The Heaviness of Hope in Martin McDonagh
I remember when I had no imagination for how ugly the process of redemption can look. It seems like that change in the landscape of my mind marks the point in life when I could say with certainty that I had grown up. In that moment, whatever or whenever it was, hope suddenly meant something different, something heavy and precious. It wasn’t pretty—not in the traditional sense of the word anyway. Learning to carry it hurt me, and I had to get used to the weight of something so worth holding, so demanding of a firm grip.
Rabbit Trails #8
Click through for this week’s edition of Jonny Jimison’s Rabbit Trails.
Frankenstein Hits the Stage Tomorrow
“You are the cause. I am the effect. The rest is destiny.”
Today in 1797, Mary Shelley was born, and 21 years later the first edition of Frankenstein was published. This year marks the 200th anniversary of the novel. It’s become one of our most enduring stories, and this year A. S. “Pete” Peterson went to work with Studio Tenn to develop a fresh new adaptation for the stage. The show opens tomorrow and will run for two weekends.
The story of Victor Frankenstein and his creature is much more than a mere monster tale. It’s a story rich with theological, sociological, and psychological layers exploring not only what it means to be human, but what it means to be shaped by the power of love—or hatred.
Gather
Every summer when I was a kid I was given the amazing freedom to walk down Elm Road to the neighborhood pool about a mile away. There I spent most of my summer days practicing my dives, playing 500 with Dave the ice cream man, and frolicking barefoot with my friends.
Rabbit Reads Book Group: Culture Making, Week Four
Welcome to Week Four of The Rabbit Reads Book Group: Culture Making. This week, we’re looking at Chapters 9 – 11 and focusing on the ways the Resurrection and the Spirit have empowered God’s people to make real, lasting change…maybe even eternal change. Read on for this week’s reflection, and share your insights, questions, or favorite quotes in the comments below!
Rise and Walk
Rise and walk. He was saying this to a man who had lain there begging in dirt and filth for years. It was ridiculous to expect any action at all. To require such a man to rise, and even walk, was beyond any sense of decency. It was pointless and cruel.
A Blessing and Curse for the Arts
For nine years, I was on the senior staff of All Souls, Langham Place in London. Many in the USA will know it as the church where John Stott attended throughout his long life (he joined as a toddler and only at 86 moved to his retirement home). But in the UK, if people are aware of it at all, All Souls is more likely to be known as “the BBC church.” This is because Broadcasting House is our immediate neighbor, literally a few paces away, and for many years, it was the church from which BBC Radio’s Daily Service was broadcast every morning.
Old English and a New Cuss Word: On Word Choice
Think of every barnyard animal you know. Cow. Pig. Chicken. Sheep. Horse. Duck. Goose. Every one of those words derives from Old English (also known as Anglo-Saxon). If you were to kick around the farm with the poet who wrote Beowulf, the two of you would use the same words (or, in any case, very similar words) for all the animals you saw (except turkeys; turkeys didn’t come to England until five or eight centuries after the Beowulf poet died). And, by the way, you would even use all the same words for the male and female variations for each animal. Bull, boar, sow, rooster, hen, ram, ewe, mare, drake, and gander are all Old English words. The one exception is stallion, for reasons that will soon become apparent.
The Bard of Pawnee, Indiana
I was standing in the parking lot of our little Valrico, Florida church when a man from the congregation came up to shake my hand. His expression was earnest, his voice impassioned, when he said, “I pray that one day millions of people will hear your voice.” It was an extravagant compliment, and kindly meant, but it was a dangerous thing for a teenager to hear.
Songs of Common Prayer: An Introduction
“One. Two. Three.”
Confession: I’m a wannabe monastic. I even mowed a makeshift prayer maze into my backyard when the grass got high enough. I like to slow my days and wander through weeds; I bet my neighbor Ryman thinks I’m crazy. “Greg must be hopped up on Mountain Dew. He’s shirtless and crying in the field. Who’s he talking to anyway? Should I check on him?”
Rabbit Reads Book Group: Culture Making, Week Three
Welcome to Week 3 of The Rabbit Reads Book Group: Culture Making. This week, we’re looking at Chapters 6-8, which call us to consider God’s good gifts of culture and the ways in which He continues to invite us into His creative work. What does the creation story in Genesis tell us about the nature of creation? What does all this mean for us as creators and cultivators? Join us in the comments section or in the forum with your thoughts.
Wrestling the Giant: Why I Deleted Instagram
I deleted Instagram from my phone earlier this summer. A few months before that I did the same with the Facebook app. Our family went on a pretty big adventure for a few weeks, and more than once my instinct was to share a photo of it on social media, but when I realized the app wasn’t on my phone I felt a flash of frustration followed by a sigh of relief—then I moved on, happy to be fully present where I was, when I was, how I was with those I love most.