Death, Politics, Suffering
John Beeson
Staring Death in the Eye

We do not do death well.

We avoid it. We deny it. We even pretend we can control it.

Last week, the French National Assembly advanced what many observers have called  “the most extreme euthanasia law in Europe since Nazi regulations in the 1930s.” French President Emmanuel Macron supported legislation framed as “medical aid in dying” but the proposal goes much further than many existing “death with dignity” laws.

The bill would legalize both assisted suicide—where a person receives a prescribed poison to end their own life—and euthanasia, where a doctor administers the deadly dose.

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Staring Death in the Eye
Recommendations, Christian Living, Counseling, Culture, Suffering, Wisdom
John Beeson
This Week's Recommendations

  1. Bearing the sorrows of the world: A timely piece by Brianna Lambert, “In-between funny reels and crock-pot recipes my feeds shake me with tragedy. Another bomb dropped, another missile fired. Another leader declares war, another group of Christians brutally murdered. My weather app might tell me about a mudslide that kills hundreds while the local news reports on a newly discovered grave of dozens of victims. Sorrow never ends.”

  2. Ozempic Christianity: Christopher Cook says, “In a culture increasingly shaped by immediacy and optimization, even our spiritual hunger has been co-opted by the language of quick returns. 

This Week's Recommendations
Christian Living, Family, Parenting
John Beeson
My Son Can’t Ride a Bike: Failures in Parenting

Our son Soren is twenty years old. And he doesn’t know how to ride his bike.

I share this as a confession. Soren, on the other hand, is totally comfortable with this reality.

As parents, we feel responsible for equipping our kids for the world. But what does it mean to prepare our children for life? What does it mean to be a successful parent?

The demands of parenting can feel overwhelming. We want to teach our children to be thoughtful stewards by caring for their things and cleaning the house. We want them to learn how to make meals and do their own laundry.

My Son Can’t Ride a Bike: Failures in Parenting
Christian Living, Counseling, Identity, Spiritual Growth, Suffering, Wisdom
John Beeson
The Thing Under the Thing

I have the opportunity of sharing this space with my friend and mentor, Glen Elliott (you find out more about Glen here). I’m sure you will be blessed by his wealth of wisdom. –John

Last winter I learned something from a dying tree.

There’s a tree outside our bedroom window that provides beautiful shade in the summer. A while back I noticed the leaves were dying—brown, brittle, hanging lifelessly from the branches. So I did what most of us do when something looks unhealthy: I trimmed the visible problems.

I cut off dead branches. Then more branches. I fertilized. I watered. Nothing worked.

The Thing Under the Thing
Recommendations, Culture, Family, Forgiveness, Marriage, Parenting, Suffering
John Beeson
This Week's Recommendations

  1. When a crack becomes a chasm: Dave Almack says, “In years past, family disagreements often resulted in an uneasy detente and shallow conversations at gathering times. Today, in more and more cases, these disconnects have turned into outright hostility and accusations of wrongdoing by parents who have diligently tried to raise their kids to love and honor the Lord. It is a painful and almost unbearable experience to endure and far more common than many might know.”

  2. Alysa Liu inspired an exhausted world: Brianna Lambert begins, "Last week, one of the most memorable moments of the Olympics occurred

This Week's Recommendations

Politics

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Political Trench Warfare

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Political Trench Warfare

Just over a hundred years ago the world was mired in the Great War, what would come to be called World War I. Parallel trenches were constructed across Europe. Millions of young men with baryonetted rifles in hand lined the muddy ditches. Fighting was brutal with thousands of lives lost for gains measured in feet, not miles.

Trenches may be a thing of the past when it comes to warfare, but they are alive and well when it comes to political conversations. We line up shoulder-to-shoulder with our brothers-in-arms and fire rounds across no man’s land to the other side.

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. Outrage is not a fruit of the Spirit: Randy Alcorn with a timely reminder, “Outrage appears to now be a core value of some Christians. Righteous indignation is sometimes appropriate, e.g. when it involves the killing of children, or false doctrine promoted at the expense of the gospel. But when outrage/anger becomes our default, we lose all credibility and, in my opinion, become poor ambassadors for Christ.”

  2. Your holy deeds are not filthy rags: John Piper clarifies an oft-misunderstood verse. He says, “God does not despise the righteous deeds of his children done by faith. What verse 6 is referring to in calling righteous deeds “filthy rags” is the hypocritical works that flow from nothing.”

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Character Produces Hope

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Character Produces Hope

Have you ever begun reading a passage in the Bible and started anticipating where it was going, and then it took a left-hand turn? I recently had one of those moments. In Romans 5, Paul takes four turns, each more surprising than the last. At the core of Paul’s argument is a counter-intuitive perspective on hope.

Having just worked through Abraham’s faith, Paul begins, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 5:1-2). I’m tracking with Paul here.

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Neither Forward Nor Backward

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Neither Forward Nor Backward

Are you progressive or conservative? It seems like a simple enough question, but let me complicate it for you. The terms are both tethered to time. The term progressive looks forward. Progressives believe that the best is yet to come. We are growing, evolving and our policies ought to reflect our progressive enlightenment. Conservatives, on the other hand, preserve that which is good from the past. It is our job to aspire to and embody the charter set forth by our founding fathers.

Our politics have forced us to two sides of ring: those looking back and those looking forward. These totalizing lenses have robbed us of a fully orbed biblical ethical vision that directs our eyes forward, and backward, and straight down.

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Jesus the Party Crasher

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Jesus the Party Crasher

A 2020 YouGov poll asked respondents, “What is the most important election of your lifetime?” 69% of respondents said it was the current election of 2020. Surprisingly, that number increased with age, with 82% of respondents over 55 years old agreeing. And the American political machine smiles. 2020 shattered the record in political spending, with an astounding $14.4 billion spent: a near doubling of what had been record spending in the 2016 campaign.

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Letting the Critics Drive the Conversation

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Letting the Critics Drive the Conversation

The atmosphere was lively at our city’s Independence Day celebration. A cover band belted out tributes to classic rock, bouncy houses were extra bouncy, and food trucks lined the field. Under a pop-up tent near the entrance, local politicians shook hands.  

One candidate approached me and pulled me into a conversation. Taking the bait, I asked her about her stance on a local issue. My question spun out into a twenty-minute discussion….

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I Hope your Advent is In Tents

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I Hope your Advent is In Tents

Our girl arrived home for Christmas last night. Everything feels better when we are all together. Camille headed off to college in Southern California this fall, and we have felt her absence. We missed her laugh, her hugs, and her quiet presence in the house, crafting on a quiet Sunday afternoon. But now she’s home! My heart swells to be able to squeeze her, to wake her up with a kiss on the forehead, to listen to her laugh at my dad jokes. Even in an era where we have technology like Facetime, there is nothing like being face-to-face. I feel joy to worship with her this Christmas Eve and look forward to having our family whole, enjoying cinnamon rolls and coffee in our pajamas on Christmas day, unwrapping one another’s gifts, and squeezing each other in thanks.

God concurs.

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What I Read in 2022 (and perhaps some books you might want to read in 2023)

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What I Read in 2022 (and perhaps some books you might want to read in 2023)

How much would you pay to meet your favorite celebrity? $100? $1,000?? $10,000??? The number isn’t insignificant, is it? Listening to the stories and wisdom from those we trust is worth quite a bit, isn’t it?

This year Angel and I worked hard to bring our first co-written book entitled Substitute Identities to publication. Right now it is in the hands of our publisher’s copy editor, and we can’t wait to share it with you. The process of pouring our hearts into this book makes me reflect on just what gifts books are. While we might be willing to pay exorbitant sums to sit at the feet of the world’s best thinkers, it only takes $10-$20 to listen to these spinners of tales. Isn’t that amazing?

So, however many books you read in 2022, maybe you might be blessed to read a few more in 2023, and perhaps some of my favorites might point you to a few gems.

In 2022 so far, I’ve read 110 books and hope to read a handful more before the year closes. I’ve been blessed to read a wide variety of good books this year. I’ll begin with my four favorite books of 2022, followed by the entire list of books I read. I hope you find some gems for you in this.

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Representatives Misrepresenting

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Representatives Misrepresenting

A recent survey found that Americans agree that our democracy is in peril. What is the threat to democracy? In short: them. And how do we fix democracy? Doing whatever it takes, even if it means bending the rules (or, as the poll creatively posed, “going outside of existing rules”—how many parents would accept that excuse from their kids!).

The one thing both sides of the political aisle apparently agree on is that the ends justify the means. As long as their side wins, how they achieve that perceived good makes any questionable ethics deployed okay.

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Do You Submit to the Bible, or Does the Bible Submit to You?

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Do You Submit to the Bible, or Does the Bible Submit to You?

What is the Bible to you? A collection of helpful stories? A book of ancient wisdom? Do you think it contains God’s word to us?

If that alone is what the Bible is, it is a book worth reading. But it still places us a position of sifting the Bible for what is useful to us and placing us in the position of determining what is true.

There has never been a generation, never a time or place, where Christians haven’t had to come to grips with whether they will bow the knee to the prevailing norms or whether they will trust and serve God alone. And how do we know what God wants? His Word to us. When push comes to shove, when the Bible calls me to believe something or act a certain way, will I believe? Will I obey?

None of us, if we are honest, does not experience the critique of the Bible. We are chastened for our greed, our lust, our pride, our envy. If we are sensitive, we ought to feel the prick of our consciences as we consider what the Bible has to say about gossip and injustice, about the way we treat others, about legalism and license. The reason, then, that sexuality has become a litmus test for what “camp” you are in has little to do with political leanings, but rather this question of authority.

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