Hit Him Until He Dies

S3 (short story singles) are quick reads, fiction and essay, tales and takes, but by no means easy. In this tale, a boy must choose among friend, family, foe, with long-term consequences that can’t possibly be seen …

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Coyotes and Christians

I am not saying Christians are like coyotes. [For that, some could cut caustically to coyotes are like Christians — tricksters, roaming in the dark, feeding on the dead … ] Simply noticed — somewhat in passing, as it’s said, having attained, apparently … achieved? … some kind of state where nearly anything I hear,

And Did Dostoevsky Say ‘Beauty Will Save’

Short answer: he did not. Neither did Prince Myshkin, that we know of. Likely both believed it. Beauty — in the person of Christ — will do so. And clearly D wrote of M in The Idiot to explore art and beauty and ugliness and salvation. But did he say it, and did he believe that

What I Recalled Watching Netflix

[Television is educational.] One Saying the same stuff over and over looks like you have different things to say. Two If you’re ever in a below-average film or streaming series, and you beat the tar out of a guy, in a house, and you gaze down in both some shock as also a certain

Seeking the King

A line everywhere misattributed to Chesterton reads thus: The young man who rings the bell at the brothel is unconsciously looking for God. This line is not from the great [several senses of the word] man who recently celebrated his 150th birthday, but the mid-century most unmodern novelist Bruce Marshall. The words — which do

All Things Considered

This could go a couple different ways. An image likes could be Veteran’s Day, it’s not, or Memorial Day which, though closer, it’s not. Could be about a song (actually a poem) I found only a few months ago or an automatically somber meditation on mortality that’s begun before you’ve even begun to read …

Pray Attention

… am reading Ron Hansen’s Hotly in Pursuit of the Real and so for a moment do you then read with me. The title is from a line of Flannery’s I didn’t know but that is no matter; I didn’t know of Hansen’s book until a week or so ago, nor his A Wild Surge of Guilty

Shock and Appall

Our system is perfectly designed for the results we’re getting. We worship wealth and crave power. We have a job called “celebrity” and wink at vulgarity and reward villainy. We admire brashness. We randomly excuse or excoriate peccadilloes: depends on the news cycle, the fame or infamy possible, and the money and status of those involved.

Business Card

Live lean. Altar ends. Mercy burns. Pleasantly surprising. Love to the point of folly. Afflictions eclipsed by glory. Write until your fingers break. Everything worth doing hurts like hell. The individual will be thoroughly misunderstood. Write as if you were dying … — that is, after all, the case. Completely fearless, absurdly happy, and in

Burning and Bleeding

These 21 essays, some quite short, cover everything from truth and love, to our humility and happiness, to celebrating meals and cursing God, to baseball and Johnny Cash. Thanks for reading.

Tebow

Can he play? Should he pray? What’s next for Tim Tebow? … This book asks those questions — and answers them. Thanks for reading.

Your Mom’s a Hypocrite

What’s so wrong with hypocrisy? Other than it being dishonest and demeaning to all that we are as humans … is it really that bad? Actually it can even be good. So, take a look at this book by a hypocrite for hypocrites. Promise you won’t regret it.

Love Every Day

Tim Keller has said that our sinfulness is far worse than we ever could imagine, and that God’s love is far more than we ever dared hope. And Christians for millennia have affirmed no better way to learn these truths – and many others besides – than to love God with all our heart and

"He’s auditioning for Sam Phillips ... [FINISHING the crappy gospel song they started with ... ] “It’s real and I’m gonna shout it” (not shouting) [PHILLIPS stops them] “I’m sorry … I can’t market gospel no more.” “So that’s it?” “I don’t record material that doesn’t sell, Mr. Cash. And gospel like that (pause) doesn’t sell.” “So is it the gospel or the way I sing it?” “Both.” “What’s wrong with the way I sing it?” [Looking straight at him.] “I don’t believe you.” “You sayin’ I don’t believe in God?” [“J.R … C’mon let’s go.”] “No. I wanna understand. We come down here, we play for a minute, and he tells me I don’t believe in God.” “You know exactly what I’m tellin’ you. We’ve already heard that song, a hundred times (pause) just … like … that … J-u-s-t l-i-k-e h-o-w y-o-u s-a-n-g i-t.” “Well you didn’t let us bring it home.” “Br– … bring it home? Alright let’s bring it home. (pause) If you was hit by a truck, and you was lyin’ out in that gutter dyin’, and you had time to sing one song, huh? (pause) one song, that people would remember before you’re DIRT one song that would let God know about your time here on earth one song that would sum you up, you’re tellin’ me that’s the song you’d sing? That same tired Jimmy Davis tune we hear on the radio all day? ‘Bout your peace within, and how it’s real, and how you’re gonna shout it? Or, would you sing something different? Something real. Something you felt. Cause I’m tellin’ you right now, that’s the kind of song people wanna hear. That’s the kind of song that truly saves people. It ain’t got nothin’ to do with [you] believin’ in God, Mr. Cash: it has to do with believin’ in yourself.” [Big PAUSE, then Cash speaks again] “Well, I got a couple songs I wrote in the Air Force. (pause) You got anything against the Air Force? [YOU CAN HEAR HOW SCARED HE IS afraid to try, afraid to risk and fail.] “Nope.” “I do.” Then he plays “Folsom Prison Blues.” [“The train keeps a rollin’ / on down to San Antone” … where his father-in-law waited, with a regular job for him.] "

— Unknown

Christ haunted