Simply Gospel

The pilot episode of Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report gave me one of the biggest a-ha moments I can remember having while watching a television program.  In the pilot, Colbert introduced the idea of truthiness in a segment called The Wørd (a parody of a certain someone else’s Talking Points segment) and described it as something that feels right – regardless of whether or not actual facts support it. We see truthiness around us every day. It may not be true that the McDonald’s coffee lawsuit was a million-dollar jackpot for an old lady who carelessly spilled her coffee while speeding down the… Continue reading

Daniel’s mom is preparing two new things for dinner – vegetable spaghetti and banana swirl. Poor Daniel isn’t sure whether or not he’ll like the entrée and dessert, but his mom reassures him, “We gotta try new foods, ’cause they might taste good.” Of course, Daniel tries both dishes and likes them both. His friend Miss Elaine isn’t so lucky and finds that she prefers plain spaghetti with salad over vegetable spaghetti. Still, both children try something new, and it’s a lesson any Christian could take to heart. We in Christ’s church have a problem: we reject out of habit.… Continue reading

We all get made at times. Daniel and his friends have a hard time dealing with anger in an episode at the music store. They don’t always get a turn right when they want it, and the adults (who are always wonderfully on the same page with each other) advise the kids to “take a deep breath, and count to four.” At no point do the grown-ups invalidate the kids’ feelings. They don’t tell Daniel and friends to just get over it. They acknowledge and respect their kids’ feelings and give them a coping mechanism to help. It’s reminiscent of the old… Continue reading

Daniel’s dad is building him a playhouse, and Daniel wants to help. He’s not big enough to use some of the tools, though, but Dad points out that their are other ways in which Daniel can help. After all, everyone is big enough to do something. It seems so simple. Our family even sings it around our house whenever our daughter finds her own ways to be helpful. Of course everyone is big enough to do something, so why don’t we act that way with Christ’s work? In the church of Christ, I’ve developed pet peeves around the uses of… Continue reading

In another episode of Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, the kids are playing house at preschool when Prince Wednesday storms in roaring. He wants to pretend to be a dinosaur, but the others are worried his roaring will wake the pretend baby. Katarina doesn’t want Wednesday to play with them at all, but Teacher Harriet encourages them to find a way to play together. Prince Wednesday decides to be a quiet dinosaur, and all is right with the world in the Land of Make Believe. Solutions may not be so easy in the real world, but I sometimes worry that we Christians… Continue reading

I was reading a church bulletin lately that contained one of those stereotypical articles about a contentious point of doctrine, and it ended with a declaration: “Those who love the Lord will honor His Word!” And it’s one of those phrases that always leaves me a bit uncomfortable. It contains the same dangerous assumption as the oft repeated refrain: “If someone really loves God, then they’ll…” fill in the blank. Indirect Self-Praise It boils down to this: “The struggles you have are different or more obvious than mine. Therefore you can’t possibly love God as much as me.” It’s a… Continue reading