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The Uniqueness of our Suffering
Tragedy gives movement to our story as we attempt to change or give meaning to our taste of death. Yet we are always much more than our tragedies. Each one of us is unique. We have a different name, f... -
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It is Well
If you ever travel to Jerusalem and are looking for sites to see, beyond all the ‘must-see’ sites related to Ancient Israel, the Temple Mount, and the sites associated with Jesus, you might venture to... -
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All great historical facts and personages occur, as it were, twice ... the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce. -
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Daily Thanks and the Tragedy of a Consumer Culture
Melissa Florer-Bixler, a Mennonite pastor, told me, “One of my favorite stories from the Talmud comes from a wondering by the rabbis—why did the manna come once a day instead of once a year? They tell... -
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Unfortunately, the reality is that we tolerate being less than we are called to be. Pride is not the ultimate sin; forgetfulness of our origin and destiny is, in fact, the ultimate tragedy. -
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The Christmas Gift
A preaching professor at Harvard University tells the story of the year his 5-year-old son was working on an art project in his kindergarten class. It was made of plaster, resembled nothing in particu... -
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Today friendship has fallen on hard times. Few men have good friends, much less deep friendships. Individualism, autonomy, privatization, and isolation are culturally cachet, but deep, devoted, vulner... -
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Virtue as Part of Our Story
Alasdair MacIntyre’s After Virtue reconnected thinking about ethics back to virtue by connecting virtue to the story a life is a part of. In order to know how we ought to live, we first need to answ... -
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Is it Callous to Avoid the News?
The contemporary novelist Barbara Kingsolver, in a marvelous essay detailing why she and her family don’t watch TV, describes a conversation she had with a friend about the airplane crash involving Jo... -
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Watching the Same Movie Over and Over Again
I met a man who watches The Lord of the Rings movies every night. When he told me this I pushed back: “Every night?” He said that when he gets off work he goes home, fixes his dinner, turns on the m... -
liturgy
God of grace and God of glory on your
God of grace and God of glory on your people pour your power...Grant us wisdom, grant us courage for the facing of this hour. Lord—we need You...today, tomorrow and forever. We need you to heal those ... -
blog
Spare: Privilege and Pain
What do the royals and a Rorschach test have in common? Both provoke reactions that tell us more about the attitudes and beliefs of the beholder than about the object of their gaze. This is not to say... -
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Mr. Average Man
In 1965 Billy Graham wrote a bestselling book titled World on Fire. In it, he wrote, “Mr. Average Man is comfortable in his complacency and as unconcerned as a silverfish ensconced in a carton of disc... -
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We receive celebrities simply because they are ‘conservative,’ without asking what they are conserving. If you are angry with the same people we are, you must be one of us. But it would be a tragedy t... -
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Music in Wartime
From 1992 to 1995 the world witnessed one of the worst civil conflicts, the Bosnian War. Three factions, each tied to a religion (Orthodox Serbs, Catholic Croats, and Muslim Bosniaks), began attacking... -
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A faith without some doubts is like a human body with no antibodies in it. People who blithely go through life too busy or indifferent to ask the hard questions about why they believe as they do will ... -
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Stories are about the vicissitudes of human intention. Trouble is what drives the drama. -
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Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player. That struts and frets his hour upon the stage. And then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. -
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In the torment of the insufficiency of everything attainable, we learn that ultimately in this world there is no finished symphony. -
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The Drama of Humanity & Nations
In his excellent little book, A Testament of Devotion , Thomas Kelly describes the inward reality that governs the course of history: Out in front of us is the drama of men and of nations, seethi... -
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Man's greatest actions are performed in minor struggles. Life, misfortune, isolation, abandonment and poverty are battlefields which have their heroes - obscure heroes who are at times greater tha... -
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It is tragic how few people ever ‘possess their souls’ before they die. ‘Nothing is more rare in any man,’ says Emerson, ‘than an act of his own.’ It is quite true. Most people are other people. -
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Suffering is a dreadful teacher but often the beginning of the best in us. Suffering and creativity arc often interdependent. Pain produces a terrible tension released in our creative response. Suffer... -
liturgy
Gracious God, we are called to be a
Gracious God, we are called to be a joyful people, giving thanks for You and Your good gifts. There are times, however, when sin and sorrow grow, pushing joy to the side. We lose sight of Your grace, ... -
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Almost all heroic individuals face grave crises while they are still on the road to reaching the ultimate decision that they will remain faithful to their selves, whatever the cost. -
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The truth to which all this fiction refers, from which it takes its authority, is the very oldest truth, right out of Genesis. We are not at ease in this world, and sooner or later it kills us. -
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Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it. -
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History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again. -
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Tolkien on Happy Endings
J. R. R. Tolkien coined the term "eucatastrophe" to refer to the unexpected happy ending at the end of a fairy tale, achieved by grace rather than effort. The consolation of fairy-stories,... -
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Gandalf at his parting from Sam, Merry, and Pippin at the Gray Havens: "I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil."
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U
W
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Y
Top_level_categories by Reference
Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Joshua
Judges
Ruth
2 Samuel
2 Kings
1 Chronicles
2 Chronicles
Esther
Job
Psalm
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- Ps 47 (1)
- Ps 48 (1)
- Ps 51 (18)
- Ps 52 (1)
- Ps 55 (1)
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- Ps 71 (1)
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- Ps 78 (2)
- Ps 80 (2)
- Ps 82 (6)
- Ps 84 (2)
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- Ps 86 (3)
- Ps 88 (1)
- Ps 89 (1)
- Ps 90 (8)
- Ps 92 (2)
- Ps 94 (1)
- Ps 95 (4)
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- Ps 98 (6)
- Ps 100 (5)
- Ps 103 (9)
- Ps 104 (4)
- Ps 105 (1)
- Ps 107 (1)
- Ps 111 (1)
- Ps 112 (2)
- Ps 113 (2)
- Ps 115 (2)
- Ps 117 (1)
- Ps 118 (2)
- Ps 119 (9)
- Ps 121 (1)
- Ps 122 (1)
- Ps 124 (1)
- Ps 126 (2)
- Ps 127 (5)
- Ps 128 (1)
- Ps 133 (5)
- Ps 135 (1)
- Ps 136 (2)
- Ps 139 (16)
- Ps 141 (2)
- Ps 143 (1)
- Ps 145 (4)
- Ps 147 (6)
- Ps 148 (1)
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Proverbs
- Prov 1 (1)
- Prov 2 (1)
- Prov 3 (19)
- Prov 4 (7)
- Prov 5 (1)
- Prov 6 (1)
- Prov 9 (1)
- Prov 10 (2)
- Prov 11 (5)
- Prov 12 (6)
- Prov 13 (4)
- Prov 14 (9)
- Prov 15 (4)
- Prov 16 (10)
- Prov 17 (6)
- Prov 18 (8)
- Prov 19 (9)
- Prov 20 (2)
- Prov 21 (7)
- Prov 22 (7)
- Prov 23 (3)
- Prov 24 (2)
- Prov 25 (1)
- Prov 26 (1)
- Prov 27 (7)
- Prov 28 (2)
- Prov 29 (7)
- Prov 30 (2)
- Prov 31 (11)
Ecclesiastes
Song of Solomon
Isaiah
- Isa 1 (13)
- Isa 2 (4)
- Isa 5 (4)
- Isa 6 (3)
- Isa 7 (1)
- Isa 9 (14)
- Isa 11 (2)
- Isa 12 (1)
- Isa 25 (1)
- Isa 26 (5)
- Isa 28 (4)
- Isa 30 (7)
- Isa 32 (1)
- Isa 35 (1)
- Isa 40 (26)
- Isa 41 (11)
- Isa 42 (2)
- Isa 43 (10)
- Isa 44 (2)
- Isa 45 (1)
- Isa 47 (2)
- Isa 49 (3)
- Isa 51 (1)
- Isa 53 (11)
- Isa 55 (13)
- Isa 56 (1)
- Isa 57 (4)
- Isa 58 (7)
- Isa 60 (6)
- Isa 61 (16)
- Isa 64 (2)
- Isa 66 (2)