Praying “On the Way”

This is a story from my most recent newsletter to the alumni of Harvard Graduate School of Education

In the book of Acts, God tells Philip to go down from Samaria along the road that leads from Jerusalem to Gaza, and on the way Philip meets an Ethiopian official who wants to learn more about Scripture. (Acts 8:26-40)

During the fall semester, the Harvard Graduate School of Education Christian Fellowship has sought to be “on the way.” (Or maybe “in the way.”) Meeting in public places around campus instead of in closed classrooms, the students want to be witnesses of an alternative way of living at HGSE while also welcoming curious seekers just as Philip did with the Ethiopian official.

What is this alternative way of living that they are pursuing on campus? (more…)

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Ordinary Living

I wrote this post at l’Abri Fellowship last summer. If you don’t know about l’Abri, you can read about it here. It’s a wonderful place.

At l’Abri, we specialize in responding to difficult questions. But sometimes it is the simple ones that prove the hardest to answer. “What did you do today?” someone asked me recently, and I replied, “I actually really didn’t do anything,” which meant that I did not do anything impressive enough to mention on the phone.

Life at l’Abri is, well, ordinary: we study, work in the garden, scrape paint off walls, cook, eat, talk, eat some more. It is tempting to regard all of this activity as insignificant or insubstantial because it is the long, slow work of expanding our minds, enriching our friendships, and caring for a community. Not much of it translates easily into interesting stories that we can recount to our friends. A photo of me sitting on the couch reading “The Reason for God” is not going to generate many “likes” on Facebook. (more…)

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