Mankind is suffocated by his idolatry. If we want to breathe, to breathe again the Holy Spirit, it begins with repentance. It begins with sacrifice. It begins with worship.
After almost 11 years of partnering with Ancient Faith Ministries as a content contributor for their podcasts, books and blogs, I’m being hired! I will be taking the newly-created position of Chief Content Officer.
I really don’t have the qualifications to speak about the death of George Floyd and what has now followed it, and perhaps many of you do not, either. But no matter what our backgrounds or credibility regarding the specific problems before us, these are things we all can do.
Whatever good that we see, whatever love that we receive, whatever grace has been given, no matter where or in whom or through whom—these are all from Jesus Christ.
I’ve had more than one person say to me over the past couple weeks: “With Pascha here, I feel like COVID-19 should be over.” Shouldn’t this thing be over now? Christ is risen, you know.
I have been criticized a number of times recently because my approach to this pandemic has not been “How do we keep doing business as usual in face of all these obstacles?” but rather “Given that we have this problem, what do we do in the midst of it?” To me, though, the question is whether I believe this present state of things is given to me for my salvation.
This is a moment for grieving, for deep repentance. It is not okay. Do not try to make it okay. That does not mean that we have to go around depressed, angry, etc. But it does mean that this is a moment for grief.
Having an ethnic heritage that was not actually passed down to me as an inheritance seems like another exercise in that odd, defamiliarized life that Third Culture Kids can never quite escape. And what’s more, being an Orthodox Christian has in many ways felt like an exercise in the same narrative. A people who were not my own have become my people.