resurrection

I have to be honest: This is my favorite piece I've written on beauty. It might be one of my favorites I've written period.

At Tapestry today, I blogged about Beauty resurrected. A taste:

"Do we have a theology of failure? Not of suffering, but of failure . . . I ask because this is a period of failure for me. I have the Midas touch turned awry--everything I touch turns to dust."

I'm up today at Tapestry exploring failure and what it has to do with my Christian life.

Read the rest.

This is the fourth and final part of my interview with Dr. Glenn Kreider of Dallas Theological Seminary. In this conversation, we talk about the importance of the physical redemption of the earth to our theology of art.

This video runs under four minutes.

This is the second part of my interview with Dr. Glenn Kreider, a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary. The interview is about beauty and sentimentality, and this segment looks specifically at the cross and resurrection.

The video runs about 5 minutes.

I'm up at the Tapestry blog today talking about how our imagination can spur us on toward missions, to sharing Christ's love with the world.

What the opening ceremony to the Olympics reminded me of:

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, we must get rid of every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and run with endurance the race set out for us, keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy set out for him he endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:1-2). 

The shore is a place of Revelation to me. It's a foretaste of what we will know in God's re-creation. Fortresses of sand cross the beach line, their gates always open. They're built with love and laughter. The joy is in the creation.

It's a place where giggles escape.

It's a place of games--paddleball, whiffle ball, football, frisbie, bocce, horseshoes. It's a place where we remember to be child-like.

It can hit anywhere--on a sunny, blue day with birds chirping, flowers blooming, friends laughing, or a day with deep thunder and bright lightening. Without warning, I'm overcome by the evilness in this world.

It's not so much about anything personal, nothing done to me.

Then again, it's always personal, this evilness in the world.

My eight-year-old niece and I had a chat about the resurrection the other day.

"There will be all kinds of animals," I said.

"Dogs?"

"Yup."

"Cats?"

"Yup."

"Bunnies."

"Yup."

"Monkeys?"

"Yup. And we'll get to play with them and always have fun. No one will be sad."

"Kind of like your second life?"