Andy Unedited
Exploring Books, Life, and Writing
I have a confession. . . my guilty pleasure. I love Times New Roman. Don’t hate me, though, please. I have reasons. Good reasons. Really. When reading books or other long-form material, those wonderful serifs mean I don’t have to work as hard identifying words. These unconscious clues let the text go down as smoothly …
Sometimes Jesus made statements that sound just plain crazy. Once he was explaining why he taught in parables. The reason he gives in Mark 4:12 is this—so that, “they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!” In quoting here from Isaiah 6, …
When widespread coronavirus restrictions first began to take effect last month, I was in an airport. I suddenly became acutely aware of people around me serving food, cleaning tables, maintaining equipment, and many more. Clearly, I thought, I have not appreciated such people enough or sufficiently expressed my thanks. They (along with other more obvious …
The center of Christianity is the cross. But how are we to understand the crucifixion? How is it that in the death of Christ we find salvation, forgiveness, new creation, justice, victory over the powers, and hope for the future? And why in particular was such a gruesome, publicly humiliating execution required? This Lent, to …
A Lenten Reflection When the thought flashes through my mind that I am better than others, better than those in other churches or other cultures or the other political party (or more likely that I am better than those in both political parties!), I try to remember Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s well-known comment from The Gulag Archipelago, …
A Lenten Reflection In AD 165, a terrible plague hit the Roman Empire that lasted for fifteen years. Some historians think it was smallpox, but whatever the cause it was devastating. Perhaps a quarter or more of the population died. A hundred years later another plague hit Rome, with similar results. Bodies were piled up …
A Lenten Reflection Who killed Jesus? This question (and some unfortunate answers) have led to malicious, deadly attitudes and actions. The Jewish leaders, who had been anxious to do away with Jesus for a long time, finally had the opportunity to put him on trial—even if it was in the dead of night in a …
A Lenten Reflection Christ died for me. That is a wonderful, miraculous truth. The creator of the universe thought I and my relationship with God were of such importance, that it was worth his death to restore a broken relationship and turn an enemy into a friend. As amazing as this is, there is more. …
A Lenten Reflection When we are struck by illness, disappointment, depression, or when we are sinned against by violence or injustice, we can struggle to believe God, trust God, or feel God’s love. Philosophers and theologians have done little better in the face of such pain and sometimes horrific evil. Yes, we can “explain” it …
A Lenten Reflection In typography, when we straighten lines on both sides of a column of text we say it is justified. This gives a clean appearance so readers are not distracted by jagged edges. Readers can then focus on the words, not on how they look. Jagged edges appear elsewhere too. A family member …