Snapshots and Synapses

I have a pin that says “Jesus is the reason for the season!”, and I used to wear it proudly. But recently, I’ve seen some things that make me a little less likely to wear it. Now, don’t get me wrong, I still want people to know I’m a Christian and I want to tell people about Jesus. I want others to remember that God so loved us that He gave us the Gift of His Son. I want people to know that God demonstrated His love and sympathy for even the poorest of humanity by having His Son born in the lowest of circumstances: unknown - a stranger in a strange city, homeless - refused the most meager of human housing and forced to lodge with animals at birth. I can imagine Bethlehem bustling with economic flurry as it’s filled to capacity with visitors drawn by the Roman census while a poor carpenter and his wife seek to find a better shelter for their newborn. I want people to know that shortly after the Magi found Jesus, bestowing Him with gifts worthy of a King, that the family fled for Egyp...

I have a new Christmas short story available for the Kindle. It's something I wrote a few years ago called "The Shepherd's Letter". It will be available for free download Saturday, December 15th. See my Author's Page on Amazon

Why are we thankful? When we have nothing (absolutely nothing) and we are suddenly presented with what we are not entitled and which we don’t deserve… aren’t we most thankful in that moment? I heard the average American consumes over 5000 calories at the Thanksgiving meal. We have so much… we have historically enjoyed so much… we’re so fat, dumb and happy in our affluence that we often enter this holiday season without thought to the original gratitude of the first Thanksgiving. So I think back to that original feast, a celebration by Christians humbled before the gifts of their God and neighbors. Physically, they found their needs being met. They weren’t entitled to it, and in the understanding of their great need, they found themselves in grateful abundance. I confess that spiritually, I tend to forget my great need. God has given me so much: pulled me from death into life, placing a crown upon my head in promise to the great inheritance I have as an adopted son of God. He ...

I’ve been thinking a lot recently… okay, I think a lot normally… but my mind has been troubled by the growing hatred in America. I’m not sure when it started, but somewhere in the past 30 years we’ve reached a point where we are a very polarized country where we just can’t seem to talk about issues. I see symptoms everywhere: generation gaps, workplace feuds, political firepots, divorce trends, suicidal bullying, and the list goes on and on.   Related to the upcoming presidential election, I typically see one of two actions on social media sites: attack or avoid. Anyone and everyone who sides with the views of the opposing camp is treated like an enemy, a subverter who cannot be trusted. Or maybe we like the person but just can discuss certain issues with them so we can keep everything at a “nice” level.   The problem with avoiding the issues is that they never get resolved, and going into fight or flight mode distances us from others. I imagine that prior to America...

America, America, how far have you fallen? Babylon the great has fallen indeed! You who have led the world in idolatrous pleasures and submitted yourselves as another’s treasure! And conquest? No one needed to conquer you! For you gave it away with all that you do… to forsake your inheritance for a bowlful of stew: the addict who desperately grasps for a fix, completely oblivious, the eyes so transfixed on that death-dealing high that will bring him down low! So lower and lower and lower you go! So sad. So true! Still you question “What’s truth?” “It doesn’t fit my agenda… I must bury it!” “But then I always preferred darkness to light.” Babylon the great has fallen indeed! copyright ©2012 Mitchell Malloy ( http://mitchellmalloyblogspot.com/ )

I’m convinced the world, our society, is starving for goodness. It’s not just a desire for goodness, or even a yearning for goodness. There is a legitimate need in each of us to know and be a part of what is good. It’s a hunger that is not being met, and therefore the world is starving.   So what does that have to do with the title “Becoming a Man”? Everything.   A few weeks ago, I walked up to a breakfast café for a cup of coffee. I was walking up to the door ahead of an older woman, an older woman who incidentally had delayed me in the parking lot as she took her own sweet time, gingerly adjusting her car in her chosen space. In frustration and hurry, I backed my car up and parked in a decidedly distant spot, yet here I was approaching the door before her. The thought entered my mind that I should hold the door open for her, but she had already delayed my morning coffee! I knew if I held the door open for this lady that I would then be compelled to hold it for the ...

Now, I’m not a baker, but I understand that one of the key ingredients is yeast. Just a little bit of yeast can work its way through a large amount of dough. Yeast transforms the dough into something that rises and expands. Jesus understood this and He used yeast to as teaching point to illustrate both healthy and unhealthy activities in our lives. So using stories and analogies, He took the concept of yeast to explain a couple points: 1) He explains that God’s reign in our lives and the resulting expansion of His kingdom through us is like a little yeast added to a lot of flour. (Matthew 13:33) Accepting the Kingdom’s authority in our lives transforms us, and it works through every area of our life, changing us from “glory to glory”. 2) However, He used the concept of yeast working through dough to also explain our need to stay away from bad teaching. When talking to His disciples, He warned them to be on guard against the teachings of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herod...