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Simplicity
J.R.R. Tolkien writes, in the prologue to The Fellowship of the Ring, that hobbits “love peace and quiet, and good tilled earth. . . . They do not and did not understand or like machines more complicated than a forge-bellows, a water-mill, or a hand-loom, though they were skilful with tools.” I really want to Continue reading
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Purity Culture and Me: My Struggle, Past and Present
WARNING: This blog post is rated PG 13 for frank discussion of sexuality. While I do not get graphic, I am pretty straightforward. * * * I regularly read a few dozen blogs. One of the blogging universes that I am sort of on the periphery of involves blogs from progressive evangelicals, like Rachel Held Continue reading
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Moving Again
So, we’re moving. Again. Most of you probably know this since I told Facebook about it last weekend. But it’s now official. When we moved into the apartment (a lovely location, really, not far from Uptown and other cool attractions), we immediately noticed a musty smell. We thought it was residue from some smokers who Continue reading
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Insomnia and the Moon
On nights like tonight, when the moon is draped in shimmering ghoulish sheets, I find my fears pulled, like high tide, further up the shore of my awareness. I sit in pale darkness waiting for the colored cacophony of dawn to drown out the grating whispers lurking at the edges of perception. I watch and Continue reading
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My Doctor Told Me that I am Obese
Welcome to Thankful Tuesday! I haven’t consistently seen a doctor since I stopped seeing my pediatrician six years ago, but I figured that, since I guess I am a grownup now, I should make it a habit. I mean, I might as well make sure I don’t have some terrible disease that is slowly devouring Continue reading
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Learning to Love and Pray (at the Same Time): The Beginning of a Synthesis
I recently finished G. K. Chesterton‘s The Everlasting Man, and I am now about a third of the way through Kathleen Norris‘s Amazing Grace. My intellect, long the center of my approach to the world and to faith, has finally found its interest in robust, historical, liturgical Christianity matched by an emotional and artistic delight. Continue reading
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The Strangest Story Ever Told
I’m almost finished with Chesterton‘s The Everlasting Man. And I have not read a more beautiful book. It’s Chesterton, so it’s witty and quirky and impatient and poetic. But it’s more. It delves down, beyond conscious thought. It brings forth truths that cannot be proven by appeals to logic or rationality, but are themselves artistic. Continue reading
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Happy Independence Day!
Happy Independence Day! My good friend Eric is in town, so that means we are going to watch The Patriot and (probably) Saving Private Ryan today. Also, fireworks! As I wrote at the end of this last election cycle, I am truly thankful to live in the oldest democracy in the world. The United States of America, Continue reading
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Acceptance
The Gospel appointed for the week is from St. Matthew 10:40-42. This version is from the Message, which was publicly read at the church I visited on Sunday: “We are intimately linked in this harvest work. Anyone who accepts what you do, accepts me, the One who sent you. Anyone who accepts what I do accepts Continue reading
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A Prayer of Praise
New every morning is your love, Great God of light, and all day long you are working for good in the world. Stir up in us desire to serve you, to live peacefully with our neighbors, and to devote each day to your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen. (taken from “An Order Continue reading
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Writing at Home
When the empty apartment laughed at my movement, and the silent whir of the fan moved through the dusty, muffled air, and when the blank page mocked my twirling pen, and my half-empty coffee cup cooled in the lingering light, then the great shadow fell across my heart, and my naked soul shivered in the Continue reading
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Ordinary Time: Part 2
The epistle for this week comes from the sixth chapter of St. Paul’s letter to the Romans. The text can be found here. “Baptism is less about washing and more about drowning.” -Father David Romanik * * * Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we Continue reading
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Thankful Tuesday: June 24
Welcome to Thankful Tuesday! One of my fundamental beliefs, rooted in my Christian faith, is that the primary (though not only) cause of suffering in the world is people. Something is fundamentally wrong with people on an ontological level. Contemporary accounts of this problem variously include the following: ignorance (to be solved through education), lack Continue reading
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Why We Are Arguing About Religion
Every religious faith by nature requires that its adherents act as people of faith in public. And that means that charities, educational institutions, hospitals, retirement homes, and a host of other institutions connected with particular religions must run on religious principles. And this goes against the secularist prejudice that all jobs are merely matters of Continue reading
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Prayer for the Second Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 7)
O Lord, make us have perpetual love and reverence for your holy Name, for you never fail to help and govern those whom you have set upon the sure foundation of your loving-kindness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Continue reading
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Sunset over the City: a Meditation
Some days the sun sort of putters out, like she runs out of gas. She doesn’t fade; she just kind of . . . stops. And some days the sun lingers, scraping her bloody finger nails across the tilting sky. She has to be dragged away. Other days, I couldn’t tell you what the sun Continue reading
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5:23 a.m.
After “Against Whatever it is That’s Encroaching” by Charles Simic Best of all is to be still– except (of course) the coffee pot and (naturally) the dishwasher– when studying the light: the way it trashes subtlety and dances energetically through a north-facing window. It’s tricky to have a dog around just then, and two is Continue reading
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Against Ideology and Hegemonic Discourse: Toward a Rhetoric of Love
This is the essay I wrote for my Comprehensive Exam for my MA this past spring. It contains a lot of ideas relevant to how I understand my purpose in relationship to the church and the academy. One central idea, arrived at toward the end of the essay, is the idea that liturgy (while encompassing Continue reading
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Ordinary Time: Part One
Amanda and I have, since moving to Dallas, visited Christ Lutheran Church twice. I think it is the church we will settle down in, though we want to visit another church before we make that decision. Christ Lutheran is a liturgical and historic church, seeing itself (as a part of the ELCA and the broader Continue reading
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Thankful Tuesday: June 17
Welcome to Thankful Tuesday! Amanda and I moved to Dallas eighteen days ago, and I am thankful for so many things: I am thankful for all of the friends and family who helped us move in. And, even more, I am thankful that we are now able to regularly spend time with friends who have Continue reading
About Me
Gregory C. Jeffers
Anglican Christian | Husband | Father | Teacher | Scholar | Poet
G. C. Jeffers 