Attitude!
Attitude is everything, it seems.
A few weeks ago I blogged on how the emotions are not as nondescript, dysfunctional, and inutile, as we’ve usually been taught in our linear, logocentric, Enlightenment culture, where the mind is king!
There’s more to this than meets the eye. Feelings can actually influence our brain. Really!
Just the other day, a study in the journal Psychological Science showed that the ritual of singing “Happy Birthday” before consuming
Bequest!
A couple of weeks ago, on my way to Mt. Hermon, in Northern California (for a DTS conference), I got to spend a week on the northern coast of that state, north of San Francisco. Accompanied by my two nephews, we decided to see some big trees and paid a visit to the Redwood National Forest, five hours drive from SF.
Quite a sight! The Sequoia sempervirens, the coastal redwood, is one of the tallest trees on the planet. “Hyperion,” the biggest of the lot measured
Mark 9:14–50
The humble disciple, faithfully dependent on God’s power in prayer, serves the last and least.
“If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.”
Mark 9:35
The prominent theme in this pericope, that commences with the healing of a demon-possessed boy, is humility.
Reinforcing the intensity of the demonic struggle, the affliction of the boy, with its etiology and its symptoms, gets extended coverage in the account: 9:17–18, 20, 22, 26. As 9:19
Me!
Nine million college freshmen have taken the American Freshman Survey over the last five decades. And yes, there is a clearly visible trend. An upward trend. An escalating trend.
Of self-infatuation!
Jean Twenge, professor of psychology at San Diego State, and author of several fascinating works—one of them, The Narcissism Epidemic (2009), is reviewed
Stress!
Chronic stress, we know, creates lots of trouble: cardiovascular disease, obesity, depression, nerve degeneration, etc. But how about acute (short-term) stress?
Apparently acute stress is good for you. Well, at least a little bit!
All that lounging in a hot tub or in a pool or in the Mediterranean is not the best way to spend your time it seems.
Nope, that’s not what the rats teach us. Yes, rats!
Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley have found that a little
Heart!
Emotions? Utterly untrustworthy.
Or so they said.
I remember a popular gospel tract that pictured the sequence as a train: “Fact” was the engine; “Faith” was the rest of the train; “Feeling” made up the caboose, the last car. In other words, don’t worry about the Feelings. As long as you got the Facts and you have Faith in the Facts, the Feelings will automatically follow.
Or so they said.
We humans, however, have always had the suspicion that this neat order
Mark 8:27–9:13
The hope of future glory encourages disciples amidst present suffering while following Jesus.
“If anyone wishes to follow behind Me,
let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me!”
Mark 8:34
Allusions to who Jesus is have permeated the Gospel all along thus far; the crowds have often been amazed at Jesus’ words and deeds, and they have congregated in large numbers before him, but everyone—crowds and disciples—have failed to (fully) grasp the person
Abe Kuruvilla is the Carl E. Bates Professor of Christian Preaching at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, KY), and a dermatologist in private practice. His passion is to explore, explain, and exemplify preaching.