I recently wrote this article for Christian Standard magazine, and I’m already getting lots of feedback on both sides of the issue. Click the link below to read the entire article on the CS site.

“God’s plan for your life isn’t a map you see all at once, but a scroll unrolled a little at a time, requiring faith,” Rick Warren recently tweeted.

“God will accelerate his plan for your life as you put your trust in him. God is giving you victory sooner than you think,” says Joel Osteen.

Less prominent Christians champion the theology as well. In responding to a new believer’s question about his career, a contributor to Bible-Knowledge.com writes, “God will now be the one to fully guide you into whatever jobs he will want you to have. . . . The choice is no longer yours! In the meantime, God will make sure you have enough money and support coming in to keep you afloat until this next job comes through.”

It is comforting to believe God has mapped out our future. It is exciting to think he’s bringing me victory. And I would love for God to make sure I have enough money while I passively wait for it to happen.

But unlike pastors Warren and Osteen, Mr. Bible-Knowledge, and many Christians I know, I don’t believe God has created a plan for my life—or for yours.


Problems with “The Plan”
–We take verses out of context

Jeremiah 29:11 is a cherished verse, frequently used for encouragement in graduation cards, post-breakup pep talks and, yes, job searches. (Well-meaning believers have recited it to me in all three contexts.) Along with The Bachelorette and people who refuse to vaccinate their children, its yanked-out-of-context use is one of the biggest pet peeves of my life.

Somehow we forget the grim reality surrounding this verse: amidst oracles of doom and judgment against Judah, Jeremiah says these words to comfort the people (as a group) with promises of eventual restoration and return from exile.

This is a bit different from claiming it as a guarantee of a fulfilling job, wonderful spouse, or ministry “call.”

Click here to read more, including why I find this theology harmful, why it lets American Christians feel special, and and what I do believe about God’s plan.

Filed under: God, life, opinions Tagged: Jeremiah 29:11, joel osteen, plan, Rick Warren

……is what you win them to.


Church tries pina coladas and kabobs to lure new members

Ocoee’s Elevation Christian Church is attempting to attract the unchurched by giving its Sunday services in June a Jamaican flavor with island music, food, grass skirts and Hawiian shirts.

“YaMakingMePraise” Sundays start with the 11 a.m. service June 5 at the church at 485 W. Silver Star Road, Ocoee.

Elevation Christian Church Pastor Gabriel Padilla said he’s trying something diffferent to appeal to those who don’t normally attend church or think that worship services must be boring.

“The scenery is set, the atmosphere is real, come join us at Elevation Christian Church where the Piña Coladas are cold and the kabobs are on the grill,” says the church flier. “Make sure to wear your Hawaiian and Tropical outfits to make an impression, having you with us will be our pleasure. Don’t eat a big breakfast leave room for our delicious Piña Coladas and Kabobs!”




Three Thoughts:

1. This weekend a friend and I were talking about marriage and how the church needs to better equip couples to make this commitment. Even young couples raised in the church don’t always understand their loving feelings will fade or that serving each other can revive them and the importance of gutting it out in the meantime.

Similarly, we do people a disservice by implying Christianity is about being entertained. Our feelings for the covenant we’ve made with God will also fade, and we are called to serve him anyway, and it’s not about how fun it is.

I’m not trying to be depressing. We really really want people to get married and we really really want them to become Christians because we believe both are really really good. But part of the reason they’re good is they require sacrifice and growth and effort. Some more truth in advertising would be helpful.

2. Either the brochure writers at Elevation or this blogger or both need an editor. Spelling, grammar—good grief. Elevation, spend a little less on pineapple and a little more on proofreading next time.

3. “YaMakingMePraise” is just stupid.

Filed under: opinions, the church Tagged: Elevation Christian Church, evangelism, luau, Ocoee, Padilla, seeker sensitive

I’m still catching up from my trip, so last week I finally read the Time magazine from May 9 with a cover story about the FBI’s progress (or lack of) in the last ten years. In addition to an overview of director Mueller’s operating style, the agency’s old-school culture, and the ways its agents are learning to work together, the article describes Mueller’s almost-resignation in 2004.

“At issue was a highly classified surveillance program, called Stellar Wind, that President Bush approved after 9/11. For the first time since Congress forbade the practice in 1978, the National Security Agency was spying on domestic communications traffic without a warrant. In the second week of March 2004, Attorney General John Ashcroft’s Justice Department ruled that Stellar Wind was illegal. The next day, Ashcroft fell gravely ill with acute pancreatitis. Bush sent two top aides to George Washington University Hospital, where the Attorney General lay in critical condition. White House counsel Alberto Gonzales and chief of staff Andrew Card Jr. asked the semiconscious Ashcroft to sign a document reversing the Justice Department’s ruling. Mueller arrived at the hospital just after Card and Gonzales retreated in defeat. His notes described Ashcroft as ‘feeble, barely articulate.’”

Bush then reauthorized Stellar Wind despite the Justice Department’s decision, and Mueller tells the president he will quit before carrying out this order. “Bush pulled back from the brink,” the story ends, “submitting to the Justice Department’s legal ruling.”


This anecdote wasn’t the point of the article; it was included as a comment on Mueller’s character, not the former president’s lack of it. But it left me wondering: why do we ignore the bad things our favorite political party does and trumpet the errors of the other party?

Many of my Facebook friends lean Republican, so I routinely see rants against Obama. Even this weekend there were angry comments because he golfed on Memorial Day after visiting Arlington, as if everyone else in the country spent the entire day leaving flowers on graves instead of grilling hamburgers and watching people in Indianapolis drive too fast.

I see unquestioning approval of Dubya. I see adoration of Palin and her book. Never, ever have any of my conservative friends ever commented on anything positive or helpful Obama has done.

I’m not the president’s PR committee, but I think it’s telling. If Obama’s administration tried to illegally spy on American citizens, trick a sick public official into reversing a ruling on the constitutionality of it and then ignore his decision, that’s all I’d read on Facebook for a week (and rightly so). Strangely, none of my friends have linked to the May 9 issue of Time.


Both presidents have major faults. They’ve both made decisions to disagree with. What I don’t understand is why we can’t be honest about that.

Bush banned partial-birth abortion, signed legislation to protect our forests and lakes, and changed the Medicare program to benefit seniors. He also lied about weapons of mass destruction, mishandled Hurricane Katrina and doubled the national debt. Obama has continued raising the deficit, he gambled considerable political capital and time on the health care reform issue, and he’s undercut Israel’s position with Palestine more than once. He also got us out of Iraq, expanded laws against hate crimes, and made a gutsy call that led to bin Laden’s capture.

Black and white positions are always more comfortable because they are both easy to understand and efficient to argue. (“The Bible says it, I believe it, and that’s that.”) Trouble is, the black and white perspective is almost always incomplete. Few issues are clear-cut. Few arguments can be blamed on just one participant. And few politicians are all bad or all good.


I’m sorry to my fundamentalist friends, religious, political or otherwise. I’m sorry to everyone who scores an off-the-chart “J” on the Myers Briggs. I’m sorry to those impatient with nuance. I’m sorry to both the reds and the blues who don’t want to think. But it is intellectually dishonest and just plain lazy to vilify one party and venerate the other.

Filed under: life, opinions Tagged: Ashcroft, FBI, George W. Bush, Justice Department, Mueller, Palin, partisan, politics, President Bush, President Obama, Stellar Wind, Time magazine

Why churches must add an extra “e” to their names.

Owning a ferret.

The point of PO boxes at my post office. When I receive a package they refuse to accept it.

Driving across town to save $0.02 a gallon on gas.

Graffiti. You’re making your own neighborhood uglier.

Why scantily-dressed women with names like “AriannaVerySexy” find it strategic to follow me on Twitter.

Green tea. It tastes like grass.


Stretch hummers.

Churches offering “Christian sympathy.” Is there some other kind? What makes it different?

Why my grocery store sells ping pong balls.

Why they are displayed by the paper towels.

Death metal.




This. (Hat tip to my buddy Todd who found it.)

Filed under: fun, lists, opinions, things I don't understand Tagged: crosspointe, lifepointe, mime, rapture, riverpointe, Twitter

I promise this will be the last post about my trip (although you can see 7,000 pictures on Facebook). It was a wonderful experience, jet lag and all. Here are a few thoughts from my journal.

– Dear Air France: it is legal on both continents to keep the cabin temperature above 55 degrees. Just so you know.

– If you look up “beautiful,” “delightful,” or “charming” in the dictionary, I’m pretty sure it shows pictures of Paris in May.

– French men will flirt with any woman who breathes. We hadn’t showered or slept for 30 hours and a shopkeeper wanted me and Breanne to drink champagne with him. If we’d been clean and non-grouchy he might have proposed.

– Bree is flexible and a ton of fun to travel with. We share a love of museums, an interest in history, a willingness to ruin our dinner by eating apple strudel at 3 in the afternoon, a love of rainy days, AND she can read a map. Which I can’t.

– There are actually people masochistic enough to climb the stairs to the top of the Eiffel Tower. I am not one of them. Neither is Bree—another reason she’s quality.


– If there is a better breakfast than espresso, baguettes, cheese, butter and jam, I have yet to eat it.

– I work too much. Okay, not a revelation. I was practically giddy at the thought of 10 whole days without email, deadlines, errands, chores and task lists.

– The French have a reputation for being rude, and it’s true they don’t much like our attempts at speaking their language. But on the whole we found them much nicer than the Germans. The Deutschland’s waiters are especially grouchy. Local expats said it’s part of the culture since they don’t work for tips. Not wanting to disturb local culture, we just didn’t tip the nasty ones very much.

– The Louvre is stuffy, crowded and hard to navigate.


– The guidebooks imply Berthillon ice cream is so good the world will implode if you visit Paris without trying it. They may be right.

– I’m glad I got a Kindle.

– I wish the US had the cafe culture of Europe’s major cities, where you can sit outside and people watch, read, write or talk as long as you want. I would do most of my work from a cafe table if I lived there.

– Also, America needs more trains.


– French women wear scarves and look effortlessly chic. I look like a woman wearing a really big piece of material around her neck.

–Every store of every size sells beer and wine, and there’s no legal drinking age. Yet we saw very few drunk people, and most of the ones we did encounter were Americans. Make of that what you will.

–Some of Paris is propped up by huge underground catacombs of bones from its 18th and 19th century residents.

– The German people are a paradox. They love rules—more than once we were instructed (without explanation) to carry our bags a certain way in a museum or leave by the exit door instead of the entrance door right next to it. Then there’s the U Bahn and S Bahn trains–there are no turnstiles or barriers to walking on one without buying a ticket, yet everyone stood in line to buy them and validate them in automated machines before each ride.

It’s not surprising to me that this rigid, authority-pleasing group has historically been so easily influenced by dictators. On the other hand, there was also a lot of the random—museums arranged neither chronologically nor thematically, train lines shut down without warning, restaurants without signs. It’s an interesting dynamic.


– Their nuclear shelters are still ready to go. Can’t be too careful.

– If you spend five hours at Dachau, and you see the crematorium, and you walk through the prison, and you see pictures of the liberation, and you read about the torture, you will not talk much on the way home.

–I like sausages and sauerkraut more than I expected to.

– I still don’t like beer.

– Berlin has history from the Renaissance, World War 2, and the Cold War—sometimes all on the same block, along with some of the cheapest food and coolest museums in Europe. I’m in love. Also, unlike Paris, it never smells like pee.


– I need to go more often. I love the USA, but on the whole I think cities across the pond are more beautiful, have better food, and offer a richer culture. I’m already saving for the next trip.

Filed under: life, lists, opinions Tagged: Air France, berlin, Berthillon, Cold War, Dachau, Eiffel Tower, French, German, Louvre, munich, paris, WWII