JJ 24 #31: Being A Platform

Serving others is sometimes about giving others the platform to flourish. When I was much younger, I muddled around with activities that gave the impression I knew what I was doing, but I was largely without direction. I had an awareness of what I could do, I knew what I enjoyed doing, and I had […]

JJ 24 #30: Pass or Fail

Did you pass, or did you fail? We don’t want to say that things are always black or white. We don’t like the binary way things work out occasionally. We prefer the element of ambiguity, the shades of grey, the aspect in which it isn’t one thing or the other but a mix—a hodgepodge. I […]

JJ 24 #29: Trust Us to be Typically Human

There is an interesting approach to life that says it’s good to believe the best and expect the worst. This is applied particularly to whatever requires interaction with others. When we believe in the best, it expresses the part in us that believes we can work together coherently and produce the goods. We believe it, […]

JJ 24 #28: Constituent Parts

I am very glad that Jesus warned me about suffering. I don’t like pain, you see, so when I read episodes in scripture like the ones in Acts where the apostles rejoice after getting flogged, I know that this only happens because of Jesus. I know they can only rejoice because they recall what following […]

JJ 24 #27: When I Get Irritable

I get irritable sometimes, so it’s a work of grace to drag me out of that when I get there and need to consider those things. Even the mechanics of things can make me appreciate the admirable. Take blogging, for example. It’s something that I’ve been doing for nearly two decades. I appreciate that in […]

JJ 24 #26: The Real Deal

We have a role to perform in life. The challenge is not to make it an act. Knowing Jesus as the way, the truth and the life challenged me to discover which part of me was just an act. I had a problem with that for a while. Putting on the act appeared to have […]

JJ 24 #25: Who Your Real Friend Is

We got to know each other when we studied together long ago. She lost a loved one and thought about contacting me to share the news. Although we were not as close as we had been during the studies, we kept in touch. To get the call and spend time with her, just hearing her […]

JJ 24 #23: The Words Are For …

I cannot remember a time when I didn’t love words. Every memory I have is heavily informed by words, and as someone deeply invested in them, it’s no surprise that I’m heavily biased about them. There was a phase when I was into using the words to make notes of ideas for films and television […]

JJ 24 #22: That’s Strange

Have I told you about my pet peeve about Matthew 25? I know it’s not you, but it’s probably someone else you know. My peeve with it comes when people think that Matthew has Jesus outline three parables. So they refer to the parable of the virgins, the parable of the talents and the parable […]

JJ 24 #20: Grateful for Mercies

Mercy. There are words that are essential to life as a Christian. Mercy is one of those words. It’s not a word that is part of the culture, really. It’s certainly not as drenched in the make-up of society as it’s a pivotal part of the journey of those who have acknowledged Jesus as Lord […]