Jason Albertson

George MacDonald didn’t believe that Jesus’ death on the cross atoned for our sin. [1] I base this claim on MacDonald’s sermon, “Justice,” published in his Unspoken Sermons , vol. 1, 2, and 3. I read from this Project Gutenberg edition. I don’t agree with him about that. But he did have some other ideas that are useful. He was a bit eccentric. According to one scholar, MacDonald esteemed roses so highly that he “seemed to think it unbecoming to speak of them as growing on bushes.” [2] Timothy Larsen, George MacDonald in the Age of Miracles (Grand Rapids: MI, Intervarsity Press), 2018. Read for free from HooplaDigital . Instead, in novels, poems and short stories, he most often describes roses as growing on trees. The trees may be small and crooked, the roses may grow close to the ground, but they’re rose trees, not rose bushes. He’s got one fantastic scene in The Princess and Curdie in which a boy enters a room to find that “on a huge hearth a great fire was burning,...

Kung Fu Panda 3 (KFP3) is a 2016 movie from Dreamworks Animation. It’s the third movie in the Kung Fu Panda series (surprise!), a continued story about a panda bear, Po, who learns kung fu. KFP3 has three villains. Only one of them gets a “villain” name tag (and music cue ); the other two look like good guys, but are abusive authority figures in Po’s life. That’s what this movie is about: how to recognize abusive behavior and how to escape an abusive relationship. One of the nice-guy villains is Po’s adoptive dad, Ping. He’s a goose. When Po’s long-lost biological dad, a panda, shows up early in the movie, Ping is jealous. Because he’s a smaller animal and looks nothing like Po, it’s easy to imagine feeling inadequate in his shoes. It’s easy to relate to his jealousy. Instead of considering what will be best for Po, Ping uses every means he can to prevent Po from going back home with his biological dad to the hidden village of the pandas. It’s more important to Ping to kee...

1 Cor. 3 uses the word the KJV translates as "carnal." A lot of us in the American Holiness tradition tend to associate "carnality" with "whatever that thing is that needs to be fixed by entire sanctification," so it might come naturally to us to think of entire sanctification when we run into "carnal" or "carnality" in the wild. Problem : entire sanctification isn't always part of what's going on when "carnal" pops up. Example : 1 Cor. 3:1-4 This passage was part of the Sunday school lesson this last week in a curriculum I ran across. The comments in the lesson talked about how the Corinthians needed to be entirely sanctified to get this carnality dealt with. You know what's interesting? Paul doesn't mention entire sanctification as the solution to their carnality. Not a word. Maybe you're like me. Maybe when you hear the word "carnality," it's hard not to just hear it as "t...

Mockingbird  is a young adult novel by Kathryn Erskine published in 2010. My wife has been doing ongoing research and review of young adult literature to help develop her middle school classroom library, and she checked out Mockingbird as part of a batch from the public library. It's a story about a 5th-grade girl, Caitlin. She's on the autistic spectrum. Her older brother, a teacher and another student have just been killed in a school shooting. Her circumstances aren't ideal. Her single dad is out of commission, his own burdens heavy, leaving her to figure out grief on her own. Caitlin's school counselor helps, teaching her about the power of empathy and friendship by helping her befriend a younger student who's sad. His mom has died recently--she was the teacher killed in the school shooting. She determines to find closure for herself, her dad and her new little friend. And she does. Her brother had started an eagle scout project. Her dad covered it ...

Victor Frankl was a Jewish neurologist who lived through the Holocaust. To try to save his family and his life, it looks like he did some unethical experimentation on other Jews for the Nazis, but he and his family were eventually imprisoned anyway. His wife and immediate family all died; he survived alone. Frankl was a neurologist and psychologist, a doctor, and while he was in the concentration camps, he observed the people around him. He wanted to know what psychological factors make the difference between life and death when people are at the very limits of pain and suffering. He wrote a book about his experience and his observations, Man's Search for Meaning . He concluded that no matter how much someone suffered, the difference between life and death was whether someone had a purpose for living. Whether someone was living for the day when they could take revenge on the Nazis or whether someone hoped they could somehow lighten someone else's suffering, having a  wh...

A few weeks ago, I bought a little bag of mint lifesavers. I love those things. When I opened the bag, the thought crossed my mind, "Maybe I should check how many are in the bag so I can decide how many to eat each week to make them last for a while." I didn't want to do that, though. I didn't want to acknowledge how limited the quantity of lifesavers was. So I didn't. And now the mints are almost gone. There really weren't many in that bag. They're probably going to run out sooner because I didn't count them. I didn't count them, but they are still numbered. That's true about days, too—and miles, steps, pages and classes. How do we respond to the limitations? I want to respond with simplicity and trust . Simplicity means doing what I want to do, not what I don't want to do: my actions consistent with what I believe. Trust involves remembering that God is my shepherd, and I do not lack. No, not even when the mints d...