Lael ArringtonPosts – Lael Arrington

Of all the men you know, who do you really consider a “great man”?

admin — Thu, 19 Jun 2025 12:04:30 +0000

Johnny Miller 1944-2025

Probably not many qualify. But, as I read the comments on Columbia International University’s Facebook page in tribute upon their fourth president’s passing, I saw it written time and again.

“A great and godly man, a champion of the Word. One of the finest men I have ever known.”

“One of the greatest men I have ever known.”

“A great man of God! His teaching, passion, and example marked and motivated me.”

I didn’t know Dr. Johnny Miller when he was president of CIU. But in the epilogue of his ministry, long after that presidency, I was blessed to know him as both a great man and a great friend.

A Gift of Christmas Worship

admin — Wed, 25 Dec 2024 21:05:44 +0000

Why did God become so vulnerable?

About 600 yrs ago, a Dutch painter, meditating on the timeless truth of God’s vulnerability, born in a manger, painted Nativity by Night.

About 400 yrs ago, an Anglican priest, meditating on the timeless majesty of God and the Trinity, wrote the hymn, Holy, Holy, Holy.

About 20 years ago, an American rock star, Sufjan Stevens, created this arrangement of Holy, Holy, Holy.

About 15 yrs ago, a Dutch art historian created this video, juxtaposing the majesty of God in the hymn with the vulnerability of Jesus in the painting.

About 20 yrs ago, Manhattan pastor Tim Keller wrote this quote that explains why all this has been so meaningful to me.

Good Reasons to Vote, even if the choice is hard

admin — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 06:45:06 +0000

Millions of evangelicals and Catholics may decide this very tight election simply by…not voting. Please don’t be one of them.

People long to be well led, and for people of faith, character, morals, and values matter. It’s so demotivating when both choices rankle. As Peggy Noonan wrote in the Wall Street Journal, “The race is deadlocked with [three] weeks to go and if you’re an undecided, unsure or wavering voter it looks like Awful vs. Empty.” Actually, I would add that Kamala is far more Awful than Trump. But first, on the Empty issue…

In the article, Noonan tried to make sense of Kamala’s decisions not to take many substantive media interviews and to respond to probing questions with “I grew up in a middle-class family” word salads. Noonan asks, “Why does she dodge away from clarity? Why doesn’t she take opportunities to deepen public understanding of her thinking?…

Noonan offers a couple of possibilities (“Because she’ll figure it out later,” “Because she’s just not that into policy”) before landing on the one that makes the most sense to me: “Because she doesn’t want you to understand where she stands. Because she’s more progressive than she admits, and there’s no gain in telling you now.”

Noonan continues, “Failing to speak plainly and deeply now about illegal immigration [or taxing, spending, regulation, or faith-based issues] is political malpractice on a grand scale…She owes us these answers. It is wrong that she can’t or won’t address them. It is disrespectful to the electorate.”

Or is it intentional deception on a very large scale?

Fidelity Month: Lincoln and Schaeffer on Freedom and Sacrifice

admin — Tue, 11 Jun 2024 21:02:11 +0000

"When freedom destroys order the yearning for order will destroy freedom."

Courtesy StoryBlocks

Two of the most majestic, heart-piercing places to visit in Washington DC are the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington Cemetery. Our images of both, taken during a cherry blossom-time trip, serve as a perfect backdrop to this tribute to Fidelity Month and all those who have given their lives to protect ours.

(In case you are not familiar with Fidelity Month, it is a new movement to celebrate the virtue of faithfulness in June by renewing our commitments to God, our spouses, our country and our communities. Please check it out and perhaps join me in using its promotional headers and memes on social media to focus on a movement that prompts us to draw closer to God, work to strengthen our families and heal divisions in our country.)

Surely one of the greatest inspirations for fidelity to our country is to remember the sacrifices given to protect and nurture America–the theme of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address. Back in high school our chorale memorized Lincoln’s address set to beautiful music. I sang it softly as I read the entire address engraved on the south wall of Lincoln’s memorial. I’m so grateful to him for wrapping such beautiful words around the sacrifice of the fallen, calling us to give thanks and take courage as we rise to protect our freedoms in our civil war of worldviews and values. Please join me in remembering…

The Gettysburg Address:

Now we are engaged in a great civil war testing whether that nation,

or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.

We are met on a great battlefield of that war.

Step into the Easter Story as Foretold by Isaiah and Fulfilled in the Four Gospels

admin — Fri, 29 Mar 2024 18:45:45 +0000

Jesus set his face like a flint for Jerusalem. His hour had come. Almost 700 years before, the prophet Isaiah described what would unfold in surprising detail, and what it would mean for all humankind. I invite you to read Isaiah’s version (before Sunday) that focuses more on the physical, emotional and spiritual suffering of Jesus and the reasons why God was willing to “crush” his Son. Let it take you deeper into the arrest, trial and crucifixion of “the greatest story ever told.” And worship the One who loves us and sacrificed himself for us.

All the texts are taken from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version except for my comments in italics.

***Isaiah 53:1-3 Betrayal, abandonment, denial, rejection***

Giotto: Jesus betrayed by Judas, Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, Italy; @1305

Isaiah: Who has believed what they heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?…He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

Matthew: And [in the garden of Gethsemane, Judas] came up to Jesus at once and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” And he kissed him. Jesus said to him, “Friend, do what you came to do.” (26:49)

Then all the disciples left him and fled. (26:56)

6 Reasons Why This Evangelical Christian is Voting for Nikki Haley

admin — Wed, 21 Feb 2024 16:22:29 +0000

(My evangelical bonafides: I grew up in a non-denominational evangelical church and married my husband while he was in an evangelical seminary. He has pastored two evangelical churches for a total of almost 30 years. I have authored four books with evangelical publishers, including Harper Collins/Zondervan.)

Haley at her rally in our Columbia, SC suburb last Saturday

This is not a rant against Donald Trump or the people who support him, who include many of my friends. I respect their choices. As with the tensions surrounding our beliefs about where God’s sovereignty ends and free will begins or how God created the earth—young or old earth, theistic evolution or intelligent design—godly people with a high view of Scripture disagree. And we can still treat one another with gentleness and respect in the spirit of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, “…bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

We each give account to God for the stewardship of our citizenship and vote.

With a very heavy heart I would possibly vote for Trump in November, but could only do that in good conscience before God if I did whatever I could now to get someone else on the ballot instead. Here in South Carolina our early primary votes carry extra weight in shaping the presidential race. So we have donated to Nikki Haley’s campaign, have her sign in our yard, and I am writing this post

Why Haley?

Continue Reading…

The joy of trusting God like Shadrach, not Jacob

admin — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 14:24:22 +0000

Long ago, these were my hands…until they were wrecked by rheumatoid arthritis. Thirty+ years ago I had three joints replaced, two ruptured tendons repaired, and one large nodule removed. Yesterday I had a second surgery on my right hand. The nodule has grown back and was removed again. The middle joint of my thumb underneath it has been destroyed, so it was stabilized by drilling a hole and inserting a pin. Recovering the use of my right hand may take three months (for the bone to strengthen).

The problems in my hand are not very painful, but it is getting harder and harder to grasp things with my right, dominant hand. The nodule may grow back. So the prospect of big gain is iffy. But my doctors are recommending this surgery, so I am trusting them and am all set to do it.

I am also trusting God for the gain of function we are hoping the surgery delivers.

When I told all this to a friend yesterday, she responded, “Well, you have an army of people praying for you.” I smiled and thanked her. It’s true. And if any of you reading this would like to volunteer, I’d be grateful. We have so many nerves in our hands.

A Prayer for the Hostages. And for us.

admin — Mon, 25 Dec 2023 04:33:15 +0000

photo courtesy Storyblocks

A nephew of one of the Hamas hostages said his aunt “’had to adjust to the sunlight’ because she had been in darkness for weeks. ‘She was in complete darkness,…completely cut off from the outside world.”

Imagine living in total darkness, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for 7 weeks—50 days for the now-released hostages, 105 days and counting for those still in captivity. Think what you were doing on October 7^th. Now think of erasing all you’ve done since then. All that work, vacation, time with family and friends, church fellowship, football, Thanksgiving, Christmas prep–all those moments you’ve held dear.

Imagine instead sitting and sleeping in plastic chairs or benches. In the dark. All that time. In some cases alone. In others, crowded together with strangers and ordered to keep quiet. One meal of rice and bread a day. Knocking on the door when you need to go to the restroom. Waiting hours until you are taken.

Isolation. Darkness. Deprivation.

I think about the hostages often. Grieve for them. Plead to God for their release. And for their spiritual deliverance.

“The people living in darkness have seen a great light.” We can pray for God to shine his light in the hostages’ darkness.

Smart, fun, generous…and difficult—my mom died a year ago today

admin — Tue, 15 Aug 2023 03:54:51 +0000

How God is way ahead of us and with us in the Valley of the Shadow

It’s been a year since I’ve regularly posted here. After Mom’s death I needed time to process. Grieve. Reflect. Rest. I didn’t intend to pull back this long. One thing that has drawn me back: I’ve wanted to tell the story of how amazingly God provided for us during her final three years fraught with vascular dementia.

I’ve also wanted to encourage others on an all-too-common yet nearly impossible journey. Nothing really prepares you for the unimaginable twists and turns of caring for someone who has always been so sharp and fiercely independent, who begins to need help doing her laundry, and even taking her medicines. Especially when they insist on remaining a thousand miles away.

Just when you’ve figured out how to respond to hallucinations or accusations of stealing, another unthinkable challenge comes up. But let me tell you how God shepherded us through the Valley of the Shadow…

The last 20 months have been a tale of two cities for us—”the best of times and the worst of times.”

Nancy Pearcey’s New Book Flips the Script on Toxic Masculinity

admin — Tue, 01 Aug 2023 17:52:22 +0000

This book has the potential to revolutionize our vision of what it means to be a man in today’s culture–how to lift up the beauty of God’s design for men (in pulpits, schools and men’s ministries), how to raise a good man, what to look for in a good husband, and how to heal many of the broken relationships in our families and churches. Read on to see why this could be one of the most family-and-culture transforming books you might ever read.

From my newsfeed recently: “…straight white men are abusive, [they] are serial killers…[they] are the ones shooting up schools, right?” The narrative that masculinity is toxic is pounded into men and boys daily. For such a time as this, Nancy Pearcey’s new book, The Toxic War on Masculinity, flips the script, showing that masculinity is not inherently toxic, but the war on masculinity certainly is.

Yes, Nancy writes, “men are typically larger, stronger, and faster than women. In general, they are also more physical, more competitive, and more risk-taking.” And while it’s true that the American Psychological Association notes that “most mass shooters are male, they overlook the controlled power and aggression used by the heroic men who have stopped mass murderers.” On 9-11 we were proud and grateful to mostly all men who ran into the burning buildings and searched the wreckage for survivors. That is what good men do. They protect and rescue. They show courage and aggression under control. And good moral character.

But Nancy exposes today’s competing script for masculinity: “Men everywhere seem to experience the tension between what they define as the “good man” and the way our culture pressures them to be a “real man”—‘be tough, be strong, never show weakness, win at all costs…get rich, get laid.’”

So how do you expose the falseness of a widely embraced cultural narrative?