Everyone has gone through hardship. Most people have come out the other side better in some way. They’ve had their share of enemies, suffering, and wandering. They know all about deliverance, guidance, and goodness.
Not everyone has had someone ask them to tell their story. Someone who will listen deeply. Someone who will meet them in the wildness of their journey to grieve and give thanks along with them.
(more…)We have a number of euphemisms for death.
Pass on.
Kick the bucket.
Buy the farm.
Cross over.
Be in a better place.
Go home.
One that you don’t hear much in Western culture is “to be gathered to your people.” This is a more ancient, Hebrew way of talking about death, found all throughout the Old Testament.
More than being a nice sentiment, or a way of soft-pedaling grief, what if there’s actually something to this? What if this is another angle on what future theologians would call “the communion of the saints”? What if this is another way of affirming the Christian hope of resurrection?
(more…)Sometimes the best you can do is to give that place a name—so you don’t forget—and move on.
Bitter.
Broken.
Flawed.
Fake.
Unhealthy.
Unsafe.
Manipulative.
Abusive.
Dehumanizing.
Soul-sucking.
Wisdom, I have heard it said, is the art of living well.
Wisdom is not a science. It is not “an effort to rationalize reality,” as Walter Brueggeman has written. When it comes to living wisely, there is no formula, no blueprint, no standard operating procedure.
Science studies the repeatable. History studies the unrepeatable. And wisdom studies the present moment. No one has ever been your exact being, living this exact moment, under these exact circumstances, faced with these exact decisions.
Now, if you insist on being a scientist, you’re likely to find your attempts rather frustrating. God is not a professor standing in front of the class ready to precisely respond to the student with her hand raised.
(more…)Sometimes I sit down to eat, and in the blink of an eye my plate is clean. I came to the table hangry; hopefully I’m leaving with my belly full and my mood stabilized. And maybe that’s ok—just get some calories in and move on.
Sometimes, however, a meal seems to last for hours. Time slows down as the joy of each bite fills not only my belly but my soul. The flavors and the fellowship with those around the table are too good to rush.
(more…)Complaining is a fire that burns you from the outside in. It harms not only you, but others around you.
Complaining is not merely a you problem; it’s a we problem. It brings your inner dissatisfaction out into the open. When that flame is set loose, it can become a wildfire. The more public the complaining, the wider the fire spreads. The louder the complaining, the stronger the winds blow.
Dissatisfaction is a normal human feeling. Acceptable, even. But complaining is a choice.
(more…)Miracles are great. Until you have to depend on them for a long time. Manna was pretty neat the first few times it appeared, but after forty years it lost its pizzazz. The daily wondering of “What if the miracle doesn’t come through today?” will wear on you after a while.
We like consistency and predictability—which the manna offered. But we also like control and agency—which the manna withheld. Imagine not being able to make a sandwich, or a burrito, or even pour a bowl of cereal. Simple self-determined meal prep was literally off the table.
Forty is a funny number in the Bible. Sometimes it very well could be literal; sometimes not so much. Regardless, it almost always marks a season of testing and transition.
(more…)Your week needs an intermission. A break in the action. A chance for you to step off the stage and hit pause on your performance. To get some water or a snack. To go to the bathroom or to just sit and rest for a few moments. To regroup and recenter before going back out on stage for the second act.
Because you can’t just keep on performing.
Instead, make the regular, conscious decision to stop. Pause. Rest. Breathe. Cease and desist from all your busyness. Make yourself still and quiet. Make yourself invisible and inconsequential. Put down all the tools of your trade. Put away all your over-active responsibilities.
(more…)Common knowledge is that the opposite of a scarcity mindset is an abundance mindset. For the most part, I say “Yes and amen.” However, I suggest that, for the Christian, there is a third option: a Provider mindset. I suggest that this is both more hopeful than a scarcity mindset and also more realistic than an abundance mindset.
In short, a scarcity mindset looks like this:
Resources are finite and limited. It says, “There’s not enough to go around.” It sees everything as a zero-sum game: if someone else gains, then someone else loses. It’s stingy. It’s pessimistic about the future. It thinks small and avoid risk. It’s primary emotional energy is fear.
Not a great way to live, TBH. Thankfully there’s also the option of an abundance mindset:
(more…)The thing about wandering is that every stop is a surprise. You never know where you’ll end up, or what it will be like. There’s no road map telling the name of the next town. There’s no GPS indicating when the next gas station might be. The available restaurants might be quality, or the food and service might be sloppy. The bathrooms might be clean, or they might be… well you know.
Perhaps this is an unpopular opinion, but I don’t think God is as big on plans as we are. At least not by our definition of “plans”. Following him tends to feel a lot more like wandering in the wilderness than it does a well-thought-out road trip. I’d wager that this experience is more the rule than the exception.
When it comes to you and me, and every other human, God is not assembling an automobile or a hamburger—he’s creating a life. A unique, unrepeatable life that is being shaped by the moment. There very well might be a goal, an ultimate “destination” or ideal, but there’s no blueprint to follow.
(more…) Exploring the mystery of faith in ordinary life.