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Essay

Ordinary Dust

Tuesday morning I entered the classroom with a strange, nagging, feeling.  I couldn't shake it... the feeling that things weren't going to go well. I asked the students to read the first chapter of Christopher Hitchens' book God is Not Great so we could talk about Descartes, modernity,…
Jason Lief
October 9, 2015
Essay

Sophie and Francis

Two students, two separate occasions, both brought to tears with just a simple question: “How are you doing?” I really don’t seek out people’s problems… they just break in. It’s what happens when life overwhelms, especially for new students trying to figure out college life.…
Jason Lief
September 25, 2015
Essay

Bob’s Bar

A couple of Fridays ago some friends and I took the hour long trip to an off the beaten path "dive bar" in Nebraska—Bob's Bar in Martinsburg, Nebraska. As you can see in the photo above it's not much to look at from the outside. Even when…
Jason Lief
September 11, 2015
Essay

I Want to Ride My Bicycle (Not Really)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncQsBzI-JHc Two days ago I bought a bike. Not just any bike... a road bike. I already have a nice tool around town, stuff in a basket, professorish bike. But I have a bad leg, I'm getting older, and I had to move the wrong way with…
Jason Lief
August 14, 2015
Essay

I Owe My Life to VBS

Have you ever looked back on your life and connected the dots, only to discover one particular moment that set you on your current path? I'm talking about a moment that if it had gone a different way would have meant an entirely different life. I was thinking…
Jason Lief
July 31, 2015
Essay

The Promise of Serve Projects

At the institution where I teach I've come to be known as the "guy who hates serve projects." This comes from my ineffective attempts to carefully critique all of the money and time that go into these projects, as well as the terrible theology that is…
Jason Lief
July 17, 2015
Essay

Ad-Vocate

"Contrary to what people often think, the key to easing people's suffering is not in offering some insidious theodicy, but in allowing a place for people to mourn, and to meet others who know what it is to have been burned by that same black…
Jason Lief
June 19, 2015
Essay

The Beauty of Baseball

In my former life as a high school teacher I was a coach. For 10 years I coached baseball at every level—freshman, junior varsity, and finally varsity. I wasn't the greatest coach in the world, but I wasn't the worst either. We won some big…
Jason Lief
June 5, 2015
Essay

Stained by Our Experiences

This morning we welcome April Fiet as a guest blogger. April is a mom of two, school-age kids, and a co-pastor of Dumont Reformed Church in Dumont, IA alongside her husband Jeff. About a year ago, my husband, two kids, and I were heading from…
Jason Lief
June 1, 2015