I had a mentor/professor in college who before becoming a professor was a Franciscan Friar.   Keeping to the Franciscan tradition, he took a vow of poverty and followed it strictly.  For thirteen years, he traveled across Europe with little more than the clothes on his back, living off the kindness of strangers.  In class and in life, he would recite little spiritual clichés, the type of maxims elderly women cross-stitch into throw pillows.  They were phrases that my jaded mind would have completely rejected had they come from any other source; elementary aphorisms like “God is all good, all the time.  All the time, God is good.” or “Having faith is like having a new set of eyes that allow you to see the world as it truly is.” However, there was something different in the words as they were spoken from his mouth.  His voice somehow added weight to these quippy little anecdotes.  They did not sound like regurgitated sunday school lessons or drugstore sympathy cards.  This was because they were words spoken by a man who, by his own life experience, found them not to be comforting or pleasing to the ears, but undeniably true. Continue reading →

I’m a Wilco fanboy. I just saw my third Wilco show, and it blew my mind, once again. I love coming across bits of the Gospel buried just below the surface of pop-culture and music. Here are a collection of gems from Wilco. Continue reading →

As is the nature with many blogs, CS has been on an impromptu hiatus. I went through a New Year’s resolution kick where I decided that I needed to cut back on all of my non-essential spending. Unfortunately, web hosting fees fell into this category, even as nominal as they are. I didn’t count on how much I’d miss this outlet. After months of ideas floating around in my head, searching for a home; minimal web hosting fees have been upgraded to “essential spending”. Sorry, I’ve been gone, but it’s good to be back. New content will be up soon.

Music by Flobots
Video/Typeography by d9studios

If there is one spiritual writer who could be labeled the most tragically overlooked author by Evangelical Christianity today, it would be Andrew Murray.  Unfortunately, only a rare few of his books are still published by large publishers; most are hidden behind the dated covers of Whitaker House Publishers. If I could read only five authors for the rest of my life, he would be one of them.  Murray speaks with the voice of a mystic, persistently reminding us that only through the inward life of prayer does the outward life of action have true meaning.

The place and power of prayer in the Christian life is too little understood.  As long as we view prayer simply as the means of mainting our own Chrisitan lives, we will not fully understand what it is really supposed to be. But when we learn to regard it as the highest work entrusted to us- the root and strength of all other work- we will see that there is nothing we need to study and practice more than the art of praying.  — With Christ in the School of Prayer

Check out Project Gutenberg for free e-texts and audiobooks by Andrew Murray.