Sterling Griggs

I realize that by giving a blog post this kind of a title, it makes me sound like an old man. And while I'm really not all that old by today's standards, I do realize just how far a couple of decades have removed me from the twenty-somethings of today. This generation faces most of the same issues, challenges, and problems as I did back in the 1990's, yet they operate under the magnifying glass of technology which serves to amplify even the most trivial of information. I often freak myself out when I make a comment or give direction to a younger person because I find that I sound more and more like a parent, which is really not a bad thing except for the fact that I realize I am becoming that person whom I often rolled my eyes at once he or she began to speak. Nevertheless, I'm gonna go there. There is a lot of advice floating around out there, found not just in the sphere of graduation speeches and the like but well beyond them. No one that I know wants this or an...

Unless you've been living in a remote cave somewhere in Patagonia, then you are aware that there's a whole lot of stuff going on in America. The economy is still shaky, health care remains in critical condition, the NSA is all up in our business, and no one seems to know who is actually telling the truth anymore (as if we ever really knew in the first place). Scale this down to a local level and the problems seem to be magnified. For instance, in my great state of North Carolina our state legislators' decisions to underfund an educational system that is already lagging behind have left people on both sides of the political aisle shaking their heads in astonishment. What is going on here? If you have internet access then you have been bombarded with countless opinions as to what is happening in America, both on a national and local level. Some insights are filled with facts and figures, yet most are knee jerk reactions to whatever sleight may be perceived. I, too, have be...

Not long ago I shared a conversation with a young man in high school who had lots of questions about God and faith. I mean some really, really good questions. He wanted to believe - he knew that there was more "out there" - but he wasn't buying into the picture that had been painted for him over the years. The whole " Everyone I know who claims to be a Christian is such a hypocrite " was in full display, and I was certainly sympathetic to his story. It's one we hear all too often and it makes it much more challenging to point others to the beauty and truth of Christ when all of His self-professed followers are acting like a bunch of boneheads. But what struck me the most in our conversation - what left me scratching my head - was the treatment this young man said that he received whenever he expressed his doubts from other Christians that he was close to. They got angry with him. They became hostile towards him because he didn't believe like they did ...