To speak of something breaking is to speak of the weakness of one thing and the strength of another. Typically, something breaks for a reason. The problem is inherent, whether due to fragile materials or flawed construction. For example, a vase can crack because the ceramic is very fine (read: brittle), or because the hairline fracture which had previously been invisible to the naked eye is finally revealed under duress. A broken thing has proven itself unable to “hold itself together”—to maintain integrity—beyond a certain threshold. It’s called “the breaking point” for a reason. Up to this point, I can manage. Beyond this point, all bets are off. And here’s the thing: most of the time we don’t know our breaking point until it is surpassed. Variables can be tangible or intangible: literal weight, literal force, or immaterial factors such as stress, temptation, delay, etc. In any event, the result is the same. Toys break. Coffee cups break. Relationships break. Men and women break. Hearts break. READ MORE >>>
The War Manual of Love
I had the privilege of taking part in a “commissioning ceremony” for the son of a dear friend on his 18th birthday. I was asked to impart something on the topic of ‘Love.’ Here’s what I shared:
The First and Second Great Commandments are: to love God, to love others. The world has a polite notion of love. It makes love into heart-shaped candies. It distorts love with shame and perversion. It manipulates love, using it to sell cars or politicians or beauty cream. The church has a more accurate, God-inspired, yet sometimes still-too-polite and slightly distorted notion of love. Yes, love is a choice, more than a feeling. We love, because He first loved. True, agape love is unselfish and unconditional, imagining and acting upon the highest and best for another person above yourself. All of these are true. But they are soft and incomplete.
Let me add two more truths drawn from my own experience, from the conviction of the Word, and what I know of the character of God. These are less discussed, less preached on, less understood, less “churchy,” but no less true. They are the masculine and strong. Now more than ever, among the highest and holiest facets of love, are war and sacrifice. READ MORE >>>
Parenting Enough
As a dad, I find myself fairly frequently asking the question: “Am I really reaching my kids? Am I having the impact on them I want, and, more to the point, need to have?”
Exhibit A: My stepson will soon be a college senior, my stepdaughter a college freshman, my oldest blood son, a high school senior.
Exhibit B: My youngest children are on the cusp of their teenage years.
Exhibit C: My wife is talking more and more about how hot the room is. READ MORE >>>
Nothing but a Poem
The last 6-8 weeks have been a frenetic mix of holidays, travels and missed deadlines. As I’ve labored to finish The Ravaged Realm (thank you AMG for your patience!), I’ve also sought to get my creative bearings for 2012. I’m on a bit of a mission READ MORE >>>
The Outsider King
The birth of Jesus is the ultimate outsider moment in history. We’ve long since dressed it up with tinsel and lights, making it something merry, pretty and popular. We celebrate with gaiety, food, song, gifts and warm, crackling fireplace fires. In the process, we’ve divorced ourselves from the starker, darker reality of the actual event, where a babe lay swaddled in a pile of straw, nervously watched over by two very human, very perplexed parents. By any objective measurement, the original Christmas moment was nothing we would want to celebrate as a crowning achievement. More likely, it was a desperate, cold, lonely affair.
And yet it is precisely the unreserved honesty of the story from which we draw a timeless sense of hope, as our darker human colors get shot through with divine light. Because the fact is, we all exist outside perfection, no less the babe in the manger. READ MORE >>>
2011 Best Of — My Personal List
Everybody does it this time of year, right? So here’s my random, highly subjective list of non-sequiturs, both meaningful and meaningless. Drumroll please….
- Best “I Must Have Been Hiding in A Musical Cave for The Last 6 Years” Discovery: Coldplay’s Fix You
- Best Cool Update That Wasn’t: iOS 5 Minus Siri on My iPhone 4.
- Best Tech I Don’t Have Thanks to “Cool Update That Wasn’t” + My Lack of an Acura
- Best Evidence Microsoft Is Clueless as Ever and May Never Get its Mojo Back (if it ever had any)
- Best Over-Hyped non-iPad Killer: The Kindle Fire
- Best, Most Cringeworthy Oops Fail Moment by a Politican
- Best, Dumbest Political Spin in Praise of the Recession by Sen. Claire McCaskill
- Best Recently Viewed Youtube Debate While Unable to Sleep from 2:00-4:00 AM: Christopher Hitchens vs. William Lane Craig
- Best New Worship Song that Never Fails to Move Me: Jesus You’re Beautiful by John Thurlow
- Best Unexpected Song Twist With Belly Laugh Following: Tim Hawkins Fire Ants
- Best Evidence that Minority Report is Almost Here
- Best Blogs at DeanBriggs.com (most viewed to date):
Birth & Disgrace
To give birth, one must lose their dignity. Have you considered that? We cry out for the Lord to birth something into our families, our lives, our churches, yet we prefer the sanctity of our personal space to the mess and noise which almost always accompany the release of life.
A woman in labor is probably in the most vulnerable position possible. She cannot flee; her time has come. She is confined to a prostrate position, exposed, and must surrender her dignity to the hope of the life she carries. That life must come out, and it will come, but only through her brokenness. She is laid bare before the eyes of others. There is much pain. There is also a rhythm that must take over, an ebb and flow. The pain doesn’t all come at once. Vulnerability is not a singular experience. It is an unfolding, a progression, a series of humiliations. READ MORE >>>
Prize Pack Contest Winners Announced!
First of all, thanks to everyone for playing. Since (re)releasing The Book of Names in May, 2011, then Corus a month later, and Song of Unmaking in October, I’ve barely been able to engage in any real promotional efforts. Plus, as many of you know, I was waaaay behind on developing a meaningful Facebook connection with readers when this contest started. Hopefully, over the last 30+ days, you not only enjoyed the contest, but together we also launched something positive for the future success of the series. I’m very grateful for all the feedback, encouragement, readers, connections, books sold, Likes, buzz, exposure, etc. Please know, I don’t take any of it for granted. I hope not only to make readers and fans on this journey of fiction and fun, but also friends. I hope you enjoyed some fun times, and a lot of freebies.
Special thanks to my retail partner, DeeperShopping.com for their promotional rate of $7.79 on all LoKT titles, and also Donita K. Paul for some cool bonus prizes.
Now, without further ado, I present the results of the Christmas 2011 Reader’s Dream Fantasy Prize Pack:
The Work of the Spirit
Reprinted from the sermon archives of the late Bible teacher, Ray Stedman:
The passage known as the Upper Room Discourse in the gospel of John 13-17 takes us into the intimate thoughts of Jesus just before His crucifixion. Some have called this the “Holy of Holies” of Scripture. That is, if you think of Scripture as a temple, this is the sanctuary, where you come into the very presence of God Himself. By means of Jesus’ words to His disciples, we are permitted to enter into His thinking and emotions just before His crucifixion. READ MORE >>>
What Does it Take to Obey?
Reprinted from the sermon archives of the late Bible teacher, Ray Stedman:
“Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him” (John 14:21).
To read this, “Obey Me, and you will love Me,” produces a mechanical, dry Christianity with no warmth or joy or glory. But what Jesus says is, “If you love Me, you will obey Me.” It is easy to do, not difficult. Notice that it is not, “If you love Me, you will have to keep My commandments.” No, it is cause and effect: “If you love Me, the result is that you will keep My commandments.” That is the secret of all proper behavior in the Christian experience. The proof of our love is obedience. READ MORE >>>
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