Make Saints

Simple practices to make the most of the season.And check out this episode about Lent from Season One.READFor more, visit drewdowns.netWATCHThe Problem in the Text on YouTube.CONTACTTweet @revdrewdownsEmail contact@drewdowns.net Thanks for listening!

We often like to celebrate when something awful is over. But what happens to the good stuff in the middle?READFor more, visit drewdowns.netWATCHThe Problem in the Text on YouTube.CONTACTTweet @revdrewdownsEmail contact@drewdowns.net Thanks for listening!

We did it! We made it to episode #50.  How to celebrate? By asking a weird question for the moment:What is achievement that can never be realized? Check out the video version.READFor more, visit drewdowns.netWATCHThe Problem in the Text on YouTube.CONTACTTweet @revdrewdownsEmail contact@drewdowns.net Thanks for listening!

Making resolutions is an annual tradition. So is failing at them. Here's why we ought to rethink the project.Check out the video version.READFor more, visit drewdowns.netWATCHThe Problem in the Text on YouTube.CONTACTTweet @revdrewdownsEmail contact@drewdowns.net Thanks for listening!

There's something worse than stealing Christmas.Check out the video version.READFor more, visit drewdowns.netWATCHThe Problem in the Text on YouTube.CONTACTTweet @revdrewdownsEmail contact@drewdowns.net Thanks for listening!

Racism is evil. Without question. Or apprehension.Check out the video version.READFor more, visit drewdowns.netWATCHThe Problem in the Text on YouTube.CONTACTTweet @revdrewdownsEmail contact@drewdowns.net Thanks for listening!

Obligation, generosity, and the gift-giving season.Check out the video version.READFor more, visit drewdowns.netWATCHThe Problem in the Text on YouTube.CONTACTTweet @revdrewdownsEmail contact@drewdowns.net Thanks for listening!

Being replaceable is freeing.Check out the video version.READFor more, visit drewdowns.netWATCHThe Problem in the Text on YouTube.CONTACTTweet @revdrewdownsEmail contact@drewdowns.net Thanks for listening!

Giving thanks is best when we mean it.Check out the video version.READFor more, visit drewdowns.netWATCHThe Problem in the Text on YouTube.CONTACTTweet @revdrewdownsEmail contact@drewdowns.net Thanks for listening!

As holy days go, All Saints is hard. It compels us to see ourselves in relationship to all those blessed before us.Check out the video version.READFor more, visit drewdowns.netWATCHThe Problem in the Text on YouTube.CONTACTTweet @revdrewdownsEmail contact@drewdowns.net Thanks for listening!

Social Media is not normal. Let's take a look at how the three challenges to communication impact social media.Check out the video version.READFor more, visit drewdowns.netWATCHThe Problem in the Text on YouTube.CONTACTTweet @revdrewdownsEmail contact@drewdowns.net Thanks for listening!

The way we communicate within groups right now involves hidden roadblocks. Here are three solutions you can try.Check out the video version.READFor more, visit drewdowns.netWATCHThe Problem in the Text on YouTube.CONTACTTweet @revdrewdownsEmail contact@drewdowns.net Thanks for listening!

Some of the anxiety people have about communication is mixed expectations. And sometimes it is about about control.Check out the video version.Watch The Problem in the Text on YouTube.For more, visit drewdowns.net

When we don't know what's going on, it can be that nobody told us. It can also be that we don't know our own responsibility.Check out the video version.Watch The Problem in the Text on YouTube.For more, visit drewdowns.net

Many of us are struggling to communicate and feeling connected. And the thing is, it predates the pandemic.Check out Cal Newport's A World Without EmailWatch The Problem in the Text on YouTube.For more, visit drewdowns.net

We all know how it feels like to hit a wall; to get stuck. What do we do when we feel like we can't do anything?If you haven't listened to this episode about getting unstuck, you should listen to that one, too.Watch The Problem in the Text on YouTube.For more, visit drewdowns.net

We all know how it feels like to hit a wall; to get stuck. What do we do when we feel like we can't do anything?The article in question: Why does Jesus tell the disciples to buy swords?And if it sounds familiar, it's because I shared that article as an episode of this podcast: 27—Bearing ArmsWatch The Problem in the Text on YouTube.For more, visit drewdowns.net

We all know how it feels like to hit a wall; to get stuck. What do we do when we feel like we can't do anything?Watch The Problem in the Text on YouTube.Music by  Coma-Media from PixabayFor more, visit drewdowns.net

Some of us don't do vacations very well. Or we feel guilty about taking them. Here are five ways to help change that.Watch The Problem in the Text on YouTube.Music by  Coma-Media from PixabayFor more, visit drewdowns.net

Some of us don't do vacations very well. Or we feel guilty about taking them. Here are five ways to help change that.Watch The Problem in the Text on YouTube.Music by Lesfm and Coma-Media from PixabayFor more, visit drewdowns.net

Why does religious freedom not look very...freedomy? Because it amounts to a one-sided conversation about what counts.Watch The Problem in the Text on YouTube.Music by Lesfm and Coma-Media from PixabayFor more, visit drewdowns.net

If you've ever been asked to simplify a complex idea, you know it's incredibly hard. So why do we pretend it is simple?Watch The Problem in the Text on YouTube.Music by Lesfm and Coma-Media from PixabayFor more, visit drewdowns.net

Who gets to eat lunch? Who doesn't? God expects us to show hospitality. So why do we insist on not feeding people?Watch The Problem in the Text on YouTube.Music by Lesfm and Coma-Media from PixabayFor more, visit drewdowns.net

What is the jubilee? Why do we pretend it is impossible? And why are we afraid of it? Because it is true freedom.Watch The Problem in the Text on YouTube.Music by Lesfm and Coma-Media from PixabayFor more, visit drewdowns.net

No, Jesus doesn't encourage us to carry weapons. In this episode, we explore why Luke 22:35-38 says quite the opposite.The script for this week's episode comes from the article: Why does Jesus tell the disciples to buy swords?Music by Lesfm and Coma-Media from PixabayFor more, visit drewdowns.net

Let's be honest. The Ascension is strange. But it is strangely important. And it could really help us now.Music by Lesfm and Coma-Media from PixabayFor more, visit drewdowns.net

The hardest part about being required to love is not the obligation itself. It's that we insist on judging each other's attempts.Check out this earlier reflection on the Love Command.Music by Lesfm and Coma-Media from PixabayFor more, visit drewdowns.net

What is equal? What is the difference between equality and equity? And why is the distinction less useful than we think?Music by Lesfm and Coma-Media from PixabayFor more, visit drewdowns.net

This is not an exhaustive response to the concept of abortion and faith; it is an exhausted one. About missing the point.Music by Lesfm and Coma-Media from PixabayFor more, visit drewdowns.net

There's a fundamental flaw in the way we describe freedom. And the strange thing is that this flaw is relatively new.Check out Astra Taylor's Democracy May Not Exist But We'll Miss it When It's GoneLots more on religious freedom.Music by Lesfm and Coma-Media from PixabayFor more, visit drewdowns.net

The thing about talking politics is we all start with assumptions. We're just never actually on the same page with them.Music by Lesfm and Coma-Media from PixabayFor more, visit drewdowns.net

We aren't just afraid of death. We struggle to recognize what role death plays in our lives and sense of value.Music by Lesfm and Coma-Media from PixabayFor more, visit drewdowns.net

The real problem is not that we dislike change. It is that we often choose to refuse to accept that change is necessary.Music by Lesfm and Coma-Media from PixabayFor more, visit drewdowns.net

We often talk about change like it's something we can avoid. It's not. It is literally how the world (and faith) works.Music by Lesfm and Coma-Media from PixabayFor more, visit drewdowns.net

We don't want to admit that we don't know why we do Lent. Because then we might realize what we're avoiding.Music by Lesfm and Coma-Media from PixabayFor more, visit drewdowns.net

People often think they have a low view of mercy because they are being realistic. What they're being is pessimistic.Music by Lesfm and Coma-Media from PixabayFor more, visit drewdowns.net

Christians are obsessed with sin. But what do we even mean by the word sin? And what are we trying to do with it?Music by Lesfm and Coma-Media from PixabayFor more, visit drewdowns.net

When we hear "Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return," we are being invited to seeing things as they really are. Not as we think they are. Music by Lesfm and Coma-Media from PixabayFor more, visit drewdowns.net

Back from a break to tackle an easy topic: racism. As in what we think we mean when we talk about racism. And what our public conversations are missing. Music by Lesfm and Coma-Media from PixabayFor more, visit drewdowns.net

In this episode of Make Saints, we tackle the twelve. As in disciples. What's with the number? And what to make of Judas.Music by Lesfm and Coma-Media from PixabayFor more, visit drewdowns.net

In this episode of Make Saints, we tackle the two worlds of Christmas: the sacred and the secular: and why it is all one.Music by Lesfm and Coma-Media from PixabayFor more, visit drewdowns.net

Our vision of peace is backward. We treat is like it is only a concept; and not something we can actually make.For more information about the observer effect, I found this summary useful.For more, visit drewdowns.net

Joy – this shouldn't be a hard thing to talk about. But strangely it is. And I want to change that.But first, let's work through why joy, joy is what it is.For more, visit drewdowns.net

There's something about this time of year.There are two features of this season that we can't help but exhibit: anticipation and preparation.We're all waiting and watching for Christmas. It is coming soon. We want to get ready for it. So we prepare by getting gifts and making things to decorate or give away.These are really natural parts of the season. Not of the season of Christmas, actually. But the season of Advent: the season before that famous season.For more, visit drewdowns.netOr, if you want to learn more about Advent, check out this homily.

These days, celebrating Thanksgiving is pretty meta.The holiday is supposed to be about giving thanks as the Pilgrims did that one time with a grand feast of local cuisine with the indigenous people who lived there. Of course, the myth is certainly rosier than the truth. And we know that makes the celebration a bit uncomfortable.So we shift our attention to the more general concept of thankfulness.To read about this and more, visit drewdowns.net

A Special MessageI know you have thoughts about the young man who shot three people in Kenosha, Wisconsin. We all do. And, in a sense, that's all our culture offers us right now: thoughts. Disparate, unconnected, intemperate thoughts. Let's make some sense of the confusing thing that happened on Friday. To read about this and more, visit drewdowns.net

There are three distinct visions of what an apocalypse is.One is the popular understanding of apocalypse, which is best understood today by watching disaster movies. We can see that, to Hollywood, apocalypse is about all the things that blow up and how our time on this world will end.A second vision of apocalypse comes to us from a certain corner of Christianity that preaches extensively about what they call “the end times”. They are most interested in getting very particular about how the world will end and who will be saved from imminent death by the grace of God.The third vision of apocalypse is much older than Hollywood and rapture theology. And in this vision, we don't focus on the destruction of a particular moment of the world ending. Because there isn't one apocalypse.To read about this and more, visit drewdowns.net

When talking about eternity, we are usually focused on the concept of life never ending. But life itself offers us a different vision of what it means. It all starts with that little thing we call time.To read about this and more, visit drewdowns.net

The problem with complexity is that it can feel overwhelming.The problem with feeling overwhelmed is that we are willing to take shortcuts to make the pain go away.Here are three ways we usually deal with complexity:simplifyharmonizegive upI offer us a different way to look at complexityTo read about this and more, visit drewdowns.net

Who do you look up to? That act that we look up implies that they are above us. Whoever "they" is.  Above. Better. And...well...perfect.We aren't supposed to be perfect. Even you.To read about this and more, visit drewdowns.net

What it means to look past the saintly.To read about this and more, visit drewdowns.net