Miscellany #4

On the Syrophoenician Woman, Loving Enemies, Depression & Assurance, Teaching the Daily Office, & more

It’s been a big month for writing for me. Along with my two public posts here, one an interview with the Rev Everett Lees about church growth and discipleship and another about the Syrophoenician woman, I’ve also had a few pieces elsewhere that I wanted to talk about.

My wife Sarah and I wrote our first co-written article together, a piece called “How can you be confident that you are loved and accepted by God?” for Faith+Lead. In it, we discuss how Calvin and Luther understood assurance and how their insights might be helpful to those struggling with experiences of doubt, despair, or distance from God today. At the risk of sappiness, it really is great fun for the two of us to be able to do things like this together, and I just feel so incredibly lucky to have such a smart and thoughtful wife. This piece was definitely a personal one for me, too: Luther’s insight that you don’t need to look within for assurance but can always look without, at a gracious God revealed to us in Christ on the cross, has been a great salve to my faith in times of trial. As I mention in the piece, I’m someone who struggles with depression and anxiety. Unsurprisingly, flare-ups of depression and anxiety also tend to be times of spiritual difficulty. In these times, I am absolutely incapable of looking inside for reassurance. When I look inside, I see nothing good at all. The Holy Ghost might be testifying to me that I am a son of God, but I cannot hear it within – and so I need to hear it from without. This is exactly what Luther came to realize, and is why Luther sees the external word of absolution – in preaching, in the Lord’s Supper, in response to public or private confession – is so important.