Jonathan Martin Writer

What if divine judgment is not the opposite of love — but an expression of it?

Join us for the 2026 Mendenhall Lecture:
Unwrathing God: Rethinking Hell, Judgment, and the Afterlife
with Dr. Brad Jersak

📍 Gobin Church

🗓 Sunday, March 8 | 6pm

Free & open to the public

This year’s lecture turns to one of the most debated and misunderstood themes in Christian theology — hell, judgment, and ultimate restoration — and asks how our understanding of “last things” shapes the way we live now.

All faith backgrounds (or none) welcome.

I took these photos of and when they weren’t looking on our family trip to Hawaii a few weeks ago. I didn’t get them approved—sorry about that! The other couple are only a few years ago, but feel like a lifetime ago. I just felt like posting them, too.

Alexa is the least likely of our four to show any external pressure at all. Nobody can live like there is no internet now, but she’s unlike people her age in that she doesn’t have that kind of self-consciousness we all have that way. She is a throwback. She has always been able to just sort of be who and what she wants to be, which is pretty much my favorite attribute in a person.

She’s funnier than just about anyone. She’s super smart—capable of saying what she thinks, or not saying what she thinks if it doesn’t suit her or serve her purposes in the moment. She’s honest, but doesn’t exactly feel obligated to tell you more than you ask.

She is a very tender person—I mean you should see her with the animals. But she doesn’t need people’s approval too much. This is a recipe for being able to feel what she feels and think what she thinks, but move through the world however she chooses to in a given moment. I fear and admire that level of control 😂 I hope she takes over things, and soon.

Happy birthday to the most subversive member of our band, the one I get to share records and hip hop with. I love you, and you know I love the rebel in you. Feel free to grow more into and not out of that, please. This is no time for…whatever it is the world is doing.

Happy 15th birthday, .

I have posted fun nostalgic stuff of my parents…but this is in real time, and I could not be more grateful. My Dad came in to see me for Father’s Day weekend, and it’s been the best possible time. This morning, we got to tag team the sermon at Fillmore United Methodist Church. What an absolute treasure! (Stella is also very happy to get to sit and watch movies with her pop pop :) )

I love my Dad. Inevitably, for better or worse, our relationships with our parents inevitably imprint our image of the divine. It’s easy for me to buy that God is good, gracious, generous, tender, unconditionally loving, because my Dad is. That’s not just a gift—it’s kind of the ballgame. I never take it for granted.

I am grateful I get to celebrate my Dad today. “You have not many fathers” (I Corinthians 4.15), so I certainly treasure the one I do have…as well as the embarrassment of riches I have of spiritual fathers I have known and loved.

I’m also sending love to everybody for whom this day is tender or complicated, and everybody who doesn’t have biological children-but is the kind of elder in this world that makes believing in yourself, and believing you are loved by something beyond you, possible.

We are the stories we are given, as well as the stories we are living now-blessed are the ones who make good stories of the people around them, and those that make those stories more beautiful, more hopeful, more generative.

Unforgettable time in stunning places with these beautiful people—could not be more grateful

Hawaii, part II!

This is a really special Mother’s Day for me for all kinds of reasons…first, anybody who knows me knows I am crazy about my Mom. She’s one of the world’s all-time most kind, caring, generous, sincere humans. There is nothing good in me or about me I don’t attribute to her in some way—from my love for books/reading, to how it feels almost hard-wired in me to love deeply and carry those I love close. I am grateful for every opportunity I get to celebrate her, and still never feel like I find words that capture how amazing she actually is! Ronald Lynda Martin

BUT ALSO, after 7 excruciating weeks apart, Nicole Martin is finally back here, and celebrating this Mother’s Day with her is magical and perfect. She’s the most intuitive mother I’ve ever seen. Nobody has ever nailed the balance better of holding kids close, while also giving them space to be who they are. They trust her with everything, and she trusts their goodness and agency in a way that empowers them fully. Nobody is more devoted, or more natural at this. I learn from her in this way all the time. No wonder all four of our kids all have 4.0 GPA’s and are so well adjusted in every way—they are that secure in how loved they are.

Her being up and down with some health stuff in the midst of already intensely full time has meant the longest we’re ever had to be apart, having to delay birthday celebrations, all the things. So yeah, we are deliriously happy.

She loves and is deeply loved by my community at Fillmore United Methodist Church—that was SUCH a happy reunion this morning. Also , walking our dog nieces Viv and Lewi, and watching Paul Newman movies and otherwise just being. Thanks to our awesome kids for understanding that loving their Mom well on Mother’s Day, means space and time for me to love on mama. Stella also thanks you for having Mom back 😂

Mom, Nicole, y’all are my actual whole world. I love you both so much!

Happy Mother’s Day to all the extraordinary moms out there, all the nurturers, caregivers, spiritual mothers; love to all who find joy in this day, and those for whom this day is tender.