Renewing Faith │ Restoring Hope
Love eternal, love divine –always present, rarely observed.
Many times, what we desire most is right before our eyes. Such blindness is revealed time and again from the most successful to the least accomplished. Simply put, people regularly fail to see and appreciate the blessings they’ve already been given. Continue reading “Blind No More”
A world within a world slips into sight . . . .
Few things strengthen Christian faith more than seeing God at work in one’s life. Likewise, few things weaken faith more than failing to recognize such divine activity. Spiritual vision is so vital for Christian faith that I don’t think it is possible to overemphasize its importance. Yet, such vision does not come without a cost. For most of us, we pay through the sacrifice of stillness. Continue reading “Unveiling the Eyes of Faith”
Awkward silence succumbs to comfortable quietness.
I love stillness. When I find it and remain there long enough it changes me. When before I had been anxious, I there find peace. When previously confused, I then find clarity. When I enter with discouragement, I leave with hope. I have reaped so many blessings from this humble little gift. Continue reading “Remembering Stillness, Reclaiming Silence”
The next several weeks of blogs will be based on the animated reading posted last week. To see the full text of Kairos or watch the video, click here.
Troubled traveler seeking solutions – thoughts racing, heart pounding, body exhausted.
I thought my world was caving in and I feared my sanity was starting to crumble. My normal ways of coping were failing and I was losing control of my life. So I retreated to the one place where I had always found solace in difficult times past—the wooded outdoors. Only this time it was different . . . very different. In Kairos, I try to capture a sense of this unexpected divine encounter and its impact upon my life. Continue reading “New Thinking, New Faith”
This week we launch our eighth animated reading. The next five weeks of blog posts will draw from themes in this poem. If you like the video, please share with others.
Troubled traveler seeking solutions –
Thoughts racing, heart pounding, noisy life’s
Questions demanding answers, body exhausted. Continue reading “Animated Reading: Kairos”
Then we will laugh and joyfully sing as we dance on the ground of this ruinous drawing.
Like it or not, disappointment plays an important role in our journey of faith. Our reaction to disappointment offers a window into the quality of our devotion to God. It reveals how committed we actually are while dispelling inaccurate ideas of a more unwavering faith. Unfortunately, in our zeal to follow Jesus we often profess a kind of surrender we really don’t yet know very much about. But how can we? This is the way of faith. Our growth is progressive. Continue reading “The Transforming Fires of Disappointment”
In the wind His voice is now drawing . . .
I am not alone; you are not alone. God takes companionship seriously. We serve a God fiercely committed to those who trust him with their lives. Whether we are in the heights of elation, the depths of despair, or somewhere in between we are never beyond his reach or distant from his thoughts (Psalm 139:7-12). Continue reading “Never Alone”
We must always take heart and never despair when houses fall down and castles collapse.
We live in a world where seeing is believing. Reality is physically tangible . . . molecules and particles, and that’s all. To base one’s life on anything else is simply nonsense . . . so we’re told. In many ways we are culturally predisposed against Christian faith and a worldview that has anything to do with spirituality. Yet, here we are, confessors of a faith that asks us to surrender our lives to a God we can’t see and to forsake a life devoted to pleasures and personal gain that surround us every day. Continue reading “The Necessity of Conviction”
His hammer of mercy came crashing right down.
Many people who yearn for a deeper and more relevant faith often fail to realize such hopes because of their inability to reconcile their faith with their experiences of suffering and loss. Suffering strikes at the heart of our faith because we wonder how God would possibly allow such affliction upon those who’ve trusted him with their lives. If we’re not careful, this question of theodicy (why an all-powerful and all-loving God allows suffering) will literally strangle our faith. Continue reading “When Faith Feels Unwarranted”
The next several weeks of blogs will be based on our most recent animated reading, “A Ruinous Drawing.” Click here to see the full text and here to watch the video.
I used to be fine, strong and secure.
The “illusion of control” is the propensity to overestimate our ability to control life events. It presumes that given enough resources, patience, and understanding we can craft the kind of life we desire. Scripture, however says something very different about the nature of control: “The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps” (Proverbs 16:9). Continue reading “Facing the Illusion of Control”
