Faith, Grace, and Hope

I have a problem.  It is my problem and it doesn’t have to be yours, but I need to talk about it. I want Christmas to be as important theologically as Easter is.  I know that you probably think they are and, thus, my problem isn’t really a problem  Hear me out. Please.  I think Christmas is very important theologically, but between commercialism and problematic thinking about God, we have lost sight of how to understand Christmas.  Easter is also important, but between commercialism and problematic thinking about God, we have lost sight of how to understand Easter.  I cannot do much about commercialism. (I can remind you about the sin of idolatry.)  I can try, with the Spirit’s help, to do something about problematic thinking about God.  First things first: Jesus was always going to be born.  We learn in John 1 that the Trinity has always existed as the Trinity- meaning there has always been One ...

Grief is a weird thing. Some people are able to push through and they think everyone can, if they want to. Some people are paralyzed and it's confusing to them how the world even thinks they can function. Most people manage to find their basic new level of functioning (because grief inaugurates a whole new era), but that functioning waxes and wanes. All of this is normal. There's a tiny moment of acknowledging what grief is like in Frozen 2 . It passes fairly quickly in a song, but it was true enough that I wanted to call out, "WAIT! Anna is telling us something real." Elsa (the blonde one) has gone off on a quest, which has unexpected results. The consequences of this (SPOILER) is that Olaf (the snowman) disappears. Kristof missed the women's departure and he is searching for them, lamenting that he hasn't fully expressed his feelings to Anna. Thus, Anna is alone and she can perceive that something not good has happened. Olaf's disappearance means...