#fallenness

Worth Doing Worth Doing, W. David Buschart and Ryan Tafilowski. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514009482) 2025. Summary: Addresses unrealistic theologies and ideas of work that do not reckon with our finitude and fallenness. During seminary, I studied the theology of work. I remember discussions with a good friend who worked on an assembly line at an auto plant. When I talked of the dignity and…

Narcissism: A Theological Perspective “That person is just a narcissist.” I hear this constantly in counseling. I often hear many people’s self-confession of being a narcissist. In 2022, I sought out psychiatric care with this in mind, “I am a narcissist, and I’m not sure that I am worthy of human interaction.” I was wrong on both counts. Narcissism, as understood psychologically, is not merely…

Review: We the Fallen People

We the Fallen People, Robert Tracy McKenzie. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2021. Summary: An argument that we have witnessed a great reversal in American history from an assumption of fallen human nature to the inherent goodness of people, which the author believes could jeopardize its future. “America is great, because America is good.” Have you heard that phrase? Likely, it was attributed to…

I’ve been on a learning curve with posting “Futility and Hope”.  So, let’s start again.

Health issues were never a problem for our Hadfield household. No broken bones…no illnesses…no doctor appointments…no medication…no medical bills. We were blessed with physical health!  But as Robin and I  moved into our ‘older years’,  aches and pains came with intermittent regularity, age-related vision problems require on-going treatment, hearing loss necessitates hearing aides and forgetfulness at indiscriminate moments disturbs our sense of well-being.  Health issues have become our reality!  Nothing big and life-shattering. Just there, part of our everyday living.

With that as the backdrop, my mind mulls around the whole matter of physical health and God’s healing power.  Often in Robin’s and my praying for people, we target their ‘unwellness’: deep-seated emotional struggles, physical ailments, disease.  We do so believing God can and wants to bring them to health.  And we have seen a measure of break-through…of victory; but it doesn’t compute with the hope we find lodging in our hearts for something so much more permanent and pervasive.  There seems to be a discrepancy between God’s design for wholeness and our reality of ‘unwellness’.

I have been helped of late by Romans 8:20-28.  Paul talks about creation groaning, being subjected to futility in hope; goes on to say that we, as believers who have the first fruits of the Spirit, also groan as we eagerly await  adoption, the redemption of our body;  enlightens us to the fact that the Holy Spirit also groans...with us and for us in our weakness according to the will of God; and culminates it all in the reality that “…all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

“Futility and hope” are not at enmity with one another; they are part of the whole package of redemption.  Understanding that futility is God’s boundary around our fallenness (weakness) until our fallenness is swallowed up by God’s wholeness gives me hope...and empowers me to believe God and what He wants to do in and through and because of our ‘weakness’.  

What I take away from this passage is this: the hope for something better and bigger than what I see and experience is from God and I need to hang onto it; wholeness is His design and it is right that I pray for it; what that looks like in the ‘here and now’ is at His discretion and I need to trust Him.  

Surviving a Social Media Attack

I was remembering today about the day I fell from ministry. My Facebook page lit up and social media was a horrible thing to deal with for a while.

Showing Grace

But guess what? I deserved it. It was a consequence of my sin. A friend and mentor of mine told me, “you sinned horribly; and anything that people say to you is a consequence of the sin you committed. The best thing you can do is just…