Are you ready to create the habit of depending on God, whatever the circumstance?
Tag: Suffering
Aaron Duvall ~ Wrestling with God
I affirmed something that I had said, from the pulpit no less, hundreds if not thousands of times. Something I had quoted in hospital rooms, promised to dying people, swore to college students during pastoral care times, and clung to during some of my darkest and scariest moments. Yet, as I was staring at my wife, who three days before had been diagnosed with what we were told was Stage 3 breast cancer, I no longer had his praise in my lungs, or on my lips.
Aaron Perry ~ A Grief in Birth
I am now learning to grieve. And my Dad isn’t here to teach me. C.S. Lewis noted after the death of his wife that he didn’t know grief felt so much like fear. The fear I have is that I won’t grieve – or that I won’t grieve well. I have had my tears, but what is grief supposed to look like? How will I know I’ve grieved?
Elizabeth Glass Turner ~ The Pain of Misalignment: God and the Disordered Body
“We are not only impoverished in love; our loves are disordered, out of alignment. We can attempt to cushion them as much as we want; only realigning misplaced joints will relieve the pain, though.”
Tammie Grimm ~ Repeat the Sounding Joy
As Christians, we bear the light and allow it to shine through us so it may be offered to a world hungry for reconciliation and peace. We offer it to one another when times get rough and the waiting gets long. Sometimes, it gets so very long and can feel very desperate. Our response as Christians is not to brush the wait and darkness aside with simplistic answers and sound bite advice. We are not supposed to solve the problems others face but step into the darkness with others, offering the light we possess that Christ offered us. That is the participation we are called to during Christmas. O come, all you faithful ones.
Elizabeth Glass Turner ~ Transaction vs Transformation: The Nature of Blessing
Recently, I noted someone online putting forward the idea that God blesses organizations, traditions, or denominations depending on their public positions on certain topics,…
Suzanne Nicholson ~ Suffering through Thanksgiving
This is the time of year when advertisements inundate us with images of happy families gloriously celebrating the holidays. Women in velvet dresses clink…
Aaron Perry ~ The Troubled Savior
“Do not let your hearts be troubled” (John 14:1-31). Imagine how the disciples are feeling in this moment. Jesus has just predicted Peter’s denial…
Aaron Perry ~ The One You Love Is Sick
My Dad was diagnosed about six weeks before we were to move. We suspected for a while that he was sick, but didn’t know…
Tom Fuerst ~ Mothers, Sons and the Crucifix
From the seven depictions of Christ’s crucifixion story, to the mother of Jesus holding her infant son as she stretched out her arms to the weeping worshipper, the entire chapel was an invitation to see our sufferings – our very humanity – in light of the fact that neither Jesus nor Mary were exempt from suffering, pain, or death.