Guest blogger Dr. Matthew E. Henry (MEH) uses poetry to ask why we’re so comfortable skipping over Jesus’ explanation that suffering is a part of God’s plan?

“The closest I ever came to having sex was right after prayer.” For many young adults, this observation would serve as a catalyst for a more active prayer life, but for us pious young men at a Christian college, this advice from a graduating senior served as a warning. Intimacy is risky and dangerous and, if you’re not careful, you’ll end up in the wrong holy of holies.

“As a white person, I haven’t experienced bone-deep rage many times in my life, if ever. I have zero experience with grinding, tormenting, humiliating oppression. By praying this psalm, I came face to face with the tiniest glimpse of what it’s like to be oppressed, and the fury it deserves.”

“We are not called to defeat the violence by participating in it. We are called to subvert the violence by exposing it. This means finding those on the margins, and standing in solidarity with them. When we stand side-by-side with those who are being oppressed, we force the oppressor to use their violence against all of us. This means we must leave the comfort of our own bubbles and entangle ourselves in the lives of those who are oppressed.”

“What the Bible is rather silent on is sexual relationships between two unmarried but committed and consenting people.  Except in Song of Solomon. Here, we have a love story in its many facets.  There is no judgement and no condemnation. And no guarantee of marriage.  And we don’t know what to do with it. And that’s a tragedy.”

If we ignore the context of Philippians 4:13, then our problem is much deeper than simply making stupid life choices.

"Jesus has a specific calling that the other disciple needed to follow, and this calling looks different than the calling that Jesus has for Peter."

The neat thing is we don't have to do what God's asking us to do. We don’t have to jump in a muddy river seven times, stroll around a city for seven days, or punch our friends in the face. We have free will. That's how God made us. 

"When I read this card I hear a guideline and see a lens through which to evaluate what I’m doing with my life,  in a broad, whole picture view, or within a given, specific situation. It helps me make better decisions, informed by my choice to adhere to Jesus’ teachings to the best of my ability. I don’t do this out of a fear of Hell or destruction, but out of love for life – others’ as well as my own. 

"These two wives are held up sort of in opposition. The bits of Proverbs from which they come are not back-to-back, but they’re part of an ongoing comparison between desirable qualities and undesirable. Sometimes these qualities are literally about a wife, sometimes they’re about the inner life of the man being addressed. In both cases, they present two women: Woman Wisdom and Woman Folly, the good wife and the bad wife."