Blog, Gifts of the Dark Wood, Week 1: Gift of Failure
Ricky Gervais is an outspoken atheist. He is also a comic, actor and producer. His latest television project is Derek. The first season is out on Netflix and on YouTube. Derek is a character that Gervais has portrayed for years. He calls Derek a funny little nerd...
Blog, Gifts of the Dark Wood, Week 7: Gift of Doubt
by Eric Elnes War on Easter? Have you ever noticed how, come Christmas time, the news is full of stories about the “War on Christmas.” It’s like clockwork. You reach December – or even October or November – and suddenly the drums start...
Blog, Gifts of the Dark Wood, Week 7: Gift of Misfits 2
by Eric Elnes. At Countryside Church this year, some expressed concern that we would be continuing our series on Gifts of the Dark Wood on Palm Sunday. They were even more concerned to learn that we would be covering the Gift of Misfits. “Are we going to...
Blog, Gifts of the Dark Wood, Week 6: Gift of Misfits 1
In the early 1990s, my wife Melanie worked as a food technologist in Research and Development for a large frozen foods manufacturer. One of her team’s projects involved developing a new macaroni and cheese product that could be sold in the frozen food aisle of...
Blog, Gifts of the Dark Wood, Week 4: Gift of Temptation
Ask not what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive…then go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. -Howard Thurman When was the last time you were seriously tempted to do something overtly sinister or evil? I’m not...
Blog, Gifts of the Dark Wood, Week 3: Gift of Getting Lost
We don’t normally think of getting lost as a gift. But it is one of the most important gifts we can receive. Last summer I traveled from my home in Omaha, Nebraska, to Bandon, Oregon, to work on a new book at a secluded lakeside cabin near the ocean. My flight...
Blog, Gifts of the Dark Wood, Week 2: Gift of Being Thunderstruck
Another gift to be found in the Dark Wood was widely recognized by the ancients, but is perhaps the least understood in modern times. The purpose of ancient myths and stories was not to teach us history or science, but to help map out the “world within the...
Blog, Gifts of the Dark Wood, Week 1: Gift of Failure
There is a curious story in the Christian scriptures which suggests that the failures that beset us may serve as channels through which we experience fullness of life. It’s a story about Jesus’ disciple Simon, better known as Simon Peter, or simply Peter....
