“But of course the black eye would make him look that way whether he was or not. It was a garish, overdone display, about a quarter of an acre, with deep magenta and black and a few isolated blue stripes. That is what had happened when Pastor John Mitchell had extended the right hand of …
Where He Is Supposed to Go
“Many a wife desperately wants her husband to be a ‘spiritual leader,’ but only to the extent that he leads where she thinks he should be going” (For a Glory and a Covering, p. 75).
A Blinking Fuel Gauge
“Finally, after repeating several phrases unnecessarily (the sermonic equivalent of a blinking fuel gauge), John decided that he had to wrap up. He didn’t feel any better. He felt like he had just tried to give a tar baby a bath in vegetable oil. Lester didn’t look any cleaner, and John just felt gunked” (Evangellyfish, …
Crossfodder
“The way we live reflects whether or not we know that God has been gracious to us in Christ. We live by grace or we live by works. We live by grace married or we live by works married. If the former, the result is gratitude for the ongoing kindness of God. If the latter, …
Like Everybody Ought to be Doing
“He wasn’t thinking three chess moves ahead like a man in his position really ought to be doing” (Evangellyfish, p. 138).
It Shouldn’t Rinse Off
“Helping is not effeminate. If a man’s masculinity washes off in dishwater, then it was a pretty superficial masculinity” (For a Glory and a Covering, p. 73).
Their Cold Silvery Tips
“He was the kind of man who was entirely unaccustomed to looking at lies from this end of the barrel. He was now counting the rounds in their chambers. He could see their pointed, silvery tips” (Evangellyfish, p. 137).
Inflated Enough to be the Ball
“Brittle pride is not masculine. The male ego is, I am afraid, famous. I have long felt that a pastor has no better diagnostic test for how his congregation is doing spiritually than to arrange a co-ed volleyball game and just watch . . . When the male ego is on a rampage, the only …
About Like That
“The rest of them were about as indignant as a room full of wet cats” (Evangellyfish, p. 133).
Just Plain Vanilla Difficult
“Many men think that they are being forthright and decisive when they are really just difficult to live with” (For a Glory and a Covering, p. 72).