So, are you addicted to answers? To not be, is the exception because we live in a culture that depends on this addiction. In the fields of science, business, finance, education, and the like, answers are essential for success. Answers to problems and challenges serve as road maps to accomplishment and wealth. Therefore, answers are cherished resources and to be without them jeopardizes ones success. Continue reading “Faith, A Radical Mindset”
Category: Hope
Addicted to Answers
I don’t know when it happened but one day I began associating faith with answers—strong faith = strong answers. I never would have admitted it but when I prayed and didn’t get my answers, I was plagued by fear, doubt, and anxiety. Continue reading “Addicted to Answers”
The Gift of Disillusionment
I was a 23 year-old youth pastor feeling the winds of transition blowing across my life. Not knowing the “what” or “where” of my new season, I began praying for direction. Soon afterwards, I met a missionary who invited me to join him in some exciting work he was doing in Mexico. Believing this was an answer to prayer, I accepted the invitation, said goodbye to my family—not knowing when I would return—and boarded a plane for Monterrey, Mexico. Continue reading “The Gift of Disillusionment”
Emoticon Spirituality
Emoticons… at the click of a keystroke emotional transparency has never been easier! 🙂 If only this were true. ): Unfortunately, humans struggle with emotional honesty. Not unlike the use of emoticons, we can be too quick or slow to admit our true emotional state, especially in our relationship with God. Today we’ll look at what it means to be honest with God about our emotions and how this directly relates to hope. Continue reading “Emoticon Spirituality”
Choosing Your Desperation
How can theodicy questions lead us closer to God? They foster desperation because the answers to such questions will never be fully grasped this side of the grave. Our suffering and others’ suffering will always be shrouded by the mystery of “Why”? It is at this dead-end where our response will take us either to a place of earthly desperation – resulting in hopelessness, depression, and exasperation – or to a place of holy desperation – resulting in faith, hope, and confidence in God. Desperation (earthly or holy) always involves the feeling of hopelessness. Continue reading “Choosing Your Desperation”
Theodicy and the Silence of God
Why does God allow suffering? If he is all powerful and good, why do grief and hopelessness run so freely upon the earth? Why does God not end the cycles of abuse, violence, hatred, and evil that wreak havoc in this world? These questions reflect the theological mystery called theodicy. Continue reading “Theodicy and the Silence of God”
Rethinking Desperation
Desperate for God? Why the word desperate? It’s so… extreme… intense… emotional. In American culture, “desperation” stirs up images of emotionally distressed individuals pleading with another to give over something craved. One is also struck with images of desperate poverty, hunger, or overwhelming hopelessness. Often such desperate ones are the butt of jokes, avoided in social settings, and seen as socially unstable. What good could possibly come from such a belittled disposition?
Despite these impressions of desperation, I will recast this attitude from the perspective of faith and show how it is actually critical to our renewing of faith and restoring of hope. Continue reading “Rethinking Desperation”