Getting a flu vaccine is also a practical way to love your neighbor, and especially the most vulnerable, which is inescapably in line with Jesus’ model to love the “least of these.” Vaccinating is a means of protecting your neighbor from the flu virus. If vaccinated, you have a lower likelihood of getting the flu and, thus, passing the flu to someone else. This reasoning informs collective protection of individuals who cannot get the flu vaccine, such as very young children.
How the Bible Should Influence Our Conversations
Can you truly love someone who holds different political beliefs than you? Can you engage in healthy conversation with a brother in Christ, even if he is on the “wrong side of history”? We live in a world of disagreement and hate. Our generation thrives off of controversy. We constantly condemn and call each other out on social media instead of engaging in honest discussions.
God Is With Us through COVID-19
It’s safe to say that 2020 has not gone exactly how any of us had planned. Seniors couldn’t have the graduations they hoped for. People lost jobs. School went online and maybe worst of all was the fact that people all over the world were affected by this horrible, deadly virus.
Read moreFaces of Health Inequality
What does health inequity look like?
In February 2016 I spent three weeks in Cambodia with a short-term medical missions team. The purpose of the medical team was twofold: give the med students a glimpse of rural tropical medicine, and encourage the local church by visiting villages of local missionaries.
Now You Know: A Reflection on the R-Word
I talked to a professor at Covenant, Mrs. Cynthia Young, about the issue of the r-word after I heard someone use it in reference to music. As professor of the Education of Exceptional Children class, Mrs. Young is very knowledgeable about the exceptional community. Isaiah, her son and seventh child, now twenty-two, has Down syndrome.
The Grove Walrus: Part 2
We only see a woodland walrus again a couple of weeks later, when we four head to Amsterdam and Belgium for a week’s respite from essay writing. It’s a moment of peace—the beginning of October, clear skies illuminating the cows loitering in the field outside, sunrise gleaming through the back window of the bus.
Read moreThe Jonas Brothers 3D Concert Experience and Nostalgia
It’s been roughly eleven years since the ‘Jonas Brothers 3D Concert Experience’ movie came out in theaters. I lived in a little town in Massachusetts at the time, and our primary movie theater was the one in the mall. One night, shortly after the movie was released, when my little sister, probably around five at the time, was in bed, my mom snuck me out of the house to go see the movie with her.
Read moreThe Grove Walrus: Part 1
Isabel swears I’m not thinking clearly, but I keep insisting that there’s this magnificently large, green, blubbery walrus in the bushes outside of the house. We call it the Grove, the section of hedges that curtains our little house from the main house. It’s a lovely place, but crowded.
Read moreMorning Coffee
I haven’t been feeling particularly anxious lately, which I can attribute to both my being busy since starting classes and to my settling into some semblance of a routine. It’s been a few weeks since I’ve been anywhere, or seen pretty much anyone besides my family and a few neighbors. While I’m very grateful that my family and I are in a position to be able to stay home and shelter in place, I’m beginning to feel lonely. Based on the general mood I’ve observed on Instagram, and a few texts I received this week, it seems that I’m not alone.
Read moreLent is Lovely
When I asked “What do you know about Lent?” from an admittedly small sample size, here are some of the responses I gathered:
“Absolutely nothing—you give something up, right? It’s just never been important to me.” - Levi Tucker
“People eat fish…?” - Benjamin Streets
“Same as Levi” - Tim Pardigon
Read moreAporia and Abundance: Thoughts From Social Distance
Welcome to my bedroom, where I’m sitting on my bed (even though I’m fairly certain that, ideally, I’m supposed to be working at a desk for maximum productivity) and sorting through the things I need to get done this week, with my cup of coffee on the windowsill next to me, and the giant blanket I’ve been knitting sprawled out on the bedspread.
Read moreOn Platform-Based Voting: A Response
Truth 1: I have a multicultural background and have a heart for racial reconciliation, especially among God’s people.
Truth 2: I desire a society in which every citizen, regardless of ethnic identity, is afforded economic mobility while being treated with dignity and respect.
Read moreThe Dandelion: More than a Weed
As the spring months approach and the flowers begin to bud, the continual controversy pops from the melting snow. Is there a natural goodness in dandelions? Are they beautiful flowers? Or are they perched on lawns, little beacons of uncontrolled growth that lie within the bed of the earth? I took it upon myself to find out.
Read moreIt’s Okay to Say, “I Don’t Know”
We live in a world that is consistently, if not constantly, asking for our thoughtful reflections on life. More specifically, we are compelled to engage with issues that pertain largely to prevalent moral and ethical issues that cause divisions amongst those within the church, as well as causing tensions with those outside of it (e.g., presidential politics, health care, economics, etc).
Read moreA Defense of Middle-Grade Fiction Books
Last night, I was in the library. Contrary to the general state of affairs, none of my friends was sitting at our favorite table, so I meandered through the sections, haphazardly perusing the children’s fiction section in the far corner, behind the shelves.
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