From Curse to Blessing: How grace gets the last word

“The last word of the Old Testament is ‘curse’ (Mal. 4:6), and it is meaningful that the opening sermon of our Lord’s ministry commences with the word ‘Blessed.’” —Charles Spurgeon   “What have you got in here?” I ask my son, slinging his backpack over my shoulder. “Did you fill your bag with rocks?” He’s…

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Breathing Room for My Soul: How to find rest in the noise of a day?

My eyes flit across the surfaces of things, as if I’m rushing around glancing at scattered pieces of a puzzle without the attention to start finding connections, much less meaning. I can’t still the turning of the world; but I do have some control over the degree to which my mind and soul are carried along with it.
Here are a few things I’m trying in order to cultivate internal stillness.

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A Blessing for Resting and Waking

May you sleep in the shelter of the shadow of God’s wings, May you wake in the light of his love For a little more than a year I’ve been praying this blessing over my kids just before they drift off to sleep. I turn out the lights, sit on the edge of the bed,…

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Traveling to Cappadocia with the Church Fathers

Reading well makes travel meaningful. On a recent trip to Cappadocia, I traveled with Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory of Nazianzus.

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Interior Space and Exterior Surface: Anish Kapoor at Sakip Sabanci

Sculpture, I thought, is the opposite of void. Sculpture, I thought, projects itself into space. Sculpture, I thought, is presence. That’s what I thought, at least, until I met Anish Kapoor’s voids. I expected to see sculpture at the Kapoor show at Sakip Sabanci Muzesi in Istanbul, and I wasn’t disappointed. Kapoor has garnered international…

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Victim or Survivor?—Giacometti, ovarian cancer, and a glimpse of glory

When I see Giacometti’s sculptures I don’t see anxiety, I see dignity. I don’t see alienation; I see presence. I don’t see frailty; I see endurance and resolve. I don’t see victims; I see survivors. These works have been “enthrallingly handled.” They have been loved into existence.

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Too many Goodbyes: Turning Leaving into Blessing

Friends scatter grace through the ins and outs of weeks. And this friend, in particular, had been full of those daily graces that infuse joy into the routine of daily living. How do you say goodbye to a friend like that?

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Surviving the Visual Tsunami: A response to Mark Galli

Yesterday the arresting question, “Can we survive the visual tsunami?” showed up in my Twitter feed. The tinge of apocalyptic concern in the title of Mark Galli’s meditation for Christianity Today got my attention. Tsunami sounds bad. But for me, a designer who loves the arts, visual sounds good. I respect Mark Galli tremendously and…

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Veneration is not Humiliation: A Theological Interpretation of the Mosaic over the Imperial Door of the Hagia Sophia

“If one called this day the beginning and day of Orthodoxy (lest I say something excessive), one would not be far wrong. For though the time is short since the pride of the iconoclastic heresy has been reduced to ashes, and true religion has spread its light to the ends of the world, fired like…

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The Sower and the Seed—Stained Glass

Jesus’s parable of the sower and the seed lends itself so readily to visual interpretation. This stained glass window design was commissioned by Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary for the Ray I. Riley Alumni Center and is suspended from a glass atrium. It’s lit by one of the most brilliant light sources possible—the Texas sun.

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