“It’s no accident, I think, that tennis uses the language of life. Advantage, service, fault, break, love, the basic elements of tennis are those of everyday existence, because every match is a life in miniature. Even the structure of tennis, the way the pieces fit inside one another like Russian nesting dolls, mimics the structure […]
“I learned a long time ago, Reuven, that a blink of an eye in itself is nothing. But the eye that blinks, that is something. A span of life is nothing. But the man who lives that span, he is something. He can fill that tiny span with meaning, so its quality is immeasurable though […]
“You can’t make a race horse of a pig.”“No,” said Samuel, “but you can make a very fast pig.” “It is easy to find a logical and virtuous reason for not doing what you don’t want to do.” “The quick pain of truth can pass away, but the slow, eating agony of a lie is […]
When a child first catches adults out — when it first walks into his grave little head that adults do not always have divine intelligence, that their judgments are not always wise, their thinking true, their sentences just — his world falls into panic desolation. The gods are fallen and all safety gone. And there […]
There is this one part where The Big Advocate of Jesus of Nazareth finds himself doubting whether or not Jesus of Nazareth is actually Immanuel. The Big Advocate is suffering in prison, and he sends a query to Jesus – a raw, haunting question – “Are you really The One, or should we be looking […]
The Bible is a Full Disclosure/Radically Honest document. God has absolutely zero interest in airbrushing His “heroes.” Most religious texts and media outlets promoting certain people try to make their patriarchs look like porcelain statues; but the Bible reads more like a police blotter mixed with a messy family group chat. It’s not sanitized. It’s […]
Luke 10… Jesus is all like, “The harvest is plentiful!” Great, right? We’re thinking big yields, full barns, and spiritual abundance. But then, in the very next breath, He drops the kicker: “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves.” …That’s like saying, “The buffet is huge! Now go jump into that pit of […]
This actually happened! The government (an extremely powerful, and extremely non-Christian government) decreed that the the church be left alone, and free to conduct its business without interference or intrusion. AND… O baby, get ready for this! The government (an extremely powerful, and extremely non-Christian government) decreed that the expenses of the church should be […]
I just recently found out that the Hebrew word for “wrestle” is word used for “wrestled” is ye’aveq (יֵאָבֵק). The root is abaq (אָבַק), and it literally translates to “to get dusty” (a gritty, ground-based struggle). To “wrestle” someone was to “dust” them or to become covered in the dust of the earth together. THIS […]
First-of-all, let’s observe that John addresses this letter to Gaius. What was Gaius like? Was he like Willy Wonka? Was he like Master Oogway? Was he like Phil Connors? Gaius was a real person, so he certainly had a distinct personality, and a unique quality of character. Second, John says, “I pray that all may […]