Unusual Motivations
"I will have no right to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share...
Friendship
30 studies
Finding Friends
We lived in an apartment complex next to one of Atlanta's largest churches. Every Sunday, we walked across the parking l...
With
I walked slowly down the potluck tables, overloading my paper plate with rotisserie chicken, a green bean casserole, and...
Hidden Friends
On March 16, 1968, Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson was flying a helicopter over My Lai in Vietnam. As he looked down, he s...
I Just Couldn't See It
"For five months I've perceived you as being arrogant to me. So I've been praying for you every day and trying to start...
DoorDash Jesus
For ten years after college, I worked as a campus minister. So, my income depended on the sacrificial giving of others....
Reflect: Come and See
The Friend Who Brought You
Sitting in the library at the University of Aberdeen, I argued with an atheist for seven hours. By the end of the day, I...
Holiness Happens When We Stop Hiding
I was twenty-four, running through a park near Waynoka Avenue in Memphis. Mile two, maybe three. The cold air burned my...
True Friends Might Wound Us
When I was fifteen, my grandfather asked if he could talk with me for a moment. I could tell from the tone of his voice...
When You Feel Invisible
I was standing in the foyer of a massive megachurch, watching everyone else do what I couldn't figure out how to do. Eve...
A Thousand Friends
When I first started using Facebook, I was amazed that I could be friends with anyone. I made over a thousand friends, s...
And
In the fall of 2003, I was sitting in a chair outside Emory's dining hall by myself. But suddenly, I felt surrounded by...
Three Friends At Dawn
"It's a shooting star!" "What, where?" (Obviously, they were far above our heads). I scrambled to find the tent's zipper...
The Guts of Love
When I was going through a tough season in my life, one friend kept reaching out. I felt weird pouring out so many compl...
A New Family
At the end of every school year, I always looked forward to getting the yearbook. The first thing I did was turn to the...
Making A Profit
My wife and I once made a small gift to a cause we cared about. It's been a few years, and we're still getting automated...
Imitate Me
Chuck Johnston, my high school Bible study leader, taught me the book of James. I don't remember anything he said. But...
Euodia and Syntyche
In March 2007, I flew to the Bay Area for InterVarsity's Asian American Staff Conference. During the conference, they se...
Obeying My Friend
I want to evaluate God's ideas and follow the ones that make sense. If his suggestions are difficult, costly, or even in...
I Had To Tell You
I had just asked him to tell me the story of his commitment to Jesus. He answered by telling me about a long chain of di...
The Wobbly Table
Fifteen years ago, a freshman and I met every week at a hip coffee shop in Boston for a Bible study. We sat at a tiny ro...
Spiritually Lonely
During COVID, our church moved to live-streamed worship and Zoom calls for community groups. While I enjoyed the convers...
Radioactive
I visualized myself as being toxic, like a radioactive substance hidden in a glass test tube. Who would want to be assoc...
Mile 24
As the starting gun cracked for the 2002 St. Jude Memphis Marathon, two of my closest friends and I jumped out at a 7:04...
I'll Pray For You
I recently contributed to two Meal Trains. One person had a baby, another is fighting cancer. I didn't know how to get a...
Between The Door and The Rooster
My friends kept inviting me to hang out with them and Sam. They were patient and kind with him, whether he was depressed...
Overlooked
The job posting for a senior pastor required "transformational leadership," "top-notch" Bible teaching, and meeting "sta...
Despised
A church consulting group produced a report on how to engineer church growth. They recommend using data analytics to und...
Your Spiritual Plus One
A group at church asked me to speak to them about how to stay connected to their kids who had walked away from Jesus. As...
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