Carl's blog

From Mahan to Moravians, hagios to Anna Howard Shaw, Chris Momany explores holiness and its fruit throughout the history of the people called Methodists.  Doing Good is a nice read for anyone interested in a refresher on antinomianism vs legalism, John Wesley's complicated understanding of the two, and the tangible outcomes of people living their faith in transformational ways between these sometimes conflicting positions.

Bit of a departure, but just watched the Community Christmas episode "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas" (Hulu link here) and was intrigued by how it seemed to hold together all the endearing and all the wrong things about this season in quite an entertaining package.

A couple weeks ago, while walking around our new neighborhood my wife and I walked passed a little corner courtyard.  Behind the space's high metal fence, all locked up, was the statue of a man, seemingly very intent on proclaiming something to someone.  The empty rows of benches all facing the statue added more mystery.

It wasn't until last night at a Corktown neighborhood meeting about violence, homelessness, and gentrification that I learned who that caged man was.

In Ruben Ortiz's CONSP!RE article today he tells the story of talking someone down from committing a violent act.  And while he knows that this is a good thing, he is also smart enough to ask whether God always works in the muted tones of proper behavior.  Sometimes when we think that God always works through obviously good people in obviously good ways we make the mistake of replacing God's earth-shattering goodness with our own capacities to be nice.

This weekend I had the privilege to attend the "Love Tells The Story" tour with musicians Derek Webb, Sandra McCracken, Robbie Seay Band, and author Donald Miller.  In the midst of some great tunes Donald offered a short reflection on God, and how God loves creation.  In his message he reiterated a question that most people struggle with.  If God controls everything, why does God let good people get hurt?

Sometimes I worry that my life is much too done up to ever be undone.  So many have experienced unravelling moments that recenter them on God - and that has just never been part of my story.  This could mean two things, I suppose:

1) I will continue to lack a life changing moment of trial and restoration

2) There's some big crash coming.

In today's selection from CONSP!RE Dawn Noelle Smith Beutler gives testimony to the ways in which God fills the broken places in our lives with a kind of surprising artistry.  For the author of this article, God filled the hole left by divorce with a life deeply connected to new beauty and new communities set before her.  The depiction of her dream in which God fills the later pages of a journal with elaborate drawings struck me as a vivid reminder of just how close God's goodness can be to us.

Like in Kristin Jack's poem "What I Could Become" the City of Detroit has suffered from it's own calibrated dreams of late.  Dreams of a city restored by money, by coolness.  Dreams of a return to glory days and booming big business.  For some of us, the only hope we see is either not attracted to the city yet, or is the hope of yesterday.

Today's article by Mike Stavlund explores palliative medical care and how it informs our understanding of faithfulness in light of life's trials.  Are there, he asks, certain moments of faith whose only purpose is just to get us through?

Today's Consp!re article from Shauna Niequist lifts up the ongoing ways we are called to practice new life in the face of the deaths of this world. For Shauna death is a thing experienced not just one big time at the end, but rather is that seemingly ever-present reality of loss and grief that sometimes binds our lives.