A Tree Planted by Streams of Water: A Chicago Update

It's been over a month since my wife and I moved to Chicago. It's been longer since I sent out any official update. And as I sit here thinking how exactly to describe what has happened in that time I am reminded of our very first weekend here in the city.

My wife and I took a walk along the beach of Lake Michigan that first Sabbath. She was surprised to see trees on the beach. She lived on the East Coast her whole life and so her experience of beaches was the ocean. Most trees do not do well with salt water. Her surprise caused me to stop and actually look at the tree. I was instantly reminded of Psalm 1. As I think back over this past month I realize that it is when I delight in the Lord that I am blessed and at peace.

How Should Christians Respond to Crisis?

At the time of writing this article, all anyone sees in the news is COVID-19. There is a lot of fear and confusion around the virus and it can become easy for Christians to get caught up in the chaos. We can under-react and pretend like this is going to be gone tomorrow. We can overreact, sell all our 401k stock, and buy a year’s supply of toilet paper. Neither of these options is helpful or really even Biblical.

I have seen many well-tempered and well-informed responses to this crisis from Christians. So many in fact, that I thought that perhaps my writing about this was redundant. But this is a series about engaging life with proper theology and so I decided to give my take on the issue. As always there will be a livestream to discuss. The livestream for this article will be Wednesday April 15th at 8pm EST.

Black & Blue

I have spent this past week helping out with a camp of kindergarten through 3rd graders. It has been draining. But not as draining as the national news this week. It has been a week of contrasts. A week where my spotty cell phone service would tell me of another horrific shooting, followed by singing upbeat songs about Jesus. It has been a week where, everyday that I drove the kids to the pool, I passed a sign that said Blue Lives matter. The cogitative dissonance has been deafening. Our nation is tearing apart and we see the bruises.