Category: Life

Photo by Dominik ScytheOn January 1, 2017 what are you hoping for? As you consider this coming year what is it that you want to accomplish? When you get to December 31, 2017 how will you know if you had a good year? These questions are more important to me than ever before. As I look around at our culture I see too many people who are losing the ability to see beyond the immediate. Every day there is a new catastrophe. Every day another famous person dies. Every day there is something that steals hope from too many people. What saddens me is that these things that leave many of us feeling anguished are nothing more than fleeting vapors of a life we wish we had. We howl about global affairs and ignore the ones next door. We cry for the celebrity but do not weep for our neighbor. As I look to 2017, Psalm 67 is my prayer. It is my hope. May...

Photo By Tegan MierleIt is so much easier to label someone than to enter in with them as person. Life is simpler if we look at someone and say, “Conservative”, “Liberal”, “Republican”, “Democrat”, and so on. However, when we apply these labels we do two things. First, we distance ourselves from them as people. We are saying, “You’re this or that and I’m not.” This distance gives us permission to caricature, to mock, to be unloving without seeing the consequences. When there’s distance we are able to ignore the response of the individual. By creating this distance we are able to only see them as a group and not as individuals. This is the second, even more insidious problem, with categorizing or labeling people; it is this, we remove their person-hood. When someone becomes a “Millenial” or a “Protester” or a “Conservative” or a “Liberal” in our minds they cease to be a person. They stop being “John” or “Sara” or “Corinne” or...

The Curse Is Gone Last night an epic World Series ended with one of the greatest game sevens in the history of sports. The Chicago Cubs defeated the Cleveland Indians in the tenth inning, 8–7. The Cubs had not won the World Series in 108 years. The reason for this drought was the Curse of the Billy Goat. A few years ago the Boston Red Sox ended their World Series drought overcoming the Curse of the Bambino (the Red Sox traded Babe Ruth to the Yankees). As the sun rose this morning we entered into a world where there were no more curses in baseball. Sure, there are teams that haven’t been to or won the Series in a long time but none of them point to a curse. It’s just that they’ve been bad. The Cubs and Red Sox added to the lore of the game with their longstanding curses. The curse is gone. As this reality dawned on me, this verse from the Bible...

Photo by: Joshua EarleIn John 4 there’s a story that grabs me. It’s a story of shame being turned to honor. It’s a story that is, in its purest sense, a story of redemption. In John 4 we read of a Samaritan woman who has to come and draw water in the heat of the day. She couldn’t come in the morning like the other women of her city because she was an outcast. She had five husbands and the one she was currently with, wasn’t her husband. A scandalous woman! She arrives at the well to see a Jewish man hanging out. This was shocking as many Jews would walk around Samaria altogether. Then this man did the unthinkable, he asked for water. It almost certain that he knew what kind of woman she was, coming alone to the well in the middle of the day. How could a Jewish man ask such a sinful woman to draw him water? The encounter presses...

Shortly after I got serious about trying to follow Jesus I became consumed with “the truth.” I printed off hundreds of pages of articles from the Internet that helped me argue for “the truth.” I wasn’t interested, at that time, with “the truth” so much as I was interested in being right. Often, as I shared my faith I camped out on a specific verse, John 14:6, which reads — I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. It has taken me a long time, a very long time, to grasp the reality that Jesus said he is the truth. Truth is personal. When truth is found in a person, it is relational. It is both, subjective and objective. When truth is a person it means that you can engage with the truth in a much different way than you do with 2+2=4. I desperately want people to know the truth. This means that I want...

Photo by Ivan KarasevOver the last few weeks there is one verse that has been recurring in my thoughts and in my heart and in my soul. It’s been bubbling up like volcanic lava. Micah 6:8 says, He [God] has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? This verse. This one verse is tearing me up. It is chasing me down and it emerges under every rock, every conversation, every reading, and every time I consider this world. Over the last couple of weeks I have been wrestling with issues of race. It’s so hard. My brother is a police officer and one of my closes friends is too. They are unjustly portrayed by this world. There is real systemic racism that is unjust and innocent people are dying as a result. Too many leaders in the church want to simply brush...

I have a dirty secret. Honestly, it’s not that much of a secret. I am white, American, and male. Those three facts alone mean that I experience on a daily basis a level of privilege that many people don’t. OK, many of you are about to stop reading and your eyes have rolled into the back of you head. I actually heard them roll. I have a teen-agers, trust me I can see an eye roll a mile away. Please keep reading. This is going somewhere. It’s not another “white man self-loathing” kind of piece. My parents were divorced when I was nine. My mom worked multiple jobs to make ends meet and provide for my brothers and I. Unlike many, my Dad was present in our lives. We saw him every other weekend and he always paid his child support. If we needed money for sports or a school trip he provided it when we asked. I am confident that if we were...

Photo By <a href=“https://unsplash.com/@riccardofissore”>Riccardo Fissore</a>Today, I sat in on a meeting where the main topic of discussion was “racial reconciliation.” We were all pastors and all but one of us were white and male. The lone exception was a black woman. She is someone that I count as a friend and I think the feeling is mutual. Our conversation was started because there was a community worship service that was poorly attended by white congregations. My congregation didn’t attend. I didn’t even share it with my congregation. It just didn’t fit into the calendar or the mission. Nevertheless, this was the reason we began discussing “racial reconciliation.” People were sharing their great wealth of knowledge behind why there is a racial divide here. It was decided, with a great chorus of “Mmhmmms” that there is a “spirit” oppressing our area. It was also decided that we need a prayer program to try to fix the situation. I don’t know if I said more...

Happy fall Subversive Journeyers! I trust that you are well and that you’re enjoying the beauty of the autumn. This is my favorite time of year. I love the temperature and the colors that begin to explode in the trees and in the sky. Last week I wrote something that might be the most important thing that I’ve ever written. Today, I might have written the second most important. I don’t know, maybe they’re just noise. But, I would love for you to read them and share them if you think they’re worth anything. Here is What I Know… It’s Not That Hard. It’s Exactly That Hard. Grace and Peace, Daniel M. Rose Two of the most important things I’ve ever written. was originally published in The Subversive Journey on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story. Read the responses to this story on Medium. from The Subversive Journey https://danielmrose.com/two-of-the-most-important-things-ive-ever-written-bc770606c056?source=rss—-bbc765b79ec5—4via IFTTT ...

Photo by <a href=“https://unsplash.com/@reka”>Korney Violin</a>Two young black men were riding home from football practice in my car. The four us were laughing, cutting up, and making fun of each other. We came up on multiple police cars and officers investing something. These two young men immediately folded their hands in their lap, became quiet, stared straight ahead, and were silent. After we passed the officers there was a moment and then the teasing, laughing, and cutting up began again. My brother and many of my closest friends are police officers. I love police officers. I am grateful for them and the service they provide. We couldn’t live the lives we do without them. But, in that moment it, there was fear, a raw fear that sucked the air out of my car. This fear demanded two young men to immediately become silent upon seeing officers even while being in the car of a white man. We can love and respect and support our police...