Thirty Seconds or Less

You’ve got an idea. You throw it in Evernote or scratch into your Everything Notebook. And while some ideas are satisfied to call these spaces their long term home, this is one idea that demands to be itched. So you fill more pages in your notebook, make lists of lists and draft ideas about your... The post It Isn’t Finished appeared first on Thirty Seconds or Less.

You don’t train for a marathon only to stop running the day after you cross the finish line. This experience changes your identity: you are a runner. This isn’t something you did that one time. This is who you are today and tomorrow and everyday to come. You don’t stop creating just because you’ve hit... The post Again And Again And Again appeared first on Thirty Seconds or Less.

When I think about Good Friday, I think about restoration, that will come. I think about everything that’s ever been broken, being put back into place. I think about the struggling divorcee, the wondering alcoholic and the starving child that will never know anything different. I think about bitter people. People that can’t stand the... The post When I Think About Good Friday appeared first on Thirty Seconds or Less.

Revelation seems to depict a violent God who rejoices in wrath. It is frightening and not life-giving. But there is hope; hope from the bottom. John was a victim of imperial Rome and was exiled for faith. His is the hope of victims everywhere, that God will intervene on their behalf and that empires of... The post There Is Hope appeared first on Thirty Seconds or Less.

Revelation is about the New Testament’s central conflict: the lordship of Christ versus the lordship of Caesar. In nine visions John describes a God whose power is that of a lamb, who is worthy to redeem the universe. Love unleashes the forces that conquer evil. When human history ends, God’s dream is fulfilled. A sacred... The post Come, Lord Jesus appeared first on Thirty Seconds or Less.

The book of Revelation is not a crystal ball to the future. It is a mythopoetic vision of what is already happening. We face an apocalypse of our own making, with our own weapons and our consumption of the very earth that keeps us alive. The question is not, “What will happen? What does the... The post Come Quickly appeared first on Thirty Seconds or Less.

In John’s wild vision he sees Jesus dressed like Caesar, speaking to seven illegal churches. And the heavens are torn open and God is in his sacred court. Jesus is now a lamb, slain and alive. Then war breaks out against he empire and the beasts that rule it. Some saints survive and some die.... The post May It Be So appeared first on Thirty Seconds or Less.

This is for the in-betweeners, living between everyday oppression and world peace, the now-is and the is-to-come, in that dry space where nothing is certain. Revelation is what we write when we’re chanting “We will win!” but we don’t know for sure that we will win, and we don’t all agree what winning means. Sometimes... The post Good News For The In-Betweeners appeared first on Thirty Seconds or Less.

The Revelation from Jesus Christ to everyone caught in the thicket of empire, persecution, and death; everyone who hopes for equality, plenty, and life: the time is near. It’s a message of stubborn hope, written for a people pushed around, waging war, and telling stories. “Write what you’ve seen, what is now, and what will... The post Stubborn Hope appeared first on Thirty Seconds or Less.

The church exists to extend the love of Jesus to the weak, the poor, the young, the old, the down-and-out, and the powerless. But it doesn’t always work out that way. In the sanctuary of vulnerable expressions of love we will always find those who seek to use that space for power or glory or... The post This Is Wrong appeared first on Thirty Seconds or Less.