Homeward Bound

My now two year old boy has been having trouble going to sleep. Frequently Montana and I will hear him cry, "Wind, wind!" from his crib. On some evenings if the wind hits the side of the house just right, it will howl. The boy being only two years old is afraid. As he has developed he has grown in his sensitivity to danger, noises, scary things. A few nights ago I held Hudson in his room and I gave him a mini sermon on the sovereignty of God. I started on a naturally human level. I tried to explain to him how the winds is logically not a scary thing. At least not in November in Southern Maryland. Maybe on an island in the Pacific during typhoon season, but not here. Even if it did really blow we are blessed with a structurally sound house that shelters us from its effects. The noise is, just that: noise. It is outside of our house and the noise cannot really do anything to us. "But even if it could harm us, God is sovereign over the wind," I explained. Not...

One of my great struggles is timidity. Fear. Fear of man, fear of failure, fear of not being accepted or approved of. Fear of being derided or lambasted for my beliefs. Far from your classic provocateur, I am not one who enjoys cutting against the common grain. I do not like to stand out. I want to blend in, I do not want to cause fuss. To put it a bit more positively (or negatively), one of my struggles is cowardice. Some people are wired for the battle. They are naturally bold; if you come hard on them there instinct is to come back twice as hard. Me not so much, and much of my struggles revolve around how do I exactly speak up about my faith when an opportunity arises? How do I stand up for what is right when what is wrong is promoted and celebrated? How do I stand for a message and a belief system that is so counter everything our times holds dear? Paul famously   wrote his son in the faith Timothy a passage I may have to glue on every surface in my house, car, and wo...

In economics class I learned about the reality of unintended consequences. Often economic policy through say “minimum wage” or “tariffs on foreign imports” are enacted with good intentions: to get the laborer in a low-income job a little fatter check every two weeks; to give domestic companies the upper hand against the often-subsidized international competition. But what man intended for good, man often just makes plain worse. That minimum wage hike may be more likely to get the laborer laid off than promoted; and that home team advantage tariff is likely to burden your own people just as much as it does the outside competition. Outside of economics, just about every well-intended decision has some kind of unforeseen, unintended consequence. I want to talk about the American church’s well-intentioned plan to make church more appealing to the lost. In the 1990s to the early 2000s seeker sensitivity was all the rage. They argued that with the rise in Biblical illiteracy, churches ...

As the world drifts further away from truth, the truth will look increasingly abnormal to the world. As people of truth, there will be much temptation to smooth the hard edges of the Word of God in order to be seen in a more appealing light. There is pressure to stay relevant, or if not relevant; at least not be the "bigots" the previous generations were. We have seen this softening in much of the Seeker Sensitive church methodology. The padded preaching and the positive and encouraging radio stations. "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life, He is crazy about you!" We see it in many Christians who feel the need to apologize or make excuses for the portions of Scripture our generation has problems with. We see it in the, what I call, Christian motivationalism, where God is your life coach and he is trying to get you to accomplish your goals. "He is for you, not against you!" Many try to straddle the line between the harsh tones of S...

All in David's army attained not to be equal with his few worthies in prowess and honor, and yet did not cashier themselves: thou hast reason to be thankful for the meanest place in the army of saints, the least communications of gospel mercy and grace must not be overlooked. *** The quote above resonated with me as I was plodding through William Gurnall’s Christian in Complete Armour . I have written before about being content with the role God has given you, of giving up notions of "greatness" in exchange for a life of faithfulness, of losing your own ambitions for the cause of the glory of God. These ideas are relevant to the season I am in now. I am learning godliness with contentment in the days of small things. What Gurnall means is there were many in David’s army did not make the top tier of his "Mighty Men." For every name etched in timeless Scripture there were hundreds in the common rank and file who also fought and bled. Yet we do not kn...

September has flown by for me. A complete blur. At the beginning of the month Montana and I were wondering when this "unknown gendered" baby would be born, and what we would name he/she. The name in particular was something that would go down to the wire. On September 4th we welcomed Brooks Martyn Harris into the world. He seemed in a hurry to get out too. We checked into the OB floor 6:40 AM, and baby was born 7:13 AM; that is what you call a close one! I was able to take about a week and a half off work to tend to the family. We were blessed with a meal train, where friends and family brought us food night after night, a tremendous and obvious help. Montana and I have a lot of support and the love from friends and family is quite overwhelming. We are now adjusting to a new rhythm and hoping things start to settle into a new routine. A new normal. Having an infant in the home is not a new thing for us. We can handle the sleep deprivation and the disrupted schedule--w...

This is a link to an excellent post regarding the recent “falling away” of prominent evangelical author and pastor Joshua Harris. The writer of the famous book I Kissed Dating Goodbye announced that he was “deconstructing” and no longer would call himself a Christian. He also gave an apology to the LGBTQ+ community. Other than the well-known book, I know little of Joshua Harris or his ministry. I have grown increasingly unsurprised when those who walked among us for a time leave the fold. I have witnessed not a few friends and prominent evangelicals fall away the last several years.  I do not want to jump to quick reactions thinking that many of these men and women (like Joshua Harris) were never truly earnest or committed to God at one point in their lives. I do not know the thoughts or intents of their hearts. My vantage point is limited—sufficiently so. While it does not surprise me that people will and do leave the faith, it always saddens me. It also causes me...