What Would You Give Up to Be Well?

 A preview of October's email-only article.

Aditya Romansa

Every month I publish an exclusive article for my email subscribers. (If you'd like to join the club, fill out the form below. It's free!)

In this month's subscriber email we're looking at how we can keep the faith when health deteriorates.

Here's how the article starts:

As a relatively young person, I've enjoyed years of good health. I rarely visit the doctor. I don't take any medications. I'm free from aches and pains.

This hasn't always been the case.

As a child I struggled with severe chronic asthma leading to more hospitalizations than I can remember. Many people don't like hospitals, but I learned to like them. The warm glow of the ER lights meant I would soon be able to breathe easy again. So I endured the jabs, pricks, and chest x-rays in anticipation of the inevitable relief.

We had medicine at home, but no amount of albuterol or steroids ever seemed to be enough. Eventually all the preventatives and intervention attempts failed to keep the condition at bay, and I would deteriorate to the point where my parents began packing a bag in preparation for the overnight stay.

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Feeling Weary: Spiritual Encouragement from One Who's Been There and Back

Emma Simpson

Did you know I write a monthly article just for my email subscribers?

This month I wrote about hitting the wall in your spiritual life. Call it burnout, fatigue, or whatever you will, if you're a Christian long enough you'll eventually encounter the spiritual wall.

Here's how this month's article begins:

How to Set up a Christmas Tree and Still Go to Heaven

Arun Kuchibhotla

Did you know I write a monthly article for my email subscribers?

This month I explored the supposed pagan origin of Christmas trees. Are these claims valid or not? If so, how should we, as Christians, respond?

Here's how the article begins:

If your family is like mine, you probably have some unique Christmas traditions. 

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, my family breaks out our Christmas decorations in accordance with the traditions we’ve developed over the years. First I head to the garage and unfurl the creaky wooden ladder leading to the attic. Once I test a few steps to ensure they’ll hold up another year, I climb up and then start heaving the boxes labeled ‘Christmas’ in Sharpie scrawl down from the upper room. 

As we decorate, we enjoy classic Christmas ballads from Aaron Neville and Sarah McLaughlin. Once all the paraphernalia is in place and the fake fir is erected, we open the ornament box and marvel at the mix of homemade and gifted ornaments, each a repository of memories. 

With the tree trimmed we order a couple of pizzas and prepare one of our favorite indulgences while we wait: Chex Muddy Buddies. There’s something magical about the mix of cereal, chocolate, and peanut butter laden with powdered sugar. The batch usually doesn’t last but a few days. 

When the pies arrive, all six of us pack out the couch and watch the Jon Favreau cult Christmas film Elf. Though we’ve all seen it ten times each, we still laugh till we hack and wheeze from the leftover autumnal colds we’re still getting over. 

With that, the Christmas season has officially begun in the Gilmore household. 

Yet there are some who say having a tree in the house at all is an un-Christian thing to do. They say the practice is pagan in origin and therefore has no place in Christmas festivities. 

Are they right? Am I sinning by erecting a fake fir tree and decorating it in observance of Christmas?
 

A Brief History of the Christmas Tree 

There are a few divergent issues we must address, so I’ll try to be brief as possible in order to get to the heart of the matter. 

The first is to determine if the claim that Christmas trees are pagan in origin is a valid one.

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If You Found Jesus in a Time of Crisis, You're Not Alone

Crises are no fun.

Whether they come in the form of an automobile accident, cancer, natural disasters, or any other myriad catastrophes, crises are things we'd all rather avoid if possible.

Alex Blăjan

Nevertheless, in the midst of such events, God can use these circumstances to bring about amazing results.

Look no further than the jailer at Philippi responsible for prisoners Paul and Silas. When God sent an earthquake and the bonds fell off the hands and feet of the prisoners, the prison guard unsheathed his sword to end his own life.

He knew worse things befall those who let prisoners escape.

2 Corinthians 6:14 Is About So Much More Than Marriage

Sebastian Pichler

Did you know I write a monthly article for subscribers to my email list?

I just sent this month's out, and I think it turned out pretty good. (Of course, I might be a bit biased.) Here's how it begins:

If Ridgeview Elementary School no longer conducts three-legged races, it’s probably my fault.

When your contest ends with two second-graders on the ground wailing in pain, administrators tend to reconsider the merits of such activities.

As you know from Under The Sun, I’ve always been a super competitive guy. Call it nature or call it nurture; I enjoy competing. So on that sunny day at Ridgeview when they linked my right ankle with the left of classmate Elizabeth, my blood started pumping in anticipation of that word, “Go!”

But if you know anything about three-legged races, you know success relies more upon coordination than determination. As such, forcefully running down the field even if it means dragging your companion through the dandelions, would not be a good strategy. Maybe someone should have told me that earlier.

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Perhaps the Most Misquoted Verse in All of Scripture

People misquote scripture all the time, but there’s one verse that seems to rise above the rest in its errant rendering, and the misrepresentation goes multiple layers deep.

Kevin Dooley (CC)

The verse is 1 Timothy 6:10a. It’s actually half of a verse because most people only reference the first sentence. See if you can recite it. It has the words “money,” “root,” and “evil.”

Let’s see how you did. Here’s the verse in the New International Version:

Are You Taking The Lord's Name In Vain Without Even Knowing It?

"I'm just a realist."

Have you ever heard that phrase before? You may have said it yourself a time or two.

Jeffrey (CC)

Pessimists drag it out like it's a pet. They hold it up to their cheek, close their eyes, and comfort themselves with it.

Then they go on being sourpusses and killjoys.


What's Wrong With Pessimism?

There's nothing wrong with pessimism if you're an atheist.
There's nothing wrong with pessimism if you're a naturalist, a post-modernist, an existentialist.

But if you claim Christ, don't tell me you're just a realist.

Because if you believe in Jesus, here's the reality:

One Common Mistake That Could Ruin Your Relationship with God

I've done it countless times. You may have too.

The Lystranians certainly did.

They looked up in the sky and saw something amazing, intriguing, and unexplainable. A distant planet between them and the sun. A tiny but swift rock that we know as Mercury. They were in awe of it, and they worshiped it.

Photo Credit: NASA Goddard Photo & Video (C.C.)

Maybe back then it was obvious. Now it's subtle. It starts out as a hobby or an admiration and blooms into a destructive appetite for more. Though we would never admit it to our ego, our minds' timeclocks betray us; we worship created things instead of the only thing that is not created.

I Am.

We worship an athlete or a musician, but at some point we are always left feeling empty. It's kind of like worshiping a lump of gold made to look like a calf.

And as magnificent as creation is, it is worthless compared to God. The beauty of the ocean is as ordinary as a nap. The brightness of the sun but a firefly.

Which leads us back to the Lystranians and Mercury. Or, as they called it, Hermes.

Irony at a Wedding

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church.” “Love never fails.”

It is almost impossible to attend a wedding without hearing portions of Ephesians 5 or 1 Corinthians 13 read during the ceremony. And for good reason; these are both beautiful passages that describe the boundlessness of love and wonderment of marriage. Yet, I wonder how many sitting in the congregation, watching two lovers commit their lives to each other, are aware of the irony of those passages in that setting.