by jakeowensby | Sep 3, 2021 | Mark 7:24-37
“Would it kill you to give us a break here?” That’s what a prayer for help can sound like when we’re raw with fatigue. It’s a little edgy. Maybe not so pious-sounding. But there’s an honesty and sincerity about it. It’s the earnest prayer of the overwhelmed. It’s...
by jakeowensby | Jul 30, 2021 | Uncategorized
Shortly after the 2016 election, the actor Denzel Washington was attending a screening of his movie “Fences.” On the red carpet a reporter asked him about a news account claiming that he had switched his vote from Clinton to Trump. He responded, “If you don’t read the...
by jakeowensby | Feb 22, 2019 | 1 Corinthians 15:35-50
“You are like stone. Be like water.” I first heard this at the height of my wary cynicism phase. In my universe, most other people and all of society’s institutions would eventually let you down. To be fair to my younger self, I was only just learning to...
by jakeowensby | Aug 17, 2018 | 1 Kings 3:9, grace
Calling from the pay phone in our dorm lobby, I told my mom that I had decided to major in philosophy. Some parents would fret about their son or daughter studying something so impractical. But not my mother. She reacted as if I were announcing my engagement to a...
by jakeowensby | Jun 15, 2018 | Ecclesiastes
Nothing makes sense. That’s how I read the author of Ecclesiastes when he says, “Vanity of vanities. All is vanity.” Repeatedly. Maybe you’re a superstar in your chosen career. You’ve got a house in every state and the size of your stock portfolio makes Bill Gates...
