The question of which spiritual matters are more important than others, needless to say, is a complicated matter. We would all agree that some matters that involve our walk with Christ are matters of judgment and others are matters of doctrine. Distinguishing the one from the other is often complicated. A proper treatment of this…
When a friend’s Facebook profile has “It’s complicated” in the “relationships” space, that’s bad news. Granted, being single can be complicated. So can being married. But in this context, “complicated” means something that the friend in question is hesitant to try to qualify with a simple word.
This time of year, most of us have cultural, familial, and guilt-induced obligations to bestow gifts on various ones near and (to one degree or another) dear to us. For the Hammons family, thankfully, our holiday shopping is just about concluded. (I deceive. Apologies. Tracie’s holiday shopping is just about concluded.)
But I keep hearing talk about Jesus being “the reason for the season.” I like Kylie’s response to that saying — “That’s ridiculous,” she says. “Jesus is the reason for everything.” (They do make you proud, don’t they?)
She’s barely holding on. She is losing feeling in her fingertips. She became convinced a while back that starting this climb was a mistake in the first place, but by then she had no choice; it was continue upward or fall to certain death. So she continued upward, on a journey she had already decided she could not finish.
And then she stopped to take a rest. It was never a long-term plan. She just wanted to do anything but climb. …
