Category: Disillusionment

Rediscovering the Wonder

The next several weeks of blogs will be based on our most recent animated poem, Chapel of My Heart. To see the full text or watch the video, click here.

To my room I would go; I’d talk to God and share my woes.

We live in an age when notions of “spirit” or “spirituality” are often presumed irreconcilable with a scientific (otherwise, true, real, accurate) understanding of the world. Such ideas reflect a “materialist” worldview—the belief that human life and experience are ultimately reduced to nothing more than the material effects of our molecular and chemical components. Continue reading “Rediscovering the Wonder”

Unreasonable Faith

Your will not mine is my sacrifice.

There was a time when my faith was framed in rose colored glasses. I—like many others—did not understand how important disillusionment, suffering, and delayed answers would be for healthy faith. While Christian faith normally begins when we first dedicate our lives to Christ, it is easy to forget that what took place was only just that … a beginning. On that day we began the journey of learning how to surrender our lives to Christ.  Continue reading “Unreasonable Faith”

Desperate for Change

The next several weeks of blogs will be based on our most recent animated reading. To see the full text of the poem or watch the video, click here.

Change me O Lord, every part …

Just as in the voting booth so too in our personal faith … the greatest force for change begins not at the highest levels of leadership but in the hearts of ordinary people. When national change is needed we tend to look to heroes and leaders while often failing to take serious the incredible potential for change we already carry within us. The kind of change our country needs will not occur until—as Christ followers—we first become desperate for God to change us. Continue reading “Desperate for Change”

Gratitude Changes Everything

This is our privilege – through us blows his sound.

Gratitude is a quality we often assume we’ll have when we finally get what we want. Yet, time and again, rather than grateful, we find ourselves frustrated and disillusioned after the gaining of our goods. Like any other virtue, gratitude requires the intentional investment of time, energy, and resource. The grateful heart has learned to slow down and resist the restless urge of more in order to cultivate the necessary space needed to appreciate what has already been given. Yes, the change we need begins with gratitude. Continue reading “Gratitude Changes Everything”

Empty Promises

I must soak you and scrub you and scour you smooth – then, only then will you be what I made, an uncluttered channel of My mercy and grace.

Fortunes are risked, friendships jeopardized, and families destroyed when selfishness rules the heart. Whether obvious or hidden, our addiction to self-interest is irrationally stubborn to change … even when it is detrimental to our well-being. Selfishness is deceptive because it promises what it can’t deliver—fulfillment apart from God. Self-centeredness is no respecter of persons. It infects babies, the young, old, rich, poor, bright, and dull. No one is immune to this deceptive vice. Continue reading “Empty Promises”

Hijacked by Doubt

For the sealing of its holes made it sadly deceived, claiming the echo inside was the real thing indeed.

Have you ever felt totally confident and content one moment and the very next, overwhelmed with uncertainty? How is this possible? You’ve been hijacked by doubt. Such ambushing is especially true in our relationships because doubt challenges the very trust on which they are built. This is the story of the flute and I think it is often ours as well. As Christians, the festering question takes root in our hearts and threatens our faith, “Is God really enough?” Continue reading “Hijacked by Doubt”

Called to Indulge?

The next several weeks of blogs will be based on the animated reading posted last week. To see the full text of the poem or watch the video again, click here.

In seeking to possess what it never could own the flute lost the life that once it had known.

The grass is greener on the other side … so we tell ourselves. Why do we struggle so much to be satisfied with what we have? I’m not talking about resigning ourselves to abusive or dead-end circumstances nor denying the importance of hard work to better our lives. I’m addressing the sin—the sickness—of selfishness. Like the flute, we not only love the song … we want to own it. Continue reading “Called to Indulge?”

The Merit Trap

Embrace me not as the unfortunate place of the unlucky few, a place for others but not for you.

After we lost our baby girl, Isabella, I remember thinking, “This shouldn’t happen to us. We’ve devoted our lives to God. We’re good people … we don’t deserve this.” I was stunned that God allowed it … and angry He hadn’t intervened. Continue reading “The Merit Trap”

Surrender

Last week we emphasized the importance of knowing the purpose and limits of cultural Christianity. When Christians fail to gain such knowledge, they set themselves up for great confusion and disappointment… expecting something of their faith it isn’t able to deliver. This week we consider the vast difference between cultural and biblical Christianity. Continue reading “Surrender”