Category Archive for: ‘Carl’s Thoughts’
The Key to Everything – Paying Respect to Dr. Kenneth Bailey
A year and a half ago I met with one of my three modern literary mentors, Ken Bailey. (The other two would be N.T. Wright and Dallas Willard). I’d always wanted to meet Ken, and finally, through some serious stalking, I made an appointment with …
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Top 20 Medearis Family Travel Tips
It’s June. That time of year many of us take to the highways and airways in search of a week or two of hiking, sun bathing, or some other source of R&R. So, just for fun, I thought I’d share some my family’s hard-earned travel-tips. …
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Practical Ways to Reach Out to Muslims (Or Anyone Else). Tip #5: Be Yourself
This one is tougher than it looks. It’s amazing how much time we spend being someone else. I’ve done that much of my life. Even in our attempts to “be like Jesus,” we’re asked to be “like” him in our own skin. We’re all uniquely …
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Practical Ways to Reach Out to Muslims (Or Anyone Else). Tip #4: No Western Christian Culture
This is a tough one. The obvious follow-up question is, “How do we know the difference between what’s Western Christian culture and the good stuff?” Great question. Answer: It’s not easy to tell. Because no matter what we read and hear and believe, our experience …
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Practical Ways to Reach Out to Muslims (Or Anyone Else). Tip #3: Be A-Religious
After a talk I gave at Harvard one day, a Jewish grad student came to meet with me. She walked in loaded and ready for a fight. The first comment from her lips was, “I want you to know that I’m Jewish, and I don’t …
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Practical Ways to Reach Out to Muslims (Or Anyone Else). Tip #2: No Agenda
I know, we all have an agenda. Jesus had one. His was multifaceted. To serve. To teach twelve. To live in a way we could see the Father. To love. To die. And it seems the people he met never felt “used” by him. He …
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Practical Ways to Reach Out to Muslims (or Anyone Else). Tip #1: Have Fun
It always amazes me how often those of us from Christian backgrounds (especially the more conservative types) don’t know how to party. In fact, that very word makes some nervous. Part of our excuse is that we’re dealing with a life-and-death topic…our relationship to God. …
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When Good Friday Doesn’t Feel Very Good
Easter was pretty atypical for us this year. In fact, it was very difficult. Chris and I found ourselves flying over the Atlantic on Good Friday, in preparation for our beloved sister-in-law’s funeral on Easter Monday, the day after Easter. Those days of what many …
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3 Tips to Make 2016 the Best Year Ever!
In May of 2001 I attended a Muslim-Christian dialogue conference in Baghdad hosted by none other than Saddam Hussein. About 5000 delegates from all different kinds of religious backgrounds, from all over the world. Mandaeans (followers of John the Baptist). Yazidis. Syriac, Chaldean, and Assyrian …
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People You Ought to Consider Supporting
Like you, Chris and I scramble at the end of the year asking the question, “Who should we send a year-end gift to?” It’s sort of a weird tradition. I mean, it all counts the same in both God’s eyes and in the eyes of …
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