CSD 10: Submwhat?!

Our Sunday night group discussions in the campus ministry have been focusing on Christian spiritual disciplines, and this weekend the topic is submission. I’m wondering how I found a guest brave enough to facilitate a group of college students (and college-age non-students)–a population generally stereotyped as anti-authority and pro-individuality–in a discussion about submission!
Even though I [...]

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CSD 9: Fasting? Give Me My Cheeseburger!

Why do people not like fasting? Why do churches not teach or practice fasting? Sure, some Christians do. But not the ones who mentored me in my childhood, not the ones who taught my Bible classes. My understanding of fasting was so uninformed by the church that I was somewhat offended when my spiritual nurture [...]

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CSD 8: We are Sodomites

Disclaimer: Ouch! I’m talking to myself this morning! 
When I mention Sodom, what comes to mind? Wait! Don’t tell me; I probably know.
For many of us, the word Sodom makes us think of sins that disgust us, things we would never do (or at least so we claim). We think of the story in Genesis 19, and we [...]

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CSD 7: Baseball and Prayer, Part 2

In the early 1990s, Randy Johnson was a wild, scary pitcher. Opposing players trembled to stand in the batter’s box and wait for Johnson’s fastballs because no one ever knew when a ball would leave the tall, lanky pitcher’s fingers and sink into a batter’s thigh or crush into his elbow.
Then Johnson went to Nolan [...]

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CSD 6: Baseball and Prayer, Part 1

In high school, baseball was my favorite sport. I was better at football, but I liked baseball more. Actually, I wan’t any good at all in the game of baseball, but I was the best bench warmer ever!
A few weeks ago, baseball happened to claim a spotlight position in my mind at the same time [...]

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CSD 5: Missing Flights

Have you ever missed a flight? What did you do? God has blessed me with many journeys via airplanes, trains, boats, and taxis; and I have had my fair share of waiting in airports and train stations.
Last week, I flew to Abilene, Texas, for the annual lectureship at my alma mater, Abilene Christian University. The event [...]

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CSD 4: Shaking My Fist at God

“Why did you let that happen, Lord?”
“Come on, God! Give me a break!”
Have you ever felt like questioning or yelling at God? Maybe you did it, or perhaps you didn’t because you had learned not to treat God like that. Our God is One who deserves ultimate respect and praise, so how could questions and [...]

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CSD 3: The Gift

There are some things I never learned in church as a child–how to get a date, how to win an argument without upsetting the other person, how to relate to people with beliefs different from my own, how to arrange flowers at a memorial service, how to react when the PowerPoint screen goes blank while [...]

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CSD 2: Discipline?

OK, maybe I will be writing here more often than I had planned.
Yesterday, after writing a little about journaling, I was thinking about the spiritual disciplines in general. A question came to me: What does “discipline” mean when we speak of spiritual disciplines?
When I was a child, I learned the meaning of discipline. Whenever I [...]

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CSD 1: Journaling

I’m terrible at blogging. I’ve tried three or four times to start posting regularly because I thought it would be good way to share my thoughts, experiences, and questions with friends and family. Nevertheless (one of my favorite words), I never blog for very many days before forgetting to write any more…just stopping without even [...]

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