For most of my early life as a Christian, I did not really consider thanksgiving to be the stuff of prayer. Thanksgiving was more of a prelude to petition, which was where I thought the real action lay. When I prayed, I would quickly thank God for the day or for my food—good things to…
Recently while I was watching our baby Samuel, I found myself dancing with him around our kitchen to hymns and songs of praise coming from our Apple HomePod. When we’re not dancing together, Samuel has begun to bounce along to the music in his bouncer suspended from the doorframe. The songs we listen to lately…
Today we enter the season of Advent. We rightly think of this season in the life of the church as a preparation to celebrate Christ’s birth at Christmas, but it is more. Advent is a time of preparation—for Christmas, yes—but ultimately for the last day (Jn. 6:40), when Christ will “descend from heaven with a…
Those of us who have been Christians for a while sometimes forget that much of what we do might seem strange to the world around us. I was reminded of this as I read an article which observed that the church is one of the only places we continue to encounter corporate singing. It’s true—when…