When I Am Weak: Why we must embrace our brokenness and never be good Christians

By Michael Spencer
 
The voice on the other end of the phone told a story that has become so familiar to me, I could have almost finished it from the third sentence. A respected and admired Christian leader, carrying the secret burden of depression, had finally broken under the crushing load of holding it all together. As prayer networks in our area begin to make calls and send e-mails, the same questions are asked again and again. “How could this happen? How could someone who spoke so confidently of God, someone whose life gave such evidence of Jesus’ presence, come to the point of a complete breakdown? How can someone who has the answers for everyone one moment, have no answers for themselves the next?”
 
Indeed. Why are we, after all that confident talk of “new life,” “new creation,” “the power of God,” “healing,” “wisdom,” “miracles,” “the power of prayer,” …why are we so weak? Why do so many “good Christian people,” turn out to be just like everyone else? Divorced. Depressed. Broken. Messed up. Full of pain and secrets. Addicted, needy and phony. I thought we were different.
 
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‘Watchmen is hardly religious, but it at least recognizes that no human being can offer … redemption’

Josh @ Think Christian

Your Birth Father Has Fangs

By Russell D. Moore
 
Imagine for a moment that you’re adopting a child. As you meet with the social worker in the last stage of the process, you’re told that this twelve-year old has been in and out of psychotherapy since he was three. He persists in burning things, and attempting repeatedly to skin kittens alive. He “acts out sexually,” the social worker says, although she doesn’t really fill you in on what that means. She continues with a little family history. This boy’s father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and great-great-grandfather all had histories of violence, ranging from spousal abuse to serial murder. Each of them ended life the same way, dead by suicide–each found hanging from a rope of blankets in his respective prison cell.
 
Think for a minute. Would you want this child? If you did adopt him, wouldn’t you watch nervously as he played with your other children? Would you watch him nervously as he looks at the butcher knife on the kitchen table? Would you leave the room as he watched a movie on television with your daughter, with the lights out?
 
Well he’s you. And he’s me …
 
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Stuff Christians Like: Using words like ‘junk,’ ’struggles’ and ‘failures’ when they mean ’sin’

Jon Acuff

Overheard at a coffeeshop: adultery

(Well, could be.) Justin Wise posts about an (apparently unmarried) couple he has seen chatting at Amici Espresso on more than one occasion–yes you two, we’re blogging about you!–and asks:

“Do you say something to people who are having an affair, even if you don’t know them personally?”