When you’re writing a screenplay, you normally want to have something happen about fifteen minutes from the end of the story in which everything is lost. All the progress that’s been made for the lead character has to wash down the drain. And then, unless you are writing a tragedy, you figure out a way to redeem the situation in the final minutes.

It’s formulaic, I know, but it works. You’ll find the “all is lost” scene in almost every movie you go see this summer.

The reason is because it increases dramatic tension, but it’s also [...]

Have you ever had a conversation with another Christian and felt the two of you had a completely different view of God? And have you ever wondered why? You’re reading the same Bible, after all, and supposedly interacting with the same God. How can one person have a rigid, black and white view of God while another sees more mystery and ambiguity? How can two intellectual powerhouses like Brian McLaren and John Piper have such different views of the same Biblical text?

Lately, I’ve come to believe it’s because, while they’re both looking at the same Scriptures, they actually see something different. And it’s only partly because of how they’re interpreting it.

I believe the reason they read the Scriptures differently is [...]

I am pro-life. I believe abortion is a painful and dark reality in the world.

But I’m often reluctant to associate with the pro-life movement. And I don’t think I’m alone.

I remember, years ago, when I was in high school, sitting at a picnic table at a park near my home reading Martin Luther King’s Letters From a Birmingham Jail and being moved by the love Dr. King had for his oppressors. He was willing to cause tension, for sure, but he was also willing to die as a martyr. He was willing to die for those who he saw as lost in darkness.

The ability to love our enemies, and I mean deeply love our enemies, is of the most [...]