Mockingbird is devoted to connecting the Christian message with the realities of everyday life in fresh and down-to-earth ways.
About Mockingbird
-
The Imperfect Eye - John L'Heureux
From Picnic in Bablyon, L’Heureux’s journals from 1963-’67.
The Imperfect Eye
I saw tonight that he is on my side,
the lion. For the first time, I saw it.
And by God all the furniture got up
and danced (that hulking desk
a creditable tango) and I, though not much
on my feet, waltzed through Judah
like a Crazy-priest. Sometimes joy
is like that, coming quick as dandelions
springing to attention while the sun
shudders still—a little—from the melting
winter. Anyway here I was with lions
to account for and that desk
and questionable antics all along
(indignities of sun and dandelions
while our bones still creak with Lent)
and I thought God, what now, until
again I heard the music of the dance
again I waltzed through Judah.
“I something fear my father’s wrath” no more.
Special Faith and Doubt Episode of The Mockingcast!
As you may know, each time a new issue of The Mockingbird hits the post office, we do a special episode of The Mockingcast to hit the highlights of the theme in discussion. The new one, ladies and gentlemen, is up! Join Ethan as he chats with Sally Lloyd-Jones, Gordon Marino, and Connor Gwin to talk about faith and doubt, and their contributions to the new magazine. Click here to listen. And click here to get a copy of your own.
"Already Obedient": Steve Brown and Imputation
With our conference in Tyler, TX, just around the corner (4/5-6), here’s a teaser for one of our speakers, the illustrious Steve Brown. This one comes from his book Hidden Agendas: Dropping the Masks That Keep Us Apart, which he wrote after he’d finally “lived long enough and sinned big enough,” after he left pastoring his […]
Now Available! Life Is Impossible: And That's Good News, by Nick Lannon
Have you heard the Good News? Life Is Impossible…is now available through the Mockingbird bookstore and Amazon!
This slim, gospel-centered book points to God’s abundant mercy and love amidst life’s painful realities. With wisdom, humor, and compassion, Nick Lannon illumines the light of Jesus, the One who achieves the unachievable.
“A short, accessible classic.” – Paul F. M. Zahl, author of Grace in Practice
“Masterfully clear and imminently practical, this book puts flesh on theology, roots it in daily life, and demonstrates over and over that when we run into the brick wall of the impossible, we are actually at the very door that opens to Christ’s saving work.” – Chad Bird, author of Night Driving and Your God Is Too Glorious
This is one you won’t want to miss!
(Oh yes, and while you’re perusing our store, don’t forget to visit the merch page where you’ll find t-shirts and notebooks for wicked-cheap. Cheers to that.)
Glad, Sad, Bad, and Mad: Anger at God in Christian Life
Here is Bonnie Zahl’s piece from the Faith & Doubt Issue. Pick one up here before they’re gone! There’s an episode in the second season of Ally McBeal where the main character Ally goes to the hospital to see her boyfriend, who is a doctor, and ends up meeting his eight-year-old patient, Eric. Life hasn’t […]
Clearance Sale at the Mockingbird bookstore! This week merch is 50% off: vintage logo t-shirts at $5.00 and notebooks at $2.50. All purchases come with a complimentary Low Anthropology sticker. 🙂
Hopelessly Devoted: Nehemiah Chapter Six Verses Eight and Nine
This devotion was written by Simeon Zahl, from The Mockingbird Devotional.
Then I sent to him, saying, “No such things as you say have been done, for you are inventing them out of your own mind.” For they all wanted to frighten us, thinking, “Their hands will drop from the work, and it will not be done.” But now, O God, strengthen my hands. (Nehemiah 6:8-9, ESV)
The mind is a master illusionist. It is possible to spend our whole lives shadowboxing with unrealities we have “invented out of our own minds.” Nothing seems more real than the rejection we perceive in an oddly raised eyebrow, an inopportune yawn, the scowl of a stranger. The mind can spin an epic tale of misunderstanding and betrayal out of the smallest and most meaningless experience. In that sense it is immensely creative. But it is a dull sort of creativity, because it so often manufactures the same boring story of our fears, our aspirations, and our anxieties. There is no reality here. “No such things as you say have been done.” Our heart races—“Did she look at me? Or is she avoiding me?”—but only because our minds have fooled our bodies into thinking something real is happening.
True work of our hands is an antidote to such projection. There is freedom in performing the task that has been given each day. The picture of Nehemiah building a very un-illusory wall is a picture of freedom. It is a freedom that can only be granted from without, but it is a true freedom.
Lord, strengthen our hands, and save us from our unrealities.
Announcing: Life Is Impossible (And That's Good News), by Nick Lannon!
Well, no one ever said life would be easy…
Pleased to announce our latest book publication, by longtime Mockingbird contributor Nick Lannon. Available next FRIDAY MARCH 15, 2019. You can pre-order TODAY through our online bookstore and Amazon.
Many of us will admit that, at times, life is hard. We buckle down, put our noses to the grindstone…and all too often wind up exhausted or burned out. But the problem isn’t that life is hard. The problem is that life is impossible! Fortunately, what sounds like bad news is merely the beginning of the Good News in this concise, gospel-centered book about God’s abundant mercy and love. With wisdom, humor, and compassion, Nick Lannon casts life’s painful realities in the light of Jesus, the One who achieves the unachievable.
“A short, accessible classic.” – Paul F. M. Zahl, author of Grace in Practice
“Masterfully clear and imminently practical, this book puts flesh on theology, roots it in daily life, and demonstrates over and over that when we run into the brick wall of the impossible, we are actually at the very door that opens to Christ’s saving work.” – Chad Bird, author of Night Driving and Your God Is Too Glorious
“…a real, earthy, honest book that will set you free to admit that you can’t do it. But he doesn’t leave you there. Nick points beautifully and creatively to the One who did it for you.” – Tullian Tchividjian, author of One Way Love
“Good news, told and illustrated well.” – Zac Hicks, author of The Worship Pastor
“…like the finger of John the Baptist, [Life Is Impossible] points away from our life as it points to the lamb, the saviour who takes away the sins of the world.” – Dr. Jonathan A. Linebaugh, editor of God’s Two Words
PRE-ORDER LIFE IS IMPOSSIBLE TODAY!
The Ash Wednesday Immortality Bus
From our archives, the following piece by Ethan Richardson was originally published in 2017 — but the Immortality Bus is ageless. Buckle up… There was a dark horse in the 2016 presidential campaign that you missed. And what a shame! This gentleman really promised to turn things around, in ways no one else was talking about. […]
Hopelessly Devoted: Mark Chapter Nine Verses Fourteen Through Twenty-Nine
This morning’s devotion, “An Honest Prayer for Faith,” was written by Larry Parsley. It’s taken from his new devotional, An Easy Stroll Through a Short Gospel: Meditations on Mark, available through Mockingbird’s online bookstore and Amazon. “‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.” Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do […]
Ten Resources For Those On The Fence
Another glimpse into the Faith & Doubt Issue of our magazine, which you can order here. What resources would you add? Leave them in the comments below. Usually the last thing any of us need when we’re in the midst of a genuine crisis of faith is a recommended book or sermon. However laudable the […]
Contact
