Tag: Alan Noble

Links for the Weekend (2025-10-24)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

Each Friday, I’ll post links to 3–5 resources from around the web you may want to check out.

What is Your Busyness Doing?

Many of us feel too busy. But, as Alan Noble explains, some forms of busyness can have seriously negative spiritual consequences.

It seems to me that busyness is deceptive. It often starts out virtuous, a courageous effort to manage the daily affairs of your life for the sake of your loved ones and to honor God—in the model of the ant. But the rhythms of hustle can overtake you. They can be seductive. There is a numbness that sets in when you are busy. Your mind is preoccupied with obligations and must-do’s and planning for the future so that sins, conflicts, problems, and issues in your life that aren’t directly related to your busyness get submerged, ignored. What started out virtuous seems to take up more and more space in your consciousness. You begin answering emails at all hours of the day. You check your phone constantly. You feel the need to stay “plugged in.” You feel uncomfortable when you aren’t actively doing something “productive.” This is acedia. And it’s tied to the refusal to believe that God is sovereign over all creation.

Who Are the Righteous Mentioned Throughout the Psalms?

Admit it—you’ve wondered who the Psalms are referring to when they mention “the righteous.” Christopher Ash is here to help.

First, we struggle to know what to make of it when psalmists claim to be righteous, sometimes in quite strong terms. For example, the prayer “Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness / and according to the integrity that is in me” (Ps. 7:8) rather alarms us. What if the Lord did judge me according to my righteousness? He would find it severely wanting. Dare I pray this?

In an Artist’s Studio

Our poem of the week: In an Artist’s Studio, by Christina Rossetti. This is a sonnet about an artist and his love/subject.

Note: Washington Presbyterian Church and the editors of this blog do not necessarily endorse all content produced by the individuals or groups referenced here. 

Links for the Weekend (2025-08-22)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

Each Friday, I’ll post links to 3–5 resources from around the web you may want to check out.

Don’t Misread Proverbs

Jen Wilkin offers us some helpful tips on reading the book of Proverbs.

In our therapeutic, self-help age, we may be tempted to reduce it to a reference book for successful living. But by correcting a few simple misconceptions, we can access the poetry and richness (and yes, usefulness!) the book has to offer. Here are three guidelines to shift our perspective for a better reading.

Inner Experience as the Ultimate Sexual Authority

So many in our age use their inner experience to dictate their sexual ethics. Alan Noble offers a corrective.

What I was taught by the world was that my feelings were supreme. That love is over all. That love is an internal emotional that no one can challenge and is defined by the individual. That who you were attracted to and what you desired and who you loved were intimately tied to your identity which was and is profoundly sacred. I was taught all this by a thousand songs, a million movies, and a billion TV shows. Whatever my heart desired, my heart desired. End of story.

The Gamblers

Our poem of the week: The Gamblers, by Zina Gomez-Liss. This poem is about aging, family, and pastimes.

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article I wrote called Training That Only Grace Provides. If you haven’t already seen it, check it out!

Note: Washington Presbyterian Church and the editors of this blog do not necessarily endorse all content produced by the individuals or groups referenced here. 

Links for the Weekend (2025-08-01)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

Each Friday, I’ll post links to 3–5 resources from around the web you may want to check out.

A Christian Vision for Exercise

David Mathis has recently published a book on a theology of exercise, so this article represents some of the fruit from that project. I found all of these helpful and thought-provoking.

God made us remarkably flexible as humans. We are the kind of creatures who think and feel, and also move and act. Unlike other creatures, God made us for contemplation and for exertion, for pausing to ponder and for then acting in the world to accomplish tasks.

God designed us for rhythms of life: not always being on the go, not always being on the stay. We glorify God by reflecting on him and rejoicing in him and representing him in the world. We meditate and move. Typical human life includes both. God made us to be thoughtful and fruitful, to experience emotions and take up agency in the world.

That Bible Verse Is Not About Immigration

A few politicians have used Bible verses in recent public comments, but (surprise!) they have not always used these verses well! Here’s an article explaining why we need to read the Bible in context.

Christian publishing, much of Christian music, and maybe the majority of Bible studies are afflicted with this same bad habit. Christian bookstores are full of “Bible promise” titles filled with de-contextualized verses meant to directly apply to the reader. But how many books of Bible curses are there, though the Bible includes those, too? How many Americans, in the habit of “verse plucking,” gladly claim Deuteronomy 28’s national blessings, but don’t read on about the national curses for disobedience that directly follow? How many Bible studies ask the question, “What does this verse mean to you” before truly wrestling with, “What does this verse mean?” 

Expecting Peace When There is No Peace

Alan Noble has written a thoughtful article about the teaching that we need to feel a sense of peace in order to be right with God.

I can’t begin to tell you how many times in my life I have gone astray by listening to my feelings of anxiety and distress and assuming that they were signs from God that I was not at peace with God. It’s taken me many years to begin to internalize the reality that I am always already at peace with God, because he has made peace with me when his Son died on the cross for my sins. Yes, there are daily opportunities for repentance, but I remain justified, redeemed, and loved even in my sin.

Thanks to Cliff L for his help this week in assembling the links!

Note: Washington Presbyterian Church and the editors of this blog do not necessarily endorse all content produced by the individuals or groups referenced here. 

Links for the Weekend (2025-06-27)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

Each Friday, I’ll post links to 3–5 resources from around the web you may want to check out.

Honoring God With Your Body: More Than a Health Goal

Staci Eastin helps us think about caring for our bodies in a way that glorifies God.

Our bodies are not projects to perfect, but gifts to steward. The way we eat, rest, and move isn’t just physical—it’s spiritual. As Paul reminds is in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, and we should honor God with them. Our bodies are the means by which we carry out the acts of service he has called us to. Our bodies allow us to enjoy the good gifts he gives us.

The Freedom of Being Seen by Christ

Alan Noble takes us to the Samaritan woman in John 4 to discuss the freedom that is found in being known completely by Jesus.

But like the Samaritan woman, we are free to be seen by Christ and unburden ourselves before him because he has already seen all that we have ever done and all that has ever been done to us and he loves us. He desires us to repent and mature in holiness. We never have to be ashamed or afraid of bringing our problems before him. We stand revealed before an all-knowing God who has also died for us because he first loved us. Perfect love and perfect knowing meet in Christ. And so the desire to be known and the fear of being known no longer need to be held in tension for the Christian. It’s resolved in the deity of Christ.

Sunburn

Our poem of the week: Sunburn, by Ange Mlinko. This is a short poem about sunburn and the longing for snow.

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article I wrote called A Guaranteed Way to Grow in Biblical Hope. If you haven’t already seen it, check it out!

Note: Washington Presbyterian Church and the editors of this blog do not necessarily endorse all content produced by the individuals or groups referenced here. 

Links for the Weekend (2025-03-28)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

Each Friday, I’ll post links to 3–5 resources from around the web you may want to check out.

The Paradox of Ease: Why Friction is Good for You

Trevin Wax explains how convenience and getting all we need with ease is not necessarily good for us. And it doesn’t make us happier. He adds reflections on the Christian life coming out of this truth.

What would life be like if we could eliminate all friction? If we could do away with resistance? If fulfilling our desires were as simple as pressing a button, so the gap between what we want and what we experience shrinks to nothing?

“This is the aspiration of the digital,” Barba-Kay argues. It’s “to make the world fully pliant to [our] will.” The goal is to reduce the resistance between desire and fulfillment. And in theory, this should make us happier. If we could eliminate struggle, wouldn’t joy be easier to come by?

It hasn’t worked out that way.

On Failure

To be human is, sadly, to know failure. Alan Noble examines worldly grief and godly grief in the context of failure.

My favorite part of this verse is the phrase “without regret,” because to me this is the whole key to understanding how to avoid worldly grief. Godly grief has a trademark: it doesn’t come with regret. There’s no obsessing over the failure or going over the details again and again to try and fix things in your mind. Godly grief accepts that Christ has forgiven us and that is more than enough. And so we are free to live.

Lenten Sonnets

Andrew Peterson is writing sonnets through Lent this year, so I’m sharing two of them for the poetry section of the links this week: Lenten Sonnet X, 2025 and Lenten Sonnet XVII, 2025.

Note: Washington Presbyterian Church and the editors of this blog do not necessarily endorse all content produced by the individuals or groups referenced here. 

Links for the Weekend (2022-04-29)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

Each Friday, I’ll post links to 3–5 resources from around the web you may want to check out.

Friendship and Belonging in Middle Age

Here’s an article by Alan Noble on some of the reasons it’s hard for people in middle age to make and sustain friendships. And yet, we need friends!

The way our lives are set up is broken. The structures, habits, practices, and values. Our city planning, markets, careers, laws, and entertainment—all have been designed with a false idea of what a human being is. Collectively we assume that to be a human is to belong only and ever to yourself. Thus, friendships can be a nice perk of a successful life, but friends can’t demand anything of you that you don’t choose to give. At any point, if a friendship is holding you back or bringing you down, you can bail. Because the only person you owe happiness to is yourself.

Jesus, Friend of Sinners

One of the main accusations that Jesus faced was that he hung out with sinners too much. What are the implications of this for our churches today?

Some Christian circles assume that if a pastor or church is drawing in sinners, they must be compromising the message of the Bible. Maybe they’re seeker-sensitive, watering down the more offensive doctrines of Christianity. On the flip side, pastors who have a reputation for castigating sinners, faithfully exposing the sins of society, must be doing something right. But the truth is, neither approach captures the complexity of Christ’s gospel ministry. Jesus had the ability to attract notorious sinners with the offer of grace without ever compromising truth. It wasn’t the outwardly sinful who were typically put off by Jesus, but the sanctimonious! Ministries that repel sinners through so-called boldness can be just as unfaithful as those that attract them through compromise. 

Go to Funerals

I love the way this article talks about a church body attending funerals. The author encourages everyone who is able to go—especially children—because a church is a family.

The Christian community can be distinct by going to funerals of everyone in your church. At funerals, we display to the world what the body of Christ is like. At funerals, we display what commitment looks like in a covenant body. When we take our membership vows, we are not joining a hobby or a club. We join a body. A body needs all its members—especially at a funeral.

Note: Washington Presbyterian Church and the editors of this blog do not necessarily endorse all content produced by the individuals or groups referenced here.