Public Punditry

Empty, Alone, and Doing the Right Thing Picture this for a moment: you’re running down a dark alley. There are towering high-rise apartments on each side of you, and debris is falling from above. There are elephants-sized tears welling up and running across your face like a window in the middle of a rainstorm. Up to this point, you’ve even forgotten why you began to run in the first place but unwilling to stop, lest you get trounced with empty glass bottles and crushed-up cans. You’re afraid, lost, and alone.   That’s how my faith walk felt for much of the past calendar year. Here’s the problem though. I wasn’t living a life filled with the cardinal sins: sex, drugs, and alcohol. I wasn’t abstaining from the church. I wasn’t refusing to read the Bible. My life has been the exact opposite. I was and still am a Bible student at a Christian school who occasionally spends his time preaching in churches and other times regularly attends and actively participates with a local congregatio...

If you’re reading this, more than likely there is someone near and dear to you graduating this weekend. They may be a family member, coworker, or in my case, some of your best friends. As the graduates strolled across the stages to receive their diplomas, their identity changed from “current student” to “alum.” There are a lot of different emotions between that identity change. These new alums leave behind classmates, friends, and professors as they take the next step pursuing their new lives, forming families and careers. This next phase of life may place them in a new city, state, or country, but regardless, they are placed in a new state of mind.     There will be more responsibilities, more stress, more bills, a 9-5 workday, and more of those god-forsaken student loan payments, all coming at a salary that is slightly larger than an intern. All these things require a healthy community and camaraderie to build up against these outside pressures and stressors, and to be frank...

Sitting on the back deck with my Dad last night, we tuned into the Presbyterian Church of America General Assembly. After my parents and younger brothers' recent denomination flip, our intense watching of the live stream, complete with church elders voting on overtures for the Book of Church Order, old men exchanging theological inside jokes, and heated debate over lines that 99 percent of America would not bother to care about, their votes directly impact my family and their church. So why am I bringing this up? While it might be sad to some and grateful to others, this blog has nothing to do with the PCA General Assembly. However, it was amid our father-son convo when I proceeded to talk about my slight frustration with American church services on Independence Day since this upcoming Sunday is July 4th. "Wait... Have you not seen the video from First Baptist Dallas?" my Dad asks. I respond scared, "No. Why would I?" Despite my original hesitancy of disclosing ...

330 Days That's how long it took for the family of George Floyd to receive the justice they sought out and deserved. There have been shed tears and broken hearts in the aftermath of Floyd's death. Over the course of those 330 days, our country has had lockdowns, elections, protests, and riots. America has undergone serious changes from top to bottom. On Tuesday, thousands of protestors across the nation stood outside the Minneapolis and millions more tuned to the television screens across the globe in hopes of hearing one word: guilty. I could not tell you how happy I was to hear that word not one but three times. Guilty . Guilty. Guilty.  Justice has been served, and the pursuit of equality has been forwarded. The jury's decision proved a historic outcome in a historic case. Court TV (my non-biased network of choice during the case) said that this verdict has brought the most eyes to the screen since OJ Simpson's infamous court case nearly twenty-six years ago. To see ...

Pain. Struggle. Depression. Overwhelmed souls. Disillusion. Lack of satisfaction. These words and so many more open the floodgates of a disoriented, sorrowful, and unwanted life. These lives are seen in obituaries, walking along empty sidewalks, and swinging on cold porch swings. They run, laugh, cry, love, hurt, heal, and go about life as if it's normal. They're no different from the rest of us because they are us. Lamentation and grief are distinct aspects of the daily walk of life, yet we barely open their doors because they're "not welcome."   I don't have a complicated life, one filled with personal anecdotes that bring people to tears. Good looks that I can make a career out of, outlandish physical capabilities that put people on tv screens, nor do I have an obscene and superior intellect. No one's gonna write my biography. I'm not gonna be in history books. My great-great-grandchildren aren't gonna say, "We're related to HIM?" ...

In a few short weeks, the ceremonial passing of the torch will take place where President-elect Joe Biden will take his oath of office and be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States. Tens of millions of people around the world will tune in to watch the momentous occasion, but what will be more significant are the controversial thoughts, comments, and actions from those who will refuse to call Biden their President in the name of election fraud and conservative cable news.  Over the last four years, there has been overt political polarization sweeping the nation, never seen since the Civil War's bloody battles. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have become battlefields. Thumb taps and swipes have become weapons. Tweets and posts have delivered the onslaught of casualties to both sides of the fight. Sadly, once Biden is sworn into office, his calls for unity will start and end at the desk of the Oval Office. The cable news cycles haven't provided any sort of help in he...

So, if you don't know me, you might miss the fact that I love my family. If you do know me, you know that I have two awesome parents, four siblings, an incredible dog, and an emotionally subpar cat. My family means everything to me, and since I've come home from school, my family has indirectly taught me one of the most important aspects of the Christian life-- surrender.   In Luke's gospel account, Christ looks to his followers and instructs them to take up their cross and follow him. One of the underlying themes that goes relatively unnoticed with Jesus and his followers is that they become a family. Jesus said to the one who asked to bury his father, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and spread the news of the kingdom of God," (Luke 9:60). Like a sheep being brought to a new pasture, his followers left their families to join a new one.   The twelve apostles and the many unnamed followers spend all of their time with Jesus and develop a love and conn...

It has been over six months since George Floyd’s passing. Riots have raged across the nation. State and federal political figures have laid the groundwork for their goals toward lasting change. Black artists have carved marvelous works documenting the truth about America’s past dealings with racism in hopes of seeing a country unified, putting the daunting horrors of racial prejudice behind them.  The conversation has been forwarded. People of varying backgrounds are learning and practicing what it takes to break the generational barriers of bigotry and hate. But there is a question that refused to leave my mind over the last couple months.  What took so long? Did it take Ahmaud Arbery, Breanna Taylor, and George Floyd losing their lives in order for the conversation to be forwarded? Did it take weeks of riots in the streets in order for the people of America to wake up? Did it take more than  fifty years  since the death of Martin Luther King Jr. and  four hund...