In darkness, He rolls the stone away.
At your worst, He loves you anyway.
— J.S.
Tag: truth
“The Gospel in Real Life” – Messages for Students from Yale
Hello wonderful friends! This is a series of three messages that I gave to students of Yale University, about the relevance and reason of Christianity.
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The first is called: How Christianity Breaks Us Open and Painfully Puts Us Back Together.
It’s about how the Gospel uniquely differs from every other kind of motivation and completely restructures us.
Some things I talk about are: A meta-deconstruction of the Sunday church service, how to bomb a TEDTalk, the last two things I hear from dying patients in the hospital, the haunting of l’esprit de l’escalier, de-romanticizing adoption, the list of my flaws I gave to my wife before we started dating, and how a nine-year-old showed me the heart of Christianity.
You can also download it here.
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The second is called: The Eternal Itchy Longing Within Us: Jesus Is Complete Fulfillment.
It’s about how the Gospel solves for two universal human problems and the greatest human need.
Some things I talk about are: How to tell an alien about the human race, conclusions about humanity after a survey with 700 replies, the instant anxiety when you walk into a crowded room, the itchy self-conscious moment when someone is slightly more talented at “my thing,” that loopy moment at night with your best friend when you start confessing everything, two universal human problems and our greatest human need, and the absolutely most important linchpin verse in the Bible.
You can also download it here.
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The third is called: Where We Come From and Where We’re Going: Red Sea to Redeemed & Free.
It’s about how the Gospel compels us into action, neither by guilt nor religion, but deliverance.
Some things I talk about are: How long it actually should’ve taken the Israelites to get to Canaan from Egypt (not forty years), the moment right after the wedding, how the grace of my first pastor completely tenderized and galvanized me, the Christian life beyond “overcoming-sin,” and seeing God in the Philippines and a homeless shelter.
You can also download it here.
More messages on iTunes here or my podcast page here.
Be immensely blessed, dear friends! — J.S.
“3 Reasons a Journey Is Never Better Alone”
Here’s an article I wrote that’s been published on X3Church, called:
“3 Reasons a Journey Is Never Better Alone.”
It’s about our need for tough accountability and joy-driven community so we can become the people we were meant to be, and how we live that journey together.
Here’s an excerpt:
“I can do it myself” is one the of the biggest lies we’ve perpetuated today.
It’s easy to get why: because we love independence. We’re threatened by losing our autonomy. The most triumphant modern narrative is, “I’m my own person and I call my own shots.” And certainly there’s great truth in valuing individuality.
But just as much as complete dependence on others is a dangerous trap: so complete independence is a romanticized fairy-tale.
No one is meant to do life alone.
Life alone isn’t life, but merely survival.
Life together is thriving, to truly be alive.
Read the full post here.
— J.S.
Marriage at Your Worst.
Sharing love for a lifetime is going to be difficult: it’s full of a million misunderstandings, shrill melt-downs, crazy eyeballs, and totally ugly cry-face. But that’s the point. It’s only a matter of who you choose to share the worst of you with. I’ve chosen. I’ll keep choosing. So has she.
— J.S.
7 Ways To Stop The Christian Gossip Mob
We’ve all been in a crowd where someone starts doing the sassy finger and going into hater mode. “Did you hear about our dear so-and-so in Christ? Because not to be a gossiping jerk, but I’m about to be a gossiping jerk.”
It’s not too hard to stop your own mouth (simple: don’t start), but when someone else among friends starts going off on gossip, it gets awkwardly difficult to control. It’s not enough to just change subjects or step away.
So then, some ways to shut this down.
Never Really Friends
Sometimes lives drift apart, distance reveals reality, and you realize you both were never really friends. It’s not like there is animosity and you wouldn’t call them an enemy. You just see it as it really is.
Honestly, Half The Time I Have No Idea What I’m Doing
I always thought my parents and these grown-ups had a super-secret system for organizing their life and making Huge Forever-Changing Decisions. Writing checks and doing taxes and paying the rent was like second nature to them. Me in my little kid boots, a sore neck from looking up all the time: it was daunting to think of being a grown-up.
It turns out, they were guessing most of the time.
Continue reading “Honestly, Half The Time I Have No Idea What I’m Doing”
J.S. Park: Hospital Chaplain 