God put freedom in our DNA. We feel it when we look out over the ocean. Or when we can’t see over the prison wall. But if I’m honest with myself, I’m not always happy with how far God goes with this gift of freedom. Freedom means any number of possible outcomes, and they’re not all good. “God, do you see what’s happening down here? Could you scale back on the freedom just a bit, please?” As a...
Pure What?
Before I came to Regeneration, my accountability partners and I regularly talked about pursuing purity. Interestingly, though, none of us ever asked what exactly we meant. What I was after was a complete absence of sexual sin. That was my definition of purity. I’d say something very different today. (As a matter of fact, I’m about to.) Purity is not primarily about an absence of something sinful...
Body Required
Love is not true love apart from the body. This doesn’t align with the Western way we talk about love. For us, we can view our bodies as an optional part of love. As though the sentiment or the idea of love is adequate. Not so with Jesus. True love requires that our bodies be involved, that we get up out of our armchairs and be about the business of actively loving, as a verb. When my kids want...
Imagine That
Lust is a growing problem in our world. If it’s a problem in your life, I have good and bad news: Lust is using your imagination. First, here’s how: Lust requires your imagination to either create or to cooperate with a fiction. Behind every lustful image is a real person with a heart, mind, body, and soul. Lust uses your imagination to hide most of the person, so you only see a fictionalized...
The Macaroni and Cheese Effect
At their core, your desires are not the problem. They’re a gift, pointing to a good, God-given desire. And this is true even if the desire you’re feeling is for something sinful. Usually when I go on a dinner date with my wife, we make a simple meal for the kids before we go. Chicken nuggets, spaghetti, macaroni and cheese, or fish sticks. They love it. I’m a sucker for the macaroni and cheese:...
No More Mr. Elsewhere
I’ve got a place I want to spend more time in 2014. And I want to invite you to join me. The place is right here, right now. Wherever that may be. I’ve begun to notice that I spend an incredible amount of time “elsewhere”—that space so many of our hearts and minds go that’s not where we are. I go elsewhere when I focus on what I’d like to have and miss what I do have. Like when at 6 p...