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Inside Out

Humbled by Her Habits

Helen Luhrs On our way out of town that Sunday morning, we decided to stop at the nursing home to say goodbye to my mom before we headed back. When we got there, she was in the activity room folding bibs and towels. "Wow, Mom, " I said. "You're dressed up." She was wearing a summer dress, flowing and colorful, in sharp contrast to her fl esh-colored support hose and sensible white tennis shoes. She smiled. "Church starts soon. Right…
Helen Luhrs
March 1, 2014
As We See It

Shuffling the Team

Dawn Boelkins I've never understood the point of Fantasy Football. Why go to the trouble of investigating all the professional football teams, disassembling them, and realigning the players in made-up teams? Aren't there sufficient games? An abundance of statistics? Exuberant mascots? I have even less understanding now that we've done quite a bit of shuffling on the Perspectives editorial board. We're grateful for the unflagging enthusiasm of Steve Mathonnet-VanderWell who joined the editorial board in 2007 and — just one…
Dawn Boelkins
January 1, 2014
As We See It

Theme and Variation: Prayer, Enstrom’s Grace, and Calvin

Howard Schaap When I was in my early teens, my dad announced rather formally that he would no longer be praying before our family meals. Considering that, breakfast aside, he had prayed at virtually every family meal of my life up to that point, this was a significant announcement. Prayer could become just a rote exercise, went his explanation, and he didn't want to fall into the trap of the Pharisee in the parable, praying empty words. This did not…
Howard Schaap
January 1, 2014
Reviews

Whose Kuyper? Which Inheritance?

James K.A. Smith In certain sectors of North American Protestantism — sectors, I would say, that seem to have disproportional influence on public discussions — everyone wants to hitch their wagon to Abraham Kuyper. From Chuck Colson's How Now Shall We Live? to Mark Noll's Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, evangelicals have found in Father Abraham a model for robust public engagement rooted in unapologetic Christian orthodoxy. Kuyper is the exemplar of a Christian visionary and pragmatic scrapper, one who…
January 1, 2014
Reviews

Pilgrims Together

Scott Hoezee Because I recently traveled to Africa for the first time, I am keenly aware that when going to a place that is completely new, it is vital to have an experienced guide. When it comes to navigating global Christianity, I am in territory that is at least somewhat unfamiliar to me. But no worries: Wesley Granberg-Michaelson knows the terrain from Times Square to Timbuktu and can serve as a more-than-knowledgeable exploration leader. In his new book, Granberg-Michaelson spans…
January 1, 2014
Poetry

Counter Narrative

by Rose Postma In the seven days it took Utnapishtim's hired craftsmen to build his reed-stitched boat, Noah must have wandered over late at night to check his competition out: examining mortise and tenon, measuring the span of the joists, wishing he had more help than three elderly sons. Did sweat salt Utnapishtim's eyes as he helped his men ache the craft over a road of poles, down to the still-smooth Euphrates, or was it just the first drops of…
Rose Postma
January 1, 2014
Poetry

Creation as an Almond Tree in Abraham Kuyper’s Orchard

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014: POETRY by Rose Postma The leaves, which are not leaves, are silverfish, which are not fish at all but wingless insects: translucent as uterine vellum, antennae always craving flight, exodus. Some sloughed by wind as finger nail clippings or dried skin cells to the floor, destined for the garbage can. The remnant is clinging to the gray-bark trunk, to the branches and the peach tree suckers growing below the grafting line, not clinging, grasping. Held, bound, always feeling…
Rose Postma
January 1, 2014
Essays

Boasting: It is Included

Matthew S. Vos I'm an accomplished loser. I really am. I don't offer this bit of self-deprecation to vaunt my humility right before revealing a long list of breathtaking accomplishments. In truth, I've won only three things during my forty-four years on God's good earth. When I was thirteen, I won Cadet of the Year for my work accumulating merit badges in a scout-like group in our Christian Reformed Church. However, that year they split the award between two of…
Matthew S. Vos
January 1, 2014
Inside Out

Numbering Our Days

Daniel Meeter The lifespan of a dog is about 4,400 days. A mouse gets six hundred. Human beings get 25,560 days, or by reason of strength, 29,211. Tortoises get 40,000, and sequoias get 365,000 and more. Why aren't we content with our number? Why do we, of all creatures, expect to live forever? The biblical Hebrews did not believe in human immortality. There is not one word in the Torah about life after death, which is remarkable when you consider…
Daniel Meeter
January 1, 2014