Author Archives: davetcourt

Reaching the end of the first quarter, I thought I’d take a look at where I am in my reading journey thus far in 2025. Note some relevant threads, some hightlights/lowlights: As has been the case in previous years, I started things off with the next book in Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s Before the Coffee Gets ColdContinue reading “My Reading Journey in 2025: First Quarter Check In”

Every year my Church walks through a Gospel, beginning with Advent and ending after Easter. This year we are in the Gospel according to Luke This mornings passage was on Luke 18, which Scott Mcknight’s commentary titles the “Two Redemption Parables.” I was struck by the ways this passage connected with this weeks reflections forContinue reading “When Will the Kingom of God Come: Love of Jesus, Love of Enemy, Love of Justice”

(Major spoiler warning for Jaume Collet-Serra’s 2025 release The Woman In The Yard) “It’s tough, you know, being a person.” (Fran, Sometimes I Think About Dying) I’ve been working through Lois Daniel’s book, How To Write Your Own Life Story: The Classic Guide for the Nonprofessional Writer in 2025. I had just finished writing aContinue reading “The Woman in the Yard: Exploring What Thoughts of Suicide Really Are”

In her book, Pause: Spending Lent With the Psalms, author Elizabeth Caldwell uses Psalm 63 to explore the theme of “blessing” during the 3rd week of Lent. She reflects on the different ways we think of blessing. The different ways we define blessing. The different ways we bless and feel blessed. Through the lens ofContinue reading “The Blessed Life: Learning to Bless God in the Waiting”

How sad that a mark of the overt cycnism that is so pervasive in this present moment would and could be the catalyist for derailing a story who’s aim it is to counter it. Or perhaps its precisely what we should expect. After all, cyncism can be a powerful drug. What might be even moreContinue reading “Snow White and the Gospel: How Goodness Wins Over Cynicism”

“You wrecked my world in a beautiful way. And I kinda thought that I’d always stay the same. But I heard that healthy things grow, and growing things change.” Ben Rector (Wreck) In The Grey Haven’s recently released  2025 EP “Where The Living is Deep”, the lyrics of the title track reflect on the natureContinue reading “Seeking The River of Life: The Movement of Time, The Mississippi Headwaters, and The Great Hope of God’s Inbreaking In The Present”

If you aren’t familiar with the book J.R.R. Tolkien’s Sanctifying Myth (Bradley Birzer). it’s a must read. It was transformative for me, to be sure. Not only in my understanding of Tolkien, but in how I understand myth. As Birzer writes, To the modernist, “myth,” like religion, merely signifies a comfortable and entrenched lie. ForContinue reading “Mythic Michigan: Where Travels Meet Truth”

Listened to this on audio. Wish I had picked it up in paper copy or on kindle. In fact, I will be doing precisely that, because this is the kind of book I needed to highlight and underline and mark up. It’s that good. It’s the sort of book I immediately want to put intoContinue reading “My Full Review of Judaism Is About Love: Recovering The Heart of Jewish Life by Shai Held- A Book Everyone Needs to Read Because It Will Change Your Life”

For Lent this year I am spending time in the Psalms with the help of Elizabeth Caldwell’s new book Pause: Spending Lent With the Psalms. The first week of Lent has found me in Psalm 25, considering the theme of “paths”. Caldwell leads her readers in a series of reflections regarding where we find ourselvesContinue reading “Psalm 25: Learning To Find the Paths of God”

On the latest episode of The Good Fight (title: Jonathan Rauch on the Politicization of Christianity), host Yascha Mounk interviews Jonathan Rauch about the role religion plays in society, the subject of his latest book. In it Rauch, for as much as I disagree with many aspects of his approach regarding religion and religious history,Continue reading “Mounk, Rauch: Measuring Belief and Unbelief Amidst the Politicization of Christianity”