Reframing Competition…
In a 2017 address to Baptist Care Australia, Competing with Purpose, Traverse director David Benson encouraged listeners to consider what it might mean to reframe our understanding of competition, so that instead of seeing it as a means to beat and defeat our competitors, it is transformed into a mechanism to ensure that we are both stronger and better as a result of the encounter. His work has set me thinking about the role of competition in the Christian faith, and as part of our journey of discipleship. There are many portraits in scripture which encourage us to be the best that we can...
Read MoreQuotable: C.S.Lewis, Mere Christianity – Take 2
Recently I finished teaching a course in Apologetics at Vose Seminary, and we concluded by looking at the apologetic methodology of C.S.Lewis. As I took another look at his classic work, Mere Christianity, I was again struck by its significance and the importance of Lewis as an apologist. Based on his 1943 wartime broadcasts, Mere Christianity has impacted the lives of many thousands of people. Here is a second look at some insights from this book… To what will you look for help if you will not look to that which is stronger than yourself? C.S.Lewis God is no fonder of intellectual...
Read MoreSloth: A Twenty First Century Take on an Ancient Vice
For those familiar with the 7 deadly sins, sloth ranks as one of them – the others being envy, vainglory, avarice, anger, gluttony and lust. I was recently interested to read Rebecca Konyndyk De Young’s take on sloth. Validly pointing out that while we tend to associate sloth with laziness, or lounging on the couch munching away at crisps and binge watching Brooklyn 99 yet again, this is not the historic understanding of sloth. The longer understanding of sloth has been that it is a failure to pay attention to what we are called to do. Medieval writers on spirituality warned monks (who were...
Read MoreQuotable: Glittering Vices – Rebecca Konyndyk De Young, Take 2
This is a second selection of snippets from Rebecca Konyndyk De Youngs intriguing 2009 book Glittering Vices: A New Look at the Seven Deadly Sins and their remedies. The title explains the book, which after an exploration of some of the historical understandings of the seven deadly sins (and the opposing virtues against which they were stacked), explores each in turn – envy (the bitterness that flows from believing others have it better), vainglory (believing that image rather than reality is all important), sloth (which rather than laziness, is seen as resistance to doing the work...
Read MoreQuotable: Glittering Vices – Rebecca Konyndyk De Young
This week our selection of quotes comes from Rebecca Konyndyk De Youngs intriguing 2009 book Glittering Vices: A New Look at the Seven Deadly Sins and their remedies. The title explains the book, which after an exploration of some of the historical understandings of the seven deadly sins (and the opposing virtues against which they were stacked), explores each in turn – envy (the bitterness that flows from believing others have it better), vainglory (believing that image rather than reality is all important), sloth (which rather than laziness, is seen as resistance to doing the work...
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