by Chuck DeGroat To everything there is a season says the writer of Ecclesiastes. For control freaks like me, the wisdom writer is a fly in the ointment. There is a perennial pattern, a dying-and-rising pattern which mirrors the seasons,…
by Chuck DeGroat “How in the world do I do Thanksgiving this year?” my friend asks, with tears in her eyes. Can you relate? No matter the election result a week ago, family conversations were sure to be tense. After…
by Chuck DeGroat It’s the very first question God asks after Adam and Eve’s fall from grace. They are hiding, as we all do. But God makes an incarnational move. God moves toward them, searches them out, and when God…
by Chuck DeGroat I think millennials get a bad rap. Why? The prevailing psychology of child-rearing 50 years ago was very different than it is today. Back then, many believed that to hold and nurture a newborn was to spoil…
by Chuck DeGroat Building towers show your power and glory. Just ask King Herod, who built his infamous fortress-home on the highest hill in the Judean desert, 5km southeast of Bethlehem. Judah’s king, the king of God’s chosen people, was…
by Chuck DeGroat Yes, Jesus…who turned over tables, met me under what I barely recall as a wide, brown table, with thin legs that tapered toward the bottom. Then again, it might have been a small table with thick legs.…
by Chuck DeGroat As we find ourselves swept up into another election cycle—and a particularly animated one at that—I’m finding myself drawn back to the life of Jesus during Epiphany. I've found myself curious about that politically-savvy crew of social…
Suddenly, one of those with Jesus put his hand on his sword, drew it, and struck the slave of the high priest, cutting off his ear. Matthew 26:51 by Chuck DeGroat We may not be chopping off ears nowadays, but…
They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching—with authority! Mark 1:27 by Chuck DeGroat There is a stunning moment in the first chapter of Mark where Jesus confronts a man with…
By Chuck DeGroat In the busyness, exhaustion, and the perfectionism I see in pastors (and experienced myself as a pastor), one resource is becoming exceptionally important—contemplative prayer. I learned of contemplative prayer in the late 90’s in a course on…
