“Hell is being looked at,” said the famous existential philosopher Jean-Paul Sarte. I went to Gettysburg College, and you guessed it, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, for two reasons: to play football and to wrestle. A severe neck injury my first year ended both. The next year I transferred to the University of Massachusetts. Why? I did not want to be looked at, looked at as the kid who got injured, looked at as the ex-athlete. The experience of being looked at can be traumatic….
Everyone wants wholeheartedness. Popular and award-winning author and speaker, Brene Brown, has spent her life studying the difficult emotions of shame, fear, and vulnerability. She says these difficult emotions are so painful because we are hardwired for their opposite – “wholeheartedness.” What is wholeheartedness?…
Frank was baptized as an infant and confirmed at the age of fourteen within the Episcopal Church. During his first year in college, he left the church and became agnostic. At a point of crisis in his sophomore year, Frank had a religious experience through an evangelical campus ministry; to mark this experience he was re-baptized in a river…
Whenever we rejoice for our suffering instead of in our suffering, we try to justify ourselves by our suffering. Justification makes a difference in our lives by ending our suffering-by-works and beginning our suffering-by-grace.
Springs in the Valley tells the story of a man who found a barn where Satan kept his evil seeds stored, ready to be sown in the human heart. After a quick survey of the barn, the man discovered that the seeds of discouragement were more numerous than all the other seeds stored in the barn.
In other words, the cosmic acceptance and affection we crave and strive for is not found in people or in our performance but rather is found in Jesus and His performance.
Paul assumes all are trying to build themselves up, trying to construct confidence. Whatever we boast in is what gives us confidence to go out and face the day. Whatever we boast in is what supports the weight of our lives - it fundamentally defines us.
Everyone is struggling for righteousness. It could be Olympic-righteousness, achievement-righteousness, Mom-righteousness, body image-righteousness, food-righteousness, relational-righteousness, ideological-righteousness, or religious righteousness…
