BLOG: Monday Musings by Teresa McBean

After the massacre in Broward County, Florida at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, our community spent a Saturday evening sitting in our suffering. We were all heartbroken. We have teachers in our midst and they felt afraid; parents of children in schools felt afraid too. Others felt despair, some felt angry. A few people have wandered into my office and asked me why such a bad thing happened … [Read more...]

One question we all wrestle over is the legitimate confusion we have about suffering. I know this guy who is a really bad dude; he hurts others and one would think that the justice system would stop his reign of terror. It hasn’t happened yet! He keeps getting released from jail with a long list of instructions to follow, all of which he ignores. Even his grandmother (and you know how we Memes are … [Read more...]

But God’s angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth. But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of … [Read more...]

When things don’t make sense to us, most times we should assume that we are not stupid. (There are exceptions; but let’s start with this thought — when you think something is “off”, pay attention.) A common example of putting lipstick on a pig for me is when a couple in the middle of working through infidelity come to talk to me about God’s view on divorce. We know a couple things about … [Read more...]

Today, I pray for you and yours… Lord, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive. Who do we deceive? Ourselves, Lord. We deceive ourselves when… We believe we are too far gone for you to reach down and scoop us up in your arms . We judge ourselves and find our own deficiencies reason for condemnation. We manage our anxiety with veiled attempts to push it … [Read more...]

Continued from my previous post….Once I focused on my pastor friend’s concerns (and not my own), I inquired about his insights into 1 Timothy (the passage that had him all hot and bothered in previous conversations). He had none. This is understandable. During times of severe duress we shouldn’t expect insights. When we are stressed out, our body is preparing to fight, flee or freeze. It’s not … [Read more...]

In several recent posts I’ve been talking about a crisis of faith experienced by a friend of mine who is a pastor. The crisis was related to his fear that he would lose his job because of his daughter’s substance use disorder. I set up a time to chat with my pastor friend and quickly learned the following: his daughter was not in treatment, he had sent her out of state to “visit” her … [Read more...]

One of the principles of scripture study that I try to practice is avoiding cherry picking verses and using them out of context. Having recently preached a sermon while cherry picking a verse out of context myself, I am feeling a bit bruised as I write this post. Nevertheless, the principle is important, even if I carelessly violated it. Fortunately, I did remember this principle and practiced it … [Read more...]

Years ago a pastor in a large church called me to discuss his daughter’s substance use disorder. He was very concerned that if his congregation found out about his kid’s “issues” it would negatively impact his ability to lead. He quoted a passage of scripture that spoke to the requirements of a church leader: “So the church’s supervisor must be without fault. They should be faithful to their … [Read more...]

When I was a little girl my grandmother had a monthly subscription to a magazine called “Ladies Home Journal”. It had a monthly feature entitled, ‘Can This Marriage Be Saved?’. I read it with rapt fascination. The format was always the same — first one spouse, then the other, would share their perspective. Next, the therapist would “weigh in” and finally the conclusion would be sort of a … [Read more...]