Marshall's Blog

    It's the kiss at the end of every adventure, the love scene during the action film, the town in distress that pulls together to fight the skill and might of the bad guys with wit, numbers, and sheer determination. It was with the Scots when they fought the rule of the English crown. It brought the Texans together to battle against the forces of Santa Ana, even to certain death. We are told that difficult, painful, or deadly circumstances serve to bring people together. We are not surprised when the hero ends up with the girl, even when their beginnings seem ill fated, like Peter Parker and the girl next door Mary Jane Watson. We want trauma so badly to have a purpose, we accept ridiculous romantic tropes in perilous situations like Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock in the movie Speed. It seems odd that being chased down by a psychopath with a penchant for bombs would put anyone in the mood for love, but we accept it because trauma brings people together, right? It is aw...

      Last October, our church embark on a small local mission project. I had big plans for it the year prior, but due to the pandemic, the week long 10 home mission week was whittled down to 4 projects and 4 days. I am not complaining, we still had a heck of a time, and got to spend some time with our neighbors. During that time, since it was a youth mission, although we had almost our entire church participating, I had the privelege carry the message throughout the week and speak on scripture as we met at the end of each day, ate together, and debriefed the day. The passage that God directed me to use was that of Acts 2:42-47, " 2  And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43  And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44  And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45  And they were selling their...

       Imagine a hill covered in snow. Fresh powder no tracks, footprints, or paw prints. Skip forward after all the sleds in the neighborhoods have had their runs. Deep grooves have been carved into the hill and have iced over as the sun goes down at the end of the day. Now picture yourself trying to control a sled as the last person to hurdle down. Now why is it that you can't control where you are going? You've done this a hundred times before. You lean in harder into your turns, hold your feet out to brake, but suddenly the hill falls out from under you and the world spirals out of control. Gravity hits and takes you down, hard. As you try to catch the wind that was knocked out of your chest, you wonder what happened to the hill you had at day break. You suddenly long for fresh snowfall and know that this may have been the last one for the year, and if you live in South Texas, possibly for the decade.     Now imagine that hill you pictured is your ...