by jakeowensby | Feb 20, 2023 | Uncategorized
Kate Bowler had been suffering bouts of debilitating intestinal distress for some time. Eventually a specialist diagnosed her condition as cancer. Stage IV cancer. She was 35 years old. A rising star at Duke. Married to her high school sweetheart. And the mother of...
by jakeowensby | Dec 31, 2022 | New Year
As our calendars turn from 2022 to 2023, some of us will commit to starting new things. Healthier eating, regular exercise, pursuing a degree, praying regularly, or simply adjusting our attitude. Others will resolve to stop something that diminishes their lives....
by jakeowensby | Dec 2, 2022 | God's love, Matthew 3:1-12
A dear old mentor of mine passed away a few years ago. But the lessons he taught still help me see things—see myself—a little more clearly. Maybe the most important of those lessons came in the form of a story he once told on himself in his usual self-deprecating...
by jakeowensby | Nov 11, 2022 | Luke 21:5-19
“The world breaks everyone.” As an ambulance driver in the First World War, Lt. Frederic Henry had tended to bodies savaged by machine gun fire and disfigured by artillery. He had witnessed souls shaken by violence, carnage, and loss. And it seemed to him that some...
by jakeowensby | Oct 21, 2022 | Luke 18:9-14
My clerical collar, black shirt, and black suit were drawing discrete glances. I had slipped away from the church office to get some cold medicine at a nearby drug store. The checkout line turned out to be unexpectedly long. A man standing in front of me looked over...