Professor of Art and Design at Harding University. Married to Meagan and father to Savannah and Lauren. I love printmaking, letterpress and bookbinding.
One lesson that we Christians have not learned in the last +2,000 years is that Jesus had no political control over the Roman Empire and he still changed the world.
We keep trying to change the world the way the Roman Empire did, instead of the way Jesus did.
A Christianity that acts as though it needs a political party, a president, a Supreme Court, and a government to secure, maintain, and impose the will of its god on our culture is a Christianity that doesn’t really believe its god is powerful enough to stand on its own at all.
I used to think taking Jesus’ name in vain was to say “Jesus” as a cuss word.
Now I think it is when we Christians demonize, condemn, and mistreat people in the name of Jesus all while ignoring his teachings in our own lives, our churches, and our politics.
Self-knowledge means to be able to recognize our limitations and to curb the presumption of self-sufficiency. This proves beneficial because,once we realize that we are creatures, we become creative. We learn to immerse ourselves in the world instead of attempting to dominate it.
The body of Christ is called to be a sacred place for the vulnerable. We have often chosen to be a safe place for the powerful and have deceived ourselves into believing that God would call that good.
I thought faith would say, "I’ll take away the pain and discomfort."
But what it ended up saying is, "I’ll sit with you in it."
I never thought that that would be enough, but it’s perfect.
I don’t feel alone in it anymore.
- Brené Brown