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Consider the Birds of the Air and the Crabgrass of the Field

March 20, 2023
For six days, my world narrowed to my small plot of land on this small planet of ours and my view narrowed to what lay at my knees. The narrower my focus, the wider my world became. I saw things that filled me with wonder and left me wondering. My yard became a door and I moved further up and further into a Narnia beyond.
Featured Articles
Featured

Two types of nostalgia: A meditation on Job 29

This is the point: Job is potentially every person. Maybe you are Job, or will be Job, or I will. Maybe some people spend their whole life as Job. Maybe some of us have, somewhere along the way, just our fifteen minutes of Job-dom. What then? Will we be baffled and bitter because we are stuck in a theology of sub-biblical intelligence that tells us that God guarantees flourishing to God’s people? Will we be unable to suffer, unable to…
Featured
March 6, 2023

Jesus Unlimited: Why I Transitioned my Ordination out of the Christian Reformed Church

I refuse, anymore, to spit at God.  I refuse to see anyone as a barnacle. I long for everyone to be fully and joyfully on deck and 100% in the conversation about our destination.
Keith Mannes 104
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Featured
February 27, 2023

The Inadvertent Death of Life

Easter calls us all to pursue life, but Lent calls me to wonder why I shirk it. On this side of heaven, life is messy and an infinite caretaking project.
Aaron B. Franzen
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Featured
February 20, 2023

The Gospel of Dust

Dust. Always there. Moving, resting, floating, twirling, dancing, hitchhiking across the room on invisible currents even when the sun isn’t around to make it known. It is ubiquitous, omnipresent—always present even on the cloudy days when my eyes can’t find it.
Christy Berghoef
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EssayFeatured
February 13, 2023

Of Chaplains and Chapels

Much usage and circulation over the centuries has worn down and obscured the relief of these linguistic coins, their image and superscription. The date of mint and object of commemoration is now difficult to discern. We speak with them. But rarely do they speak to us. Should we have ears to hear, they could tell a rich story of Christian experience and reflection.
Lee Hardy
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EssayFeatured
February 6, 2023

What it means to be Dutch

I am now just over halfway through my employment contract, and I am excited to report that, in addition to vast amounts of Dutch vocabulary and grammar, I am learning many important truths. One of them is what it means to be Dutch. Turns out, I am not as Dutch as I imagined.
Doug Brouwer
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Featured
January 30, 2023

Following Jesus in a Warming World: Commencement Day, 2066

We knew all those years ago what our slow-walking and half-measures would mean for you. We knew that even with all the progress we have made over the last several decades, powerful climate impacts were already baked into the atmosphere. We knew that your world would be fundamentally altered from the one we had known. We knew that glorious future you are getting ready to explore would be more dangerous and more unpredictable because of us.
Kyle Meyaard-Schaap
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Latest from the Blog

Daily blog by our regular bloggers & guest contributors.

  • Kristin Du Mez’s Calvinism and My Own
    Religious identity isn't only being shaped by doctrines and beliefs, but also living in community with others shaped by those same ideas, and by the long practice of seeking truth and meaning through those vocabularies, methods, and doctrines.
    March 24, 2023 James Bratt
  • The Cheese Truck
    The day of a cheese deliverer starts early in the Netherlands. At 5 a.m., on a quiet July morning twelve...
    March 23, 2023 Laura de Jong
  • Shetek Moonrise
    We dropped our fishing rods and started shouting and pointing and dancing. We were caught in the middle of the light.
    March 22, 2023 David Schelhaas
  • Lessons Learned?
    COVID found its way into my body last week for the first time (at least that I know of).  Probably...
    March 21, 2023 Scott Hoezee
  • Something New
    It is good to try something new. But the more years that pass, I become more hesitant to try new...
    March 20, 2023 Rebecca Koerselman
  • Finding My Voice
    The regrets I thought about were mostly not the result of things I said or did. What I regretted were the things I didn’t say, or failed to say, but should have.
    March 19, 2023 Doug Brouwer
  • Truth-Listening in the American South
    I’ll be processing this experience for a long time, but for now I'll share just a few key words that focused my thoughts during and after the trip.
    March 18, 2023 Debra Rienstra
  • The Purpose of the Church is Worship
    The church is like a whale. In worship we breathe the air and loll on the surface. Our bodies are designed for the water, but we can’t breathe there. We get our life from the air.
    March 17, 2023 Daniel Meeter

Poetry

Poetry
March 21, 2023

Lost Fragment from an Interview with Her Maid

You ask me what I thought then. I thought what I think still--to keep custody of my eyes and lips.
Lynn Domina 0
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Poetry
March 14, 2023

Plenty of Dented Signs

Plenty of dented signs on the highway. Igloo photograhs in the drawer on the left.
Peter J. Dellolio 1
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Poetry
March 14, 2023

Some People

Some people love the smell of gasoline. His anger made him utter endless obsenities.
Peter J. Dellolio 1
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Poetry
March 7, 2023

The Fog

The fog again - it hangs late this year, whitening the air the way snow whitens the ground.
Cole Hartin 0
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Poetry
March 7, 2023

The Stones

The first flurries are falling, falling slowly. In the dark of morning, I reached into my shadow closet ...
Cole Hartin 0
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Poetry
February 28, 2023

Proclaiming Psalm 19 from a Lakeside Dock

Sitting at the end of a lakeside dock, with solid cedar boards below my chair but ever-flowing water underneath ...
Steven Peterson
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Latest Podcasts

Podcast
March 21, 2023

“Lost Fragment from an Interview with Her Maid” by Lynn Domina

Lynn Domina is the author of two collections of poetry, Corporal Works  and Framed in Silence, and the editor of a collection of essays, Poets on the Psalms. Her most recent book is a collection of reflections, Devotions from HERstory: 31 Days with Women of Faith. She is a profressor of English Department at Northern Michigan University and is Creative Writing Editor of The Other Journal.
Rose Postma 0
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Podcast
March 16, 2023

Charles Marsh

Jeff Munroe interviews Charles Marsh about his latest book, Evangelical Anxiety: A Memoir. Charles is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia and Director of the Live Theology Project. They discuss Charles’ upbringing in an evangelical family and culture in the South during the late 1960s, as well as his mental health journey as an adult.
Jeff Munroe 0
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Podcast
March 7, 2023

“The Fog” by Cole Hartin

In this episode of the Poetry Edition, Rose Postma interviews Cole Hartin about his poem “The Fog.” Rev. Cole Hartin is Rector of St. Luke's Church in Saint John, New Brunswick and lives near the Bay of Fundy, on Canada's East Coast. His popular writing and commentary has been published by Christianity Today, The Toronto Star, Huffington Post, and other places.
Rose Postma 0
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Podcast
February 28, 2023

“Proclaiming Psalm 19 from a Lakeside Dock” by Steven Peterson

In this episode of the Poetry Edition, Rose Postma interviews Steven Peterson about his poem “Proclaiming Psalm 19 from a Lakeside Dock.” Steven is poet and playwright living in Chicago. His recent poems appear in Alabama Literary Review, America, The Christian Century, and other journals. He is currently a resident playwright at Chicago Dramatists.
Rose Postma
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Podcast
February 21, 2023

“Merton’s Surprise” by Angela Alaimo O’Donnell

In this episode of the Poetry Edition, Rose Postma interviews Angela Alaimo O’Donnell about her poem “Merton’s Surprise.” Angela is a writer, poet, and professor at Fordham University in New York City where she teaches English, Creative Writing, and American Catholic Studies. She has written 10 books of poetry.
Rose Postma
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Podcast
February 14, 2023

“Psalms Too” by Mischa Willett

Rose Postma interviews Mischa Willett about his poem “Psalms Too.” Mischa is the author of two critically-acclaimed books of poetry: The Elegy Beta and Phases, and is editor of Philip James Bailey’s epic Festus. He teaches in the English Department at Seattle Pacific University and in its MFA program in Creative Writing.
Rose Postma
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Around the Web

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Paul, Corinthians & Women Speaking in Church

Carol Bechtel looks at the troubling and controversial passages in 1 Corinthians.

Ten Years of Pope Francis — from the New Yorker

What a decade of an open, curious, and non-defensive pope has done for the Catholic Church.

Jesus Revolution

A review of the new film about the "Jesus Freaks" and Chuck Smith in the 1960s. From "The Anxious Bench" on Patheos.

Du Mez on Beth Moore’s new memoir

What you need to know about Beth Moore is that she is human.

What Wendell Berry Taught Me

Comedian/actor Nick Offerman shares about encountering Wendell Berry as recorded Berry's recent book for audiobooks.

Marilynne Robinson on Scripture & Science

"A Theology of the Present Moment" Does require signing up for the New York Review of Books newsletter, or being a subscriber, for access.

Deep Dive into the History and Consequences of Foreign Missions in Haiti

As the nation unravels, what has been the role of American missions over the decades? From CT

Canada’s MAID — Medical Assistance in Dying

Where do the Canadian churches stand as euthanasia increases there?

Yancey diagnosed with Parkinson’s

The well-known writer shares about the gift he didn't want.

Kyle Meyaard-Schaap and Jim Wallis with Ruth Graham on Climate Change in NYT

The author of Following Jesus in a Warming World. (This is an excerpt found USA Today. The complete interview is in NYT, but likely paywalled if you don' subscribe.

Jewish Exegesis

A fascinating, deep-dive into all the methods and traditions of Jewish engagement with scripture.

Nadia on the Asbury Revival

Bolz-Weber's gentle and hopeful take on the Asbury Revival.