rebelling against low expectations
We don’t tend to think of dark things at Christmas. We think of light and joy; a content baby in a manger, who doesn’t even cry. (I always questioned that line in Away in a Manger.) Everything is sweet, happy, calm, and like a Hallmark movie. That’s what we think of when we think of Christmas. But 2020 has been anything but bright. A day ago, I saw a news station’s recap of 2020, and looked like...
The Bible isn’t magic, but sometimes we treat it as if it is. We see it as a horoscope, or a magic pill, that by simply popping in each morning, we will receive all we need. Like an oracle of old, we come to it with our questions, and it will spit out the answer to our queries. Each morning devotion tells us exactly how to live that day, every quiet time automatically encourages us, and with only...
All the things I had planned to write don’t make sense anymore. I meant to talk about needing beauty in the midst of the cacophony of the world, full of the steady patter of cars and busyness and cement sidewalks—that chaos of busyness. But that’s gone now. I meant to speak of the longing for a great Something, a something that took the discordant notes of the Monday commute and mundane...
Every year has its fears—but this year has had more than its share of them. We’ve had fires, threats of war, and now this unknown that could be hiding anywhere among us—the Coronavirus. There are a hundred things we want to do. Be afraid. Hide. Use every bottle of hand sanitizer. Stock up on toilet paper. Live in a hazmat suit. As we see more and more people come down with this virus, it seems...
Teens want our Christianity to be alive. We live in a world full of bright explosions, flipping numbers, and urgent calls from everywhere. There is so much to do, so we want our faith to be powerful, moving, and deeply felt. So when theology comes up, we might sigh. When discussions about inerrancy or impeccability or any other long i-word comes up, we shrug or settle back into that resigned...
Editor’s note: Throughout the years, TheReb has published thousands of articles, each challenging and encouraging Rebelutionaries to do hard things and seek God. But among these posts, some have especially resonated with you, our readers. So over the next few weeks and months, we’re bringing back these classics, reposting our most popular and well-read articles. May they encourage and...
There are some things we love that are too big for us. The sea and the sky, the waves and the stars, the pearls below and the planets above–these two have always been my loves. They’re close and familiar to me; they feel of warm soles slapping against grey boardwalk planks, and of neck upstretched to see it all spread out at night. Yet they’re far and distant too, both ever stretching out of...
“Everybody wants to go to heaven. It beats the other place, there ain’t no doubt. Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wanna go now.”¹ So declares the old country song, and we may find ourselves unconsciously nodding along to those lyrics. Most of us really don’t want to go to heaven–at least, not right now. We know we should, and we know it’s better than the other place, so we do...
Sometimes we’re not sure we can handle life. We understand the big battles and the somber sufferings will be difficult, but sometimes even the daily tasks mount to overwhelming. We have that massive assignment to finish, and studying has to be balanced with work. We have customers yelling at us over something outside of our control, and it takes everything in us to just be kind. We have only an...
It’s that time of year again, time for the low-grade heresies. They appear everywhere: in your mailbox, in your inbox, and even underneath that Instagram picture box. They’re unavoidable. If you are a teen, have a friend who has teens, or even are on the internet, you’ve seen them. Now perhaps I’m not quite being fair, perhaps heresy is too strong a word, but nonetheless, these things still don’t...
rebelling against low expectations
