I keep re-reading a single phrase in this quote. Tolkien is pulling apart what makes a “good” talk versus what makes a “real” sermon. Good takes human craft—skill, study, and standard virtuous effort. Those are things you can practice. But a “real” one, he says, relies on a gift from the outside, a moment whereContinueContinue reading “J.R.R. Tolkien on Letter 63”
Tag Archives: faith
Done Caring What’s Right
There’s a moment when you realize the problem isn’t that people believe the wrong things. It’s that they’ve stopped caring which things are true. I’ve been watching that happen across my country for a while now. Both sides. Every tribe. Same reason, though they’d never admit it — and honestly may not even see it.ContinueContinue reading “Done Caring What’s Right”
A Headline, a Rabbit Hole, and the Upper Room
I wasn’t looking for a theology lesson this morning. Just sitting in the recliner in the living room, cats sleeping in morning sun through the windows, the new normal now while we’re scrolling. Outside, the pines are still damp from the rain yesterday. Then a Newsweek headline stopped me cold: a Catholic group called theContinueContinue reading “A Headline, a Rabbit Hole, and the Upper Room”
Torn Awake
We’ve been reading in the ancient accounts from Israel’s early kings… real history, at least as I’ve always believed it, not something I read like a storybook. My wife and I have been going through it together in the mornings, usually with coffee, the city still half-asleep around us. There’s something about those mornings thatContinueContinue reading “Torn Awake”
One Year In
It was May 13 last year when I first hit publish. The post was called “Greetings from the Deep South, USA.” Nothing fancy. Just a hello from where I sit. I still remember the ordinary light in the room that morning… and the quiet resolve it took to send the words out anyway. A yearContinueContinue reading “One Year In”