The Lord Is My Shepherd

I grew up believing what all modern people are taught: that freedom meant lack of constraint. Orthodoxy taught me that this freedom was no freedom at all, but enslavement to the passions: a neat description of the first thirty years of my life. True freedom, it turns out, is to give up your will and follow God’s. To deny yourself. To let it come. I... See more

I think the primary work of Jesus Christ was to show us a path of self-giving love that is bigger than our fears, bigger than our jealousies and resentments, and bigger than our worst thoughts and deeds. By love I mean neither neither a milquetoast “kindness” that elides the hard bits nor a graceless “tough-love” program for perfection. 

In my exper... See more

“I shall not want,” he says. It is sometimes translated, “I lack nothing.” Dallas Willard, who used to raise sheep, noted that the verses that follow reinforce the message of contentment. Sheep typically do not lie down in green pastures, they eat green pastures. Likewise, sheep are expected to drink from quiet waters, not walk beside them. The ima

... See more