Seth Haines's Blog, page 34

Weekend Review: Trump’s Culture of Violence and Startup Comeuppance

Welcome to the weekend, the knockoff play days that bookend responsibility. (How I wish this were true.)

Amber is away for the weekend, and I’m flying in-solo-parentis for a couple of days. I suspect the boys and I will clean the garage, shoot some hoops, perhaps build a fort in the muddy woods. Maybe we’ll catch a movie, grab some pizza and root bear. I’ll find a book before the day is over. Maybe we’ll shoot a bottle rocket.

Life is a mix of responsibility and frivolity; isn’t it?

But befor...

Recovery Room: The Bible as an Instrument of Self-Harm

In Coming Clean: A Story of Faith, I explore how theology or Scripture can serve as its own sort of addiction, how we might use either tonumb or soothe painwithout communing with God.Even good things can play tricks on us; yes?

Today, Heather Caliri explores the flip side of that coin. What happens when we use Scripture as a weapon against ourselves, when we use it as a torture tool that causes pain? Do you know this bag of tricks, this way of using Scripture for shame instead of freedom?

This...

A Tiny Excerpt (On Community and the Grace of Remembering)

My Tiny Letter is a bi-monthly newsletter where I share more personal reflections. If you enjoy reading here, sign up for the Tiny Letter and you’ll receive my free eBook, Coming Clean|Austin Outtakes. The Outtakes share the story behind my first release from Zondervan, Coming Clean|A Story of Faith.

Today, enjoy an excerpt from this month’s first Tiny Letter. Thanks for reading along!

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1.

The morning light glinting from the water like buried stars; the cotton-candy colored sky; the “Hey t...

Trump, White Fear, and the Death of the First Amendment

On the corner television at our local Mexican restaurant, Donald Trump stands all rooster-chested, cock-sure in anticipatory triumph. He repeats his promise, “we will build the wall and Mexico will pay for it,” near-shouting will as if saying it louder might browbeat everyone into understanding.

The waiter–hispanic–refills our chips and pours fresh waters without a word. I thank him as the rhetoric of fear attacks him from the boob tube. In the corner, the pink-nosed presidential candidate fu...

A Trumptastic Timeline

This morning I woke to the news that Donald J. Trump had won the Nevada primary, and as I scrolled through the newsfeed, I ran across thisheadline:

It’s over; Trump is going to be the Republican nominee.

American voters: have you lost your ever-loving minds?

In his victory speech, Trump indicated“We won the evangelicals. We won with young. We won with old. We won with highly educated. We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated.… And you know what I’m really happy about? No. 1 wit...

Tuesday Reflections: Jailhouse Monk

Over the next couple of months, I’m offeringTuesday reflections on pain, healing, and recovery. I hope you’ll join the community of folks walking this road together. (To keep up with this reflection series, signup for blog updates in the maroon box in the left sidebar.)

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At first, my requests for relief only rattle and echo in my stomach. So I ask again and I hear. What? The coming of something quiet?

Yes.

I am the Lord your God; I will never leave you nor forsake you.

I hear a smaller voi...

Don’t Miss This One (Tiny Letter #25 and the Devotion Baker)

I get by with a little help from my friends, and one of those friends that helps me get by is Preston Yancey. In the days of my own drying out, he said, “God wants good things for you too, you know.” Those words have stuck with me more than just about any others. I suppose the Spirit still speaks.

Preston is a Canon Theologian in the Anglican Church, which is to say he wears no dunce hat. He’s written a wonderful new book, Out of the House of Bread: Satisfying Your Hunger for God with the Sp...

Tuesday Reflections: The Lenten Fast (Part 2)

Over the next couple of months, I’m offeringTuesday reflections on pain, healing, and recovery. I hope you’ll join the community of folks walking this road together. (To keep up with this reflection series, signup for blog updates in the maroon box in the left sidebar.)

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There are ways around this sort of living, yes. We can avoid the pain of the past, the confrontation of any of our accusers. We can numb everything as a way to avoid exploring our histories, to avoid the necessity of muste...

Recovery Room: The Fast

It’s Thursday, which means we’re walking into the Recovery Room. It’s also Lent, which means many of us are walking into an intentional penitential season, a season to turn back into a fresh work of recovery. Some are fasting. (If you’d like to join our community fast, follow this link.)

Have you considered your Lenten fast this year? Have you considered the reasons behindit? I’ve posted this here before, but it’ll be new for some. Give a listen, get alone, and consider how you’ll fast this L...

Tuesday Reflections: A New Kind of Lenten Fast

Over the next couple of months, I’m offeringTuesday reflections on pain, healing, and recovery. I hope you’ll join the community of folks walking this road together. (To keep up with this reflection series, signup for blog updates in the maroon box in the left sidebar.)

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There is a universal truth in the human experience: we are all the walking bitten; we are all stung by our fellow humans. And here’s the rub: I’ve stung others along the way, maybe some of you.

Consider it: haven’t you fel...