Book Review: “When a Daughter Dies,” by Ben Witherington, with Ann Witherington
I had to check the date more than once. Ben and Ann Witherington lost their daughter Christy on January 11, 2012. On March 15th—only slightly more than two months later—Ben and Ann released an eBook titled When a Daughter Dies: Walking the Way of Grace in the Midst of Our Grief. Only a few months prior,...
The Bermuda Triangle of the Heart
Becki and I recently watched an episode of Hoarders, and the psychologists who worked with the show’s subjects said something about how compulsive hoarders attempt to fill inner voids with “stuff.” They attempt to alleviate their suffering with material things, and their hearts and houses become like miniature Bermuda Triangles, harboring lost wreckage from the...
A Harrowing Hallelujah: An Interview with Author Heather Gilion + Book Giveaway
Though He slay me, yet I will hope in Him. – Job 13:15 Before I met Heather, I only knew who she was because life’s fatal finger had smeared ashes on her forehead, making her something of a living reminder of the reality of death in this world. I read about her in a newspaper,...
Buying You, Selling Me: Love Commodified
Note: I recently found this piece I wrote in late 2006, only a month before I began dating Becki, the woman who would become my wife. I thought it was a reasonably worthwhile piece of writing considering it was penned – er, keyed – by my then 28-year-old self. This may seem like a strange...
Peeing in the Gene Pool + Postscript “A Good Waffle is Hard to Find”
Last night I shopped at Walmart and found myself hemmed in by gene pool mutants. I know, I know. God made them. God loves them. I should too. I probably should have baked them a cake then and there at the Walmart bakery, Mom. I know that’s what Jesus would have done. But instead I...
The Cinemaddict on John Huston’s “Wise Blood”
Wise Blood (Dir. John Huston) **** (out of 5) Art Below by Josh Cochran. I am officially a Flannery O’Connor convert – a Flannery O’Connvert, I suppose. (Cue rimshot.) When I first heard about her and her status as one of America’s literary greats I suspected that I would find her to be someone else’s...
When Kurt Cobain Was the Sun Around Which the Musical Universe Revolved
This post is dedicated to my Seattle-based agent Jenée Arthur, who was kind enough to buy me a copy of Charles R. Cross’sCobain Unseenafter I signed with her. Thank you for all your hard work, Jenée. Enjoy the read. I spent an hour with Seattle’s lost son Kurt Cobain a few nights ago. I walked on...
Words We Took With Us Into War: Meditations on Marriage
Since I have OCD, I suppose there was something entirely appropriate – even unsurprising – about the fact that, when I asked my dad to preside at my wedding, I provided him with quotes for his homily that drew exclusively upon writers who published under initials rather than using their first names: G. K. Chesterton, C. S....
Through a Windshield Darkly: Toward a Theology of Road Rage
Whenever I am tailed by a hyped-up hooligan with road rage, I always wish there was a nonviolent way to confront the person – a way that does not involve a crowbar cracking someone’s cranium. Opportunities for nonviolent enemy engagement rarely present themselves – except today. This morning, after taking my wife’s Honda to the dealer...
Drug Not Lest Ye Be Drugged
On Sunday our pastor, Matt, distributed dime-bags to the children in our church. Allow me to rephrase that: In order to teach children about tithing, our pastor gave each child who visited the altar for the children’s sermon a plastic bag containing ten dimes. He referred to his stewardship strategy as the “10-10-80” plan, and...
“(Not) Almost Famous”: My Time in the Christian Music Underground
When I was 17 I wrote music reviews for my youth group newsletter, and people encouraged me to submit them to magazines for publication. Upon reading them now, I am not entirely sure why – perhaps people were just being nice to the pastor’s son? In any case, being the intense lad I was and...
On Churches and Mausoleums: A State of the Church Address
This week Anne Rice posted a comment on Facebook that prompted me to think about the state of the church in post-modern America. She announced that, although she is still committed to Christ, she is fed up with Christian culture, with the church, etc. She is still a believer, but she follows Christ rather than His followers. ...