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Serious heartbreak
The past 9-10 years have opened up so much spiritually for me. The hardest has been spiritual disappointment, which has led to more determination from me to go deeper with God and walk away from a lot of “form without the power.” Still… the heartbreak is there. This week’s OT passage from Isaiah captures this powerfully. It is difficult to…
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The bass note of our lives
I am working my way through Leif Enger’s newest book, I Cheerfully Refuse. Enger writes beautifully and captures a slow pace I enjoy at times when reading novels. (I am not good at reading fiction so unless there is a race against a bomb going off or the main character is about to be the next victim, I’m not good…
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The serious pursuit of Christ
I have some deep questions driving me right now. I want Christ formed in me. Not just in me… because I believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ and he didn’t do all this for me alone. He is about the business of redeeming and reclaiming the world. This I believe.
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Our deep need is to be spiritually formed
“Spiritual formation” is the process through which those who love and trust Jesus Christ effectively take on His character. When this process is what it should be, they increasingly live their lives as He would if He were in their place. Their outward conformity to His example and His instructions rises toward fullness as their inward sources of action take…
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Shout hallelujah
The moments of change often slip by unnoticed. There isn’t a “big healing.” There isn’t a great time of prayer and then you “hear the voice of God.” There are moments, though. They go almost unnoticed. Yet, you look back and realize, “That was it! That was the time!” There is a moment in Luke 10 where Jesus shouted with…
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The messy kingdom
The gospel of Jesus Christ is more political than anyone imagines, but in a way that no one guesses… The political metaphor, “kingdom,” insists on a gospel that includes everything and everyone under the rule of God. God is no religious glow to warm a dark night. Christ is no esoteric truth with which to form a gnostic elite. The…
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Be still
The verse has always, in my mind, been focused on me. I realize I forget to read my own notes. He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” (Ps. 46:10, NIV)
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The cultivated presence of God
This trip back through Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton has been slower. I’ve picked it up to read just a few pages, then put it down for awhile as I pondered something or I went back to reading other material. This past week I was walking through a difficult spiritual battle and picked up Merton again to read just…
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The aching remains
There’s a statue of JesusOn a monastery knollIn the hills of KentuckyAll quiet and coldHe’s kneeling in the gardenAs silent as a stoneAll his friends are sleepingAnd He’s weeping all aloneAnd the man of all sorrowsHe never forgotWhat sorrow is carriedBy the hearts that he boughtSo when the questions dissolveInto the silence of GodThe aching may remainBut the breaking does…
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The unshakable kingdom
We fear the apocalypse. We fear “decline” as Americans. We fear “losing our culture.” In general, we fear endings. Somehow we want to live in the dream of always upward in a world that always has the same result: all empires fade.
