Dr Paul Allen

Tomorrow in Washington DC, a few miles away from the church I pastor, will be a rally called the “Trans Day of Vengeance.” The event will be led by the “Trans Radical Activist Network” and has been promoted by political leaders around the country. Supporters of the “Trans Day of Vengeance” say that the Trans Community is under attack, and their protection can only come through retribution. This week has exposed a seething, violent hatred towards those who won’t fly the rainbow flag over their homes, churches, and on their social media accounts. That the Day of Vengeance takes place the week of the Nashville shooting is no coincidence—or if it is, one of the leaders of the trans movement called it “a happy coincidence.” The media has also shown hatred for the church—with major outlets even strongly implying (if not outright declaring) that the church is responsible for the shooting at its own school. The White House expressed support for the calls for vengeance on those that oppose the ...

Our cultural moment makes the problem feel acute, but the pursuit of happiness is a well-worn path. The book of Psalms, written about 3,000 years ago, begins with this exact issue: “Blessed is the man” (Ps. 1:1). Another way to translate this word is “happy.” “Happy is the man.” Do you want a happy life? Listen to the wisdom of this psalm; the answer may surprise you. Happy is the man whose “delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night” (Ps. 1:2). Don’t be misled by Psalm 1’s simplicity. This is profound wisdom, guaranteed to produce the joy our souls crave. Meditate on Scripture The two lines of Psalm 1:2 are parallel. To delight in the law of the Lord is to meditate on it day and night. That’s quite the task! Do you have to become a monk to be happy? Do you need to spend all day studying God’s Word and doing nothing else? If I spent one less hour per day meditating on my phone, and one more on God’s Word, I would almost certainly be happier. The short ...

Newly engaged, I was searching for a good book on marriage. I remember coming across one, commended as a modern classic, with this memorable question on the cover: “What if God designed marriage to make us holy more than make us happy?” Hmm. I didn’t like that way of framing it. Why pit holy against happy? Granted, it’s a “what if” teaser on the cover. Still, this didn’t seem like a worthwhile risk to me, even if the tagline was taking aim at a common idol in our generation. Of course, at one level, I understand, and grant, that many people have a superficial definition of, and associations with, happiness. To the degree that “happiness” refers to our experiencing momentary, superficial, comfort-based, suffering-free, pleasant feelings — and requires no new birth — then yes, true holiness, on God’s terms, will often (if not relentlessly) be at odds with such “happiness.” However, I’m not ready to cede the word happiness to such thin, shallow assumptions. That is not what we find when w...

Economist and former Mckinsey partner Caroline Webb recently released a book titled,How to Have a Good Day: Harness the Power of Behavioral Science to Transform Your Working Life. She attempts to show readers how to use behavioral economics and psychology to improve their quality of life. She does this by applying the science to daily tasks and routines. In a recent interview, Webb was asked what could we do in the morning to set ourselves up to have a good day? Her response immediately drew me in. She explains that our brains are only able to process parts of reality at any given time. So while there may be lots of objects around you — chair, table, wall, flower, lamp, picture carpet, noise, hair on your arms — it’s impossible for you to pay close attention to everything that is in your space. Thankfully, our brains filter out most of what is going on around us. She goes on to explain that since some things are getting filtered out, we’re all experiencing a very subjective, incom...

Definitions are simply descriptions of the way people use words. Words don’t have intrinsic definitions. They are given definitions by the way people use them. When I say I want to define joy for you, I am asking whose joy are we talking about, or what use of the word are we talk-ing about? I mean joy as the apostle Paul uses it in his letters, and particularly in the book of Philippians. I am not just asking about the meaning of joy in general. I am talking about Christian joy, as Paul the apostle describes it. So let me give you my definition, and then take it apart one piece at a time. Christian joy is a good feeling in the soul, produced by the Holy Spirit, as he causes us to see the beauty of Christ in the Word and in the world. A Good Feeling Christian joy is a good feeling. By that, I mean it is not an idea. It is not a conviction. It is not a persuasion, or a decision. It is a feeling. Or — I use the words interchangeably here — an emotion. One of the marks of the differenc...