Early in High School, one of my closest friends participated in a fundraiser called “Dressember.” She wore a dress every day for the month of December and used that time to raise money that would go toward ending human trafficking. Through this friend, I was introduced to the concept of modern-day slavery.   The next…

Our Bible lesson was done. I wasn’t sure the kids had retained any of the information I had just tried to impart to them. They’d been squirely, seemingly unable to sit still. I had to interrupt my story several times to remind them not to move from their spot. The three in the back had…

I tried to feel festive. I tried to get into the “Christmas Spirit.” I went to Christmas parties. I helped out with the kids Christmas program. I wore red and green. I went to a concert. I participated in gift exchanges. I put up Christmas decorations. I went to look at Christmas light displays. I…

Fiction “Enjoy” is probably the wrong word for Khaled Hossenini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Kite Runner. These books are set in Afghanistan in times of turbulence. The violence and heartbreak is described in great detail, perhaps too much detail at times. I read them because I wanted to understand, a little more, the…

It doesn’t feel real. It can’t be. This journey can’t be over – it’s not possible. I’m talking about my massive “Historical and Philosophical Foundations of Civilizations” class. Five semesters. 21 units. 30 entire books, plus countless excerpts. Unnumbered hours of reading, thinking, wrestling, and discussing. Some of you may have heard me talk about…

Have you ever desired to look or act like someone else? I think we all do it in one way or another as children or in our teenage years. Can you look or act like them if you don’t know what they look or act like? No, of course not. You have to study them…

Last semester in my psychology class, we talked about the phrase “cognitive dissonance.” This is the internal discomfort you feel when your actions do not match your beliefs and words. In other words, it is knowing you are a hypocrite and being uncomfortable with your hypocrisy. And so when I started reading When Helping Hurts…

Almost a year ago, when the T-ban took over in Afghanistan, there was this desire to help that welled up in the hearts of those who watched the news. There was a desire to “do something.” That was shared by many members of my church. One idea was the spark it needed, and the blaze…

This book has had my head spinning. It has kept me up late at night, enthralled with the story, enthralled with the perspective of this brother. I had two months to finish the book for school and I finished it in three weeks. It is a perfect storm of challenging, encouraging, motivating, and rebuking. I…

In The Shaping of Things to Come, authors Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch propose that the postmodern society around us in the West is no longer able to be reached by the traditional Christendom model of church but rather must be reached through a missional church movement (30). In Part One (chapters 1-2), the authors…