People will tell you that all manner of things are impossible. Untouchable. Dangerous, even.
But faith—at its purest and most unencumbered—says, “Well, hang on a sec. Just maybe…” Faith that is more about prohibitions than possibilities is missing something.
Take the idea of seeing God, for example. Whatever that means to you, and to whatever degree. Seeing God in a beautiful bird. Seeing God in a healing miracle. Seeing God face to face.
(more…)If you ever hear the Lord say something, you’ve got three basic response options:
A) “I will do nothing the Lord has said; I will not obey.”
B) “I will do some of what the Lord has said; I will sort of obey.”
C) “I will do everything the Lord has said; I will obey.”
To be human on any given day is to be some blending of all three, whether we are aware of it or not.
(more…)I awoke with my brain buzzing. Anxiety high. Rumination on autopilot. Past scenes replaying in a loop.
As I layed there in the dark, transported back into a painful season, I also remembered a song that I came across in that same time period:
May loving kindness
Calm the raging of the wound
May your healing
Be a clearing in the wood
May you breathe in
Deeper than you ever could before
—Audrey Assad, “Shiloh”
Faith forms us into people who carry songs into the dark. Not necessarily songs that make the darkness disappear, but songs that remind us who our real Master is.
(more…)Sometimes God speaks out of darkness. Uncertainty. Obscurity. Secrecy. Unknowing. Cloudiness. Shadows. Gloom.
Sometimes God speaks out of fire. Heat. Danger. Destruction. Purging. Pain. Suffering. Loss.
(more…)Sabbath is more than just a day off of work. It’s a way of ordering one’s life around a weekly rhythm: six Go Days; one Stop Day.
God’s Stop Day reminded the ancient Israelites that they were no longer slaves who could never stop. They had been freed from Pharaoh’s rule, and the Master who ruled them was a restful God. Slaves work non-stop; God’s liberated people do not.
We, however, work non-stop. Some form of work is at our finger tips 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Always on. Always plugged in. Endlessly productive.
(more…)If we do not regularly quit work for one day a week we take ourselves far too seriously.
—Eugene Peterson
You can go, go go. You can stay on 24/7. You can keep working yourself to the bone. You can add another side hustle to your side hustle. You can say “yes” to one more commitment. You can add one more responsibility to your plate.
You can expect others to do the same. In fact, the more you expect non-stop effort from yourself, the more you are likely to expect it of others.
However, there is a different pattern you can choose to follow:
(more…)Our modern lives are not ordered by the rhythms of an agrarian society: the seasons of the year, the times for sowing and harvesting.
But something deep down in our DNA still thrives on rhythms. And there are parts of our story—as individuals, as families, as communities, as nations—the we would do well to remember.
(more…)You’ve been the new kid in class. The new employee in the company. The new neighbor on the block. The new parent on the playground. The only one at the table who doesn’t get the inside joke.
You’ve been the stranger trying make some friends. The outsider trying to find a way inside. The lonely one trying to find your people. The sojourner trying to build a life in foreign territory.
Remember that feeling. Step back into that experience from time to time. Consider what might have been helpful to you. Give thanks for those who showed up in tangible ways during that uneasy transition.
(more…)When a friend or loved one is down, the best thing you can do is to simply listen. Everyone needs a listening ear. A chance to talk things out. To vent a little. To name all the things:
What I long for, I can’t seem to find.
Will I ever make it?
I just can’t stop crying.
Where is God, anyway?
I used to love going to church—now it just feels…
Life is crushing me.
I feel forgotten.
Will this last forever?
Just sit and listen. No trite advice. No religious cliches. Be a good friend like that. In grace and compassion, let them arrive at their own conclusion in their own time, where they can say of their own accord:
Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
Show yourself the same grace and compassion. Be the same good friend to your own soul.
(See Psalm 42).
Something worth caring for will necessarily be more than you can care for on your own.
A child.
A spouse.
A family.
A home.
A neighborhood.
A business.
A hospital.
A school.
A church.
A city.
A state.
A country.
(more…) Exploring the mystery of faith in ordinary life.