Gideon’s story begins like so many in the Old Testament: “The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord.” Does anyone else wonder what their problem was? Why couldn’t they ever just keep it together? (It’s because they were human.) The overarching lesson is no matter how many times we mess up, God will …
Deliver Us From The Empires We’ve Built
In the late 80s and early 90s, The Ten Commandments aired on television every Easter Sunday, so like a Norman Rockwell painting, my family watched it together at my grandmother’s house while eating cake shaped like a cartoon rabbit’s head; coconut supplementing for fur and jelly beans for eyes and a mouth. I loved the …
The Power of Wonder Women
Esther is one of the few above-the-title stars of the Bible who happens to be a woman and she, more than many of the men whose names may be far more famous than hers, was a badass. Not only was she a badass, but her story isn’t covered in the stains of her personal pratfalls …
Just as You Are
Jesus’ interaction with Zacchaeus is a story most church kids know—it’s easily digestible and involves climbing trees—but I think the reason it resonates so clearly with us when we’re young is because of our inherent smallness. We could relate to Zacchaeus because we too lived lives always looking up at the action. There was even …
Creation and Consequence
I love the story of Adam and Eve. As a kid, I loved it because they lived in what I imagined was a climate-controlled garden full of only the good animals. Lions, tigers, giraffes, otters, baby elephants; the good animals. To a seven-year-old, that sounded like an ideal life. Who am I kidding? I’m in …