by Thom McKee
Does God really have a plan for your life? You may believe in God, but not necessarily that He is involved in your life at all. Or you may be the type of believer that sees God involved in every decision including what shoes you should put on in the morning. But even a rough survey of people who believe in God (including some Christians) will fall all over this spectrum – God isn’t involved in our lives at all or God is involved in every minute detail
by Thom McKee
Just the other day, my almost 12-year-old son announced to me that he and his friends were going to make a movie. When I asked him about the details, he said that they were going to make a “feature length film to be screened in movie theaters.” Now up to this point, he has made quite a few five to ten minute movies on his Ipad and has even screened a few at church and at school. He is very talented for his age. So I mentioned to him that if he made a longer film, we could probably find a way to screen it at the local movie theater (we live in a small town with one movie theater). Of course I also had to become a bit of a buzz-kill and remind him that it would take a lot of work. His reaction was very typical of a boy his age. He told me that
by Thom McKee
Does how you die really matter?
How about how you live?
Let’s face it, death is a horrible thing that happens to all of us. But I have done enough funerals to know that some deaths are much worse than others. Usually, the younger the person is, the harder it is on those who love them. Deaths in mass shootings or acts of terrorism
by Thom McKee
Do we decide who we ultimately become or do the circumstances of life determine it?
This was the deep existential question that King Ezekiel was pondering tonight right before all of his devastating losses. Not only did he lose most of the members of the Kingdom (I knew last week when he said that he hadn’t even lost one that bad things were about to happen), but he lost his irreplaceable pet tiger Shiva, who went out like a champ. (Is it bad that I was more sad about that than anyone else we have lost so far this season?)
Let’s face it, Ezekiel had a really bad day, and it makes complete sense that the day would start with some deep questions about why he created this whole charade in the first place
by Thom McKee
Just this last summer, my 11 year old son asked me if there were rules to war. The question didn’t just come out of thin air. We were watching a World War II movie where the “Geneva Convention” was mentioned. He had no idea what this was, but the idea of rules to war seemed amusing to my son.
“Dad, does anyone follow rules for war?” he asked me.
I kind of laughed and pointed out that the rules mostly dealt with what you could do with prisoners of war and what types of weapons you could use, but that the Allies (in WW2) really tried to obey the rules. Then he asked me if the atomic bomb was against the rules. I told him
by Thom McKee
How much does fiction matter in the real world? Is there anything of value in these shows that we all watch which warrants so much discussion and debate?
Of course, as I write, I am taking a fictional show about walkers and discussing it in light of the truth of the Bible. Some people have criticized us for doing this, saying that we are mixing truth with untruth (Meanwhile, in the other room, my wife is writing a Biblical discussion for season two of Stranger Things). Obviously, we do think that there is some value in analyzing the culture that we live in and discovering how all of these ideas connect with our Christian faith. But the question is still valid – does untruth have any connection with truth at all?
by Thom McKee
What is “mercy” in The Walking Dead? Is it something that you demonstrate right before someone kills you? Is it something that only the naive hope for right before they are victimized or killed by the survivors of the zombie apocalypse? Is it the thing that all of the violence and cruelty in the world of TWD just squeezes right out of you?
I honestly don’t know the answers to these questions in the context of this show. I am also not so sure that the writers on the show know what mercy means in this universe. But one thing that I do know is that this theme has been explored endlessly during the first ninety-nine episodes of the show? So when I saw that the 100th episode of this show was called “Mercy”, I have to admit