Take a moment and think of some of your favorite stories of Jesus in the Bible…. I bet most of the ones that came to your mind involve Jesus displaying his love and care for humanity, whether it’s working a miracle, healing, teaching, etc. We read these stories and think “Wow, that guy really didn’t buy enough wine for his wedding guests? What a dummy!” or “That woman really fought through a crowd just to touch Jesus’ robe? She must have been really desperate.” It’s easy for us to read our Bible or hear these stories, take them at face value, and focus on just how great and awesome Jesus is. And let’s be clear, He is great and He is awesome. But, if we narrow down the obvious and say that no

Portions of this essay are taken from a compelling presentation by Rob Bell. Here are some quantitative facts about breathing from a medical perspective. Each day we take about 26,000 breaths. This equals about 14,000 liters of air. Experts tell us that we are not to breathe from our chest, but from our stomach – yogis are well-versed in this type of breathing, as are those trained in Pilates, meditation workers, midwives leading lamaz, singers, and woodwind and brass musicians. But on any given day, when we’re distracted or stressed or moody or angry or simply not paying attention, we are breathing from our chest, and we are breathing very quickly. We need only be taking 4 to 6 breat

I have a project I’m planning – it’s loosely called “Big Churchy Words for Kids” and will hopefully be either a book or curriculum that tackles some of the jargon and specialty words that we as Christians often use, in order to break them down into digestible bits for kids. The bit I’ve been chewing on lately is faith. I do a lot of my thinking in the car on my commute in to Media, and today the phrase “blind faith” kept coming back to me. And honestly, I don’t like it. Yes, Hebrews 11:1 tells us, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” (NIV) And popular culture shouts aloud, saying that religious faith is unprovable and invisible and therefore