Category Archives: Articles

July and August Articles at FaithVillage

My blog has been quite quiet since I took a new job with FaithVillage a little over a month ago. Some of what I would have written here has gone there, but there’s nothing holding me back from highlighting every now and then some of the stuff I’ve written there that would have gone here.

So, if you’re not following @FVmomentum on Twitter, where you can learn immediately when a new article is posted, or if you haven’t subscribed to the FaithVillage blog in your feed reader, you’ll learn about my FaithVillage posts in posts like this one. These articles were written in the last month and are ranked by way of how much I like them. It’s a very technical standard.

  1. What Can Be Learned from Steve Jobs’ Resignation?
  2. Book Review: Not a Fan
  3. Mired in the Monday Meeting
  4. The Chasm of Effective Communication
  5. Book Review: Let God Change Your Life

God Screams With Us: Relevant Magazine Online

[Adapted and expanded from this post: The Primal Scream]

In the wake of the death of my marriage, I began a search for answers to questions that I knew had no answers, but the desire to know, unequivocally, what had gone so horribly wrong was too great. I had to know the answer to “Why?” More than just “Why did this happen to me?” I had to know “Why does this happen to anyone?” even “Why does this happen to everyone, in some form?” Which, really, boils down to the first question, plus a pointed noun, “Why, God?” Yet even in asking that question, in thinking long enough about it, one might even question the necessity of the comma, the necessity of the God, and simply, honestly, ask “Why God?”

Read the rest at RelevantMagazine.com

Breaking Bad, Breaking Sin: Relevant Magazine Online

In watching the first season of Breaking Bad two years ago, I sat transfixed by this small, strange, intoxicating universe of characters and experiences I knew nothing about. Even though they inhabited a vastly different world, their motivations to do some absolutely heinous things seemed all too familiar.

Breaking Bad follows Walter White, high-school chem teacher, cancer patient, and part-time meth manufacturer.

Read the rest at RelevantMagazine.com…

The Invention of Lying (and Religion): Relevant Magazine Online

Truth be told, The Invention of Lying, the recently released-on-DVD film starring Ricky Gervais and Jennifer Garner, caught me off-guard. I knew the basic premise, that no one ever lies, or even knows how to, but one man, our protagonist Mark Bellison, learns to lie. I assumed the movie would be funny because of Gervais’ leading role. Some parts were funny, in that cringe-inducing way that Gervais seems to have perfected. Some parts were more crass, or even mean, in a darkly comic way. I did not, however, expect an overtly spiritual bent to the last half of the film. If you have yet to see the movie, I recommend that you buy it, rent it, or stream it, watch it, then come back to this article.

 Especially since I’m going to spoil stuff.

Read the rest at RelevantMagazine.com…

The Incarnational Lessons of Undercover Boss: Relevant Magazine Online

Undercover Boss is a show where the boss of a major corporation goes to work at the ground level of his/her business. The first episode of Undercover Boss follows President and COO of Waste Management, Larry O’Donnell, as he dons the uniform of an entry-level employee at his own company. Larry, a.k.a. Randy, works five different jobs in five separate areas of his company, from recycling remover and landfill trash collector, to garbage truck ride-along and cleaner of port-a-potties. Along the way, he meets and works for the very same people that work for him. None of them know his true identity. Consequently, his employees hold nothing in reserve in regards to their honest opinions on their jobs and their company.

Read the rest at RelevantMagazine.com