“Chad’s great gift was that of being able to contain and almost completely suppress that internal sense of weightlessness and panic that he kept in an isolated chamber somewhere in the nether regions of his gut. This time the panic was a category hitherto unknown to him . . . this was panic on stilts …
Imitation of the Wise is True Independence
“In Scrpiture, learning is profoundly incarnational. But we have been taught (in countless ways) that true knowledge is abstract and disembodied. When people begin to self-consciously imitate their parents and elders, it is not long before the charges of ‘mind-control’ and ‘cult’ begin to fly. Part of the godly fruit of incarnational imitation is like-mindedness, …
And Now for a Little Perspective
“In virtually every town in our nation, there are a few people who are one hundred years old. At the time of this writing, they were born in 1909. When one of those individuals was a newborn, he or she could have been placed on the lap of another person, also one hundred years old. …
Waiting Patiently
“The remaining four elders were confident of their pastor’s innocence for all the normal reasons, and they looked at him expectantly, waiting for the next reassuring evangelical cliche, like so many show poodles waiting for their treat” (Evangellyfish, p. 31).
Against the Caricature
“Anyone who comes away from a careful reading of the apostle Paul’s teaching on marriage with the idea that the husband is ‘the boss’ and the wife is ‘the slave’ is someone not to be trusted with any text” (For a Glory and a Covering, p. 8).
Industrial Agrarianism
“The pitcher can’t stall indefinitely, but seventeen foul balls in a row take up time. It is not for nothing that the player run counterclockwise. The whole game is counterclockwise. But baseball is exciting because something might happen at any time” (5 Cities, pp. 170-171).
Well On the Honest Side
“Rourke knew the department rules up and down, how real non-departmental police work was done, up and down, and was on the honest side of not too scrupulous” (Evangellyfish, p. 26).
An Incarnational Loop
“God has revealed the Trinity to us through a marriage. We learn about the triune God through an understanding of Christ and the Church, but we are also called to understand Christ and the Church by applying what we are taught about that to our own marriages . . . We don’t really learn anything …
A Skeezy Aura Then
“Chad had been all aura then — charisma, smiles, and eyes that penetrated what you thought at first was your soul, but then just turned out to be your clothes” (Evangellyfish, p. 25).
Coal and Diamond
“The essence of this gift is that God took a ragtag bunch of sinners and transformed them into the fullness of His Son” (For a Glory and a Covering, p. 6).