• salvation
    Featured - Salvation - Spiritual Formation

    How to Practice Your Salvation

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    For most of my life as a Christian, salvation was a one-time event. You went to the altar call or got yourself baptized and the deal was sealed. I learned in Sunday school and from countless sermons that salvation was through grace or sometimes through faith, depending on the denomination. The primary reason I could be saved was that Jesus died for my sins. I have since discovered that these are half-truths, really. Before you decide that I am a heretic for questioning the time-honored formulas for salvation, I have to first clarify that I firmly believe in all of…

  • Featured - Loneliness

    Five Lies that Undermine Your Sense of Belonging

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    C.S. Lewis once commented that belonging to a group is the strongest emotional drive a human possesses. I suppose social media is just the latest arena, though I think most people have some pretty visceral memories of the popular crowd in middle school. I haven’t thought about being popular in decades but it ranked among my top concerns throughout adolescence. I have since discovered that many never grow out of this phase. And for good reason. A sense of belonging is crucial to physical and mental health. Isolation is so stressful that it has now become a fully recognized mental…

  • boss
    Boss - Career - Job

    What I Learned from My First Bad Boss

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    My first experience with a bad boss puzzled me for years. Nearly eighteen years ago, I taught at a small Christian university in Kentucky. A single mom with four girls, I was incredibly grateful for my job. I kept my head down and taught my classes. Towards the end of the school year, the chair of my department called me in. I remember the moment quite clearly. I liked my boss. He was about thirty years older than me. I had met his lovely wife and, from my naïve standpoint, thought they must have a lovely marriage. He asked me…