by jakeowensby | Sep 17, 2021 | Mark 9:30-37
People are more than one thing. Our worst moments do not define us. None of us is merely petty, angry, stubborn, self-absorbed, impatient, or hypocritical. We can also be kind, selfless, courageous, persistent, curious, and honest. Everybody operates from mixed...
by jakeowensby | Sep 11, 2020 | Matthew 18:21-35
“It’s not about you, it’s about them.” When I’ve been injured by another person’s cruel words or actions, friends have said this to me. Maybe your friends have consoled you in a similar way. And there is sad truth to what my friends have said. Some people offload...
by jakeowensby | Oct 26, 2018 | grace, Mark 10:46-52
Several of my friends are in long-term recovery from alcoholism or drug addiction. Many of them tell stories about hitting bottom. They lost a job or a spouse. A DWI landed them in jail. Their children, their parents, and their friends wouldn’t speak to them anymore....
by jakeowensby | Sep 7, 2018 | grace, James 2:1-17
Constance died at the age of thirty-three. A Yellow Fever epidemic swept through the city of Memphis in 1878. At one point, seventy people were dying each day from the disease. Eventually, the population was so diminished that the city lost its municipal charter....
by jakeowensby | Jan 19, 2018 | 3 Epiphany B, grace, Jonah 3:1-5, 10
When I say “Jonah,” I bet most people think about the story of a reluctant prophet. Balking at God’s call to go to Nineveh, Jonah took a boat as far as you can go in the opposite direction. Famously, after a storm at sea threatens to swamp the boat he’s boarded, Jonah...
