When Virtue Is Not the Highest Load The story of Rahab in Book of Joshua 2 is unsettling for a reason. Rahab lies. Not once, but deliberately. She deceives the authorities of her own city in order to protect the Israelite spies hiding in her home. And Scripture does not condemn her for it. In fact, Rahab is later named among the faithful. She is preserved. Her household is spared. Her actions are ultimately treated as aligned rather than corrupt. That discomfort matters, because the story...
11 days ago • 3 min read
When Arguments Fail, Look Upstream Most of the conflict we’re experiencing right now, personally, socially, and politically, does not come from people wanting different outcomes. It comes from people reasoning from different places under pressure. That may sound subtle, but it explains a lot. We tend to assume that disagreement means one side is misinformed, immoral, or acting in bad faith. So we argue facts. We argue values. We argue outcomes. And when that does not work, we argue harder....
18 days ago • 2 min read
Loss Is Not a Verdict It’s one of the few things that tells the truth without trying to Most weeks, the world feels loud for the same reason our own lives sometimes do: something important has been taken away or feels like it might be. Certainty. Stability. Trust. Health. A role that once made sense. A future that felt predictable. When that happens, we rush to explanation. Who caused this? What went wrong? Who’s to blame? What needs to be fixed—now? That impulse is understandable. It’s also...
25 days ago • 3 min read
Normally this is a once-a-week Newsletter, but given this relevance to current events, I wanted to publish a diagnostic of the Letter from Birmingham Jail in celebration of MLK day. It provides an understanding how legitimate protest (well constrained and anchored) can have a positive, timeless and universal impact. A Keel Stone Reading of Letter from Birmingham Jail There are moments in history when conflict reveals more than disagreement. It reveals where a society has placed its weight,...
29 days ago • 4 min read
When Conflict Becomes a Standoff A diagnosis of the current Fed/MN Standoff Most public conflicts don’t begin as standoffs. They become standoffs. A standoff forms when two sides confront each other while neither is well anchored—and when there is no shared higher constraint capable of lowering the temperature. In that condition, escalation feels responsible, restraint feels dangerous, and every action is interpreted through fear rather than proportion. What we are witnessing right now is not...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Why Everything Feels Fragile Right Now Something feels off. Conversations escalate faster than they used to. Disagreements feel personal. Losing a job, a relationship, or even a sense of belonging seems to shatter people in ways that didn’t feel as common before. Even people who appear successful and stable often seem one bad moment away from collapse. This isn’t just politics.It isn’t just social media.And it isn’t because people lack opportunity. We live in one of the safest, most...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read