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Commonsense Christianity

It’s not too late to give yourself the gift that you will treasure throughout your life, wrapping it up as a year-round, realistic New Year’s Resolution as well: Aggressively and unapologetically learn to think for yourself. In a society that worships conformity — in both its secular and religious institutions — individuals can’t get through…

Some bargains look better than others. Recently, at a consignment shop, I was drawn to a gorgeous Nativity set of tall, willowy statutettes, gilded with gold. That they were half-off because Christmas was over made them even more attractive. Of course, because this was a used Nativity set, some pieces were missing — generally this…

I know some people will jump all over this one, but I find my most effective time to pray is around 1 in the morning, when I have been awakened from a sound sleep and am still in a somnambulant state. Analytic thought is at a low point — which is where the scoffing comes in (“See,…

I’ve been a Christian for 31 years, and in that amount of time you see a lot of trends and fads: The Name It/Claim it Blab It/Grab It movement that damages the pure sense of trust we have in God’s wisdom to know and meet our needs just never goes away. If you don’t know…

Have you ever said this? I have: “I’m a Christian, but I’m not religious.” Religious, as an adjective, isn’t a particularly complimentary word, because it implies that the person participating in it is too focused on outward trappings: saying Thee and Thou instead of You; wearing esoteric clothing that separates him or her from the…

Christians have a bad reputation for being unkind, intolerant, harsh, judgmental, and self-righteous. Oh, and uneducated. Now of course, anytime you speak about, or live, moral absolutes, you’ll get attacked by people who don’t want to be told — either by your words or example — that what they’re doing is wrong. Jesus Himself didn’t…

I have just spent the last 45 minutes on hold waiting to talk to a representative from a government agency. At the start of the call, I was asked to enter my personalized identification number, which, in accordance with the U.S. national identification system (it exists, people, whether we acknowledge it or not) gives the…

Self-acceptance is one of those universal human issues that Christians aren’t supposed to talk about because, as we all know, we shouldn’t be worried about “self” anymore. And therein lies the problem — not the worrying about ourselves, but in the “shouldn’t be worried about” part that so consistently trips us up in our walk…

We are a society with little time to read, reflect, think, or meditate. Increasingly, our dialogue with one another is limited to whatever one-liners we can fit onto a Tweet, a text, or a Facebook post, and while I love a good one liner as much as anyone (“The only thing money gives you is…

Any time you stand up, stand out, or do your hair in a different style, people notice. Some individuals are really good about it, saying things like, “Cool hair. It frames your face well,” or, “That style’s . . . different. I can’t say that it particularly flatters you, but if you like it, then…
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