We trip, fall, and land in the black, but with grace, a friend comes to show a pinpoint of light. I knew what he had done, but I still loved him. I told him I loved him too. He found it hard to take that he was worthy of anyone’s […]
Spiritual Formation
226 posts
We don’ want to be like a barren fig tree, but something has to change. Therefore, we submit to the wisdom of a master gardener. As a gardener, I often go to people’s gardens, and they ask me why a particular fruit tree is not producing fruit. I look over […]
A feeling of being abandoned can be like a cold chill across the soul. But God is always at work, so we need to remind ourselves of this truth. I was recently at the help desk in a large store returning some items, and I noticed a small boy in […]
Does God hate Me or Does God love me? What you think about God will form the patterns of your thinking and life. Oh, that my heart might know a new reassurance. Recently in my conversations with people, I have been giving them three little phrases to meditate on and […]
Does God Hate me? Is God punishing me? Questions like these need gentle and grace-filled responses, so here are twelve questions that I would like to ask and explore. Sometimes, when I listen to people, I hear little comments that bring a sense of sadness to my heart. Some firmly […]
It’s probably easier to give than to receive, but we can’t give what we haven’t already received. How can someone love, when they don’t know what love is? Are you open to receiving love? It was awkward. Plain embarrassing. It was so uncomfortable that they wanted to run from this […]
The only way there is through. To reap a joy, we sow a tear, but it’s work, hard work, so we don’t travel alone. We journey with safe others. I knew there had to be an ocean of loss behind the lifestyle mask they were wearing. For all the stories […]
If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got. Henry Ford. To change, it may feel like you’re driving on the wrong side of the road. It all made sense. I began to understand how the brain changes and that to learn something new […]
Moments of thankfulness often pass us by without acknowledgment. But what might happen if we create a habit of noticing and capturing them. From one thousand gifts to three thousand gifts and counting. This is a Guest Post from Pauline Turnbull. It all began on the 24th of October 2020 […]
Having a Mental Illness can mean you feel very alone, but does being a Christian mean that you’re somehow on the outside? I wouldn’t have noticed it at the time, but a few years ago, I began to look at the shaping influences that happened in my early life, particularly […]
You’re tired, drained, but you can’t find a simple way to restore. So maybe it’s time to cease and savor delight in the little moments. It had been a tough week—full-on giving out. People, work, tasks, energy-draining memories all want a piece of the energy pie. What was leftover were […]
There is a grain or a pattern to our thinking that needs to change, but we are stuck, so God gently comes against the grain and changes it from the inside out. It goes against the grain of self-protection to let someone in, especially when we have been hurt. But […]
There is a self-centeredness to ourselves, a turned/curved inwardness, incurvatus in se, but there is one that shows how to break the gravity, the pull of the curve. There is a pull on me all the time. It’s in the lyrics of the eighties pop hit. What about me, it […]
The change felt good, but they were also afraid of who they might be becoming. Then they learned that they were not alone and to trust the train they were traveling on. It’s always scary when you don’t know what’s on the other side. Who am I becoming? What will […]
Many of us carry secret questions, and we are hungry for answers, but we need someone safe. Someone secure in themselves yet vulnerable to listen well. When the pastor sermonized my personal story, I felt exposed. I was once in a small group in a church, where our Pastor […]
‘I’m not religious’ is something many say, but religion is a place of reconnection and realignment. Good mental health grows in a healthy religious experience. Say the word ‘Religion,’ and you’ll get lots of reactions. The word ‘Religion’ can a springboard to thoughts of rules, regulations, rituals, commitments, vows, attendance […]
Grief and loss are always on the horizon, but we can prepare to grieve well. This can help with the grief we are carrying now. I am pruning roses at the moment. It’s winter here in New Zealand as I write this post, and one of my tasks every winter […]
Life can wear us down, and we question if we are worthy of love. But we need to look to a deeper story going on than feelings of the present. It was gone. Something had gone from them. And they felt it. No longer caring about their appearance, their diet, […]
We have all been a little one, a child, and we stumble, but we can grow from the stumbles, and we can learn new truth and find new hope. I’ve heard many stories of abuse, but some of the worst are when subtle little lies have, with organized precision, been […]
It was a dream, but now it was shattered. Perhaps a new dream was to be discovered, and so we dug deep into what truly mattered. It was happening again. The dream was being shattered. The marriage was over, the pregnancy test was negative, a redundancy letter handed out, and […]