The vibrant frescoes Michelangelo painted on the ceiling of the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel depict humanity’s need for salvation portrayed in nine scenes from Genesis, ending with the last judgment. Michelangelo’s crowning achievement serves as a reminder that we are created in the image of God, and to be in a relationship with God as we…
Category: Culture
How Should We Respond to the Refugee Crisis?
We live in a time of an unprecedented global exodus as people flee from violence and unspeakable atrocities in places like Myanmar, Syria, El Salvador, Iraq, and South Sudan. More than 65 million people have been displaced globally. It’s staggering and complex. Twenty-five million of those are refugees and asylum-seekers, which is the highest number…
What is Truth?
After Solzhenitsyn was stripped of his Soviet citizenship in the seventies, he wrote a parting letter, “Live Not by Lies”, to the intelligentsia admonishing them not to participate in or support a lie. He wrote, “In our country, the daily lie is not the whim of corrupt nature, but a mode of existence, a condition…
Crossing the Divide
Violence and pain erupted and sent shock waves out across the United States last week revealing racial tensions that, if left unaddressed, will not go away. As someone who ministers cross-culturally, I seek to know and understand people in another part of the world by honoring them, respecting their history and dreams, and seeking to…
The Cry for Relationship in Our Cities
As I got off the subway in Manhattan, I passed a guy who was walking up the stairs while reading Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. It’s based on the premise that mankind’s primary pursuit is not pleasure, but meaning. Fair enough. In New York City, you can multiply both pursuits by the millions….
How Can We Address the Underlying Causes of Injustice?
“I am sure that none of you would want to rest content with the superficial kind of social analysis that deals merely with effects and does not grapple with underlying causes.” MLK Jr, Letter from a Birmingham Jail “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only…
Living in Joy & Gratitude while Engaging Real Suffering
Two predominant thoughts were on my mind this morning: the difficult challenges and suffering in our world in recent weeks, and the day we will set aside to give thanks to God in a few days. The two may seem contradictory, but they are not. They were not contradictory for Jesus. They were not contradictory for…
How Can We Better Develop Young Leaders?
As we ministered in Krakow, Poland and enjoyed the beauty of the ancient city juxtaposed to the modern, my thoughts turned to reaching the next generation and developing them into leaders. In a city where Copernicus studied during the 15th Century, Christ the King Church has not lost sight of how the university impacts the…
Speaking Up for the Value of Human Life
“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves.” Proverbs 31:8 55 million babies have been aborted in the U.S. since Roe vs Wade in 1973. I didn’t want to write about my recent trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau. It was deeply personal and moving, so I kept it private until the recent video came out of…
Myra Watkins 