Radically Happy

  • Lenten Prayer 2015: Make Me Like Jesus

    Dear God, Thank you that you love us like Jesus. Thank you for laying down your life so that we can be forgiven and find our glory in you. Thank you for sending us into the world to save those we love and you love. Thank you for your Transforming…

  • From the Kingdom to the Cross: A Confession

    I think we’ve missed something. To be fair, everyone else in the gospels — the crowds, the disciples, even John the Baptist — also missed it. But that’s still no excuse. Especially since we have their example. We have forgotten the cross of Christ.

  • God Loves Us Like Jesus: A Six Syllable Gospel (Childlike Theology)

    [Now part 1 of 6 in a series on Childlike Theology] Since my son’s second set of seasons, I’ve sought a scalable summary of the gospel. Something simple enough to be sung by a six-year-old, yet sufficiently sophisticated to stun seminarians for centuries. Here’s my most successful statement so far: God Loves Us…

  • Our Daddy’s Prayer

    This is not The Lord’s Prayer. This is just our Daddy’s prayer.

  • Institutions

    How can you scale to change the world? In a word: Institutions. A word that is largely despised today, but at the root of almost all long-term successes. Our culture caricatures institutions as slow, bureaucratic, and dehumanizing. But institutions are what makes us what we are. Some institutions were created by…

  • Anjali’s Princess Prayer

    Dear God, Thank you for making me your special princess! Teach me to trust and obey my parents and teachers who love me as you do So I can help my friends feel special too! In Jesus name, Amen.

  • Body Talk

    Is it true? Christ on the cross, sacrificing his body for the sake of the world. He was only doing what he saw His Father doing.

  • Rohan’s School Prayer

    Dear God, I want to have a great day. Watch over me as I learn and play. Help me to listen and obey my teachers, my parents, and you. Remind me to always be a knight Show me how to do what’s right And walk away from every fight. In…

  • Trinitarian Sinner’s Prayer, Part I: The Father

    I’ve been wrestling with how and when to encourage my children to make a profession of faith. I recently realized that God used an incremental process to reveal Himself to us: Father as Creator & Judge Jesus as Savior & Lord Spirit as Comforter & Counselor It seems like that…

  • Evangel, Part V: Living The Gospel

    “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who…

  • Does Seminary Conquer Sin?

    A kind friend pointed out that the seminary focuses I dissed in my last post: Theological knowledge Pastoral skills Relational experiences may not be sufficient for spiritual maturity, but are necessary. In fact, what I should have said is that the latter require the former:

  • What Makes Spiritual Maturity?

    [Based on a letter to my cousin-in-law, who runs a seminary in Chicago.] Most seminaries focus on: Pastoral vision and skills Theological knowledge Community and relationships Those are all good things. But are they the right things?

  • Evangel, Part IV: The Bad News

    Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live…

  • Evangel, Part III: The Good News

    “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.” — John…

  • Evangel, Part II: The Story of God (and Me)

    “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first…

  • The Sub-Missionary Confession

    I do not know everything.

  • Curing The Seven Deadly Virtues of Leadership

    Leadership is a perilous venture, for the very attributes that make leaders great also carry the seeds of our downfall. But surprisingly, there is a very simple cure — albeit a very unpleasant one…

  • Evangel, Part I: What is the Gospel?

    “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.” – Romans 1:16

  • Joshua 4: Stoned In To Your Mind

    Questions: What is worth celebrating? How does Joshua anticipate God’s commands? Why must we remember God’s wondrous works? When do we teach our children? Read more to pursue answers in [Joshua 4]

  • Joshua 3: Holy Shittim!

    Questions: Why should the Israelites stay a kilometer behind the ark? How does God exalt Joshua? To what end? Where should priests keep the presence of God? What is the connection between “relationship” and “results”? What’s the secret to leading a large group on inconceivable adventures? Read more to pursue…