s head around it. And it is something I haven’t fully managed yet: God is a servant. It makes sense, if you think about it. If God is love, then God must serve. Service is where love finds its practical expression. If we want to find God, we... Continue Reading →
Build Your House on the Rock
Newton’s First Law of Motion states that an object will remain in a state of rest unless it is compelled to move by forces acting upon it. I don’t think it is a law that has applicability only in the physical realm; I think it is true of our social and ideological worlds too. People... Continue Reading →
Proclaiming the Year of the Lord’s Favour
Interacting with a god is a tricky thing. Not least of all because by definition a being outside of our dimensional constraints would be incomprehensible to us. Our minds simply cannot conceive of a god. Imagine that a drawing was truly two dimensional (it is not, really, because the thin layer of ink constitutes height,... Continue Reading →
To Nathan On His Fourth Birthday
In October I attended the funeral of somebody for whom I have a great deal of respect and fondness. She was tragically killed in a motorcycle accident, and everyone expected the memorial service to be a particularly emotional and sombre affair. Indeed, when her daughters spoke, it was particularly moving. But not because her loss... Continue Reading →
Life Begins at 40
My friend, Estelle, summed it up best when she found out it was my 41st birthday yesterday: “Is it your birthday today? I am not sure whether to offer congratulations or condolences!” Whoever said that life begins at 40 was quite obviously mistaken. I have given it a year now – I am not the... Continue Reading →