Author: Seth Singleton

There is an ever-widening relational chasm between generations. The blazing speed of technological and societal change has ensured that this chasm is broad and challenging to cross. I have eight-year-old twin boys, and their experience of the world is vastly different than my eight-year-old experience. When I was eight, the peak of entertainment was a Gameboy Color (a handheld digital Yahtzee game was a close second). My twins are growing up in a world where any show, movie, or game is instantly available on a handheld device with a stunningly vivid touchscreen. At eight years old, my grandfather was in the fields picking cotton. Middle school students today would have no idea what they should do if an atomic bomb struck their town, but that was the junior high reality for my grandparents....

It has been said that every good story borrows from the gospel. If you have ever found yourself in tears at the close of a book or witnessed an eruption of applause in a movie theater, you have tasted gospel seasoning in the drama. The self-sacrificing hero, victory from the clutches of defeat, or the sudden reappearance of a character thought to be dead all borrow their glory from the greatest story ever told. These tales are often woven around central characters who give of themselves for the good of others. Mr. Darcy, Frodo Baggins, Atticus Finch, and Penny Baxter are endearing precisely because they look a little something like Jesus. But nothing compares to the real thing. Our favorite stories only are pencil sketches of the gospel diamond. The true gem glints and glitters with the...