Faith Archives

Look at the Birds of the Air. Help with Your Anxiety

Look at the birds of the air. Break the “magnetic” grip of anxiety. Discover how looking at and considering nature can ground your brain in providence. Anxiety can be like a magnet. It can grab your attention and hold it in its grip. This energy of focus can exhaust […]

Faith & Mental Health

No More Penance to Pay

I keep trying to get things right, but there’s no more penance to pay. It’s all been taken care of. I woke up the other morning with this phrase running through my head. ‘No more penance to pay’ What does this word ‘penance’ mean? Penance comes from the Latin […]

Faith & Mental Health

Do you Feel You Have to Try Harder?

They wanted me to try harder. But when you’re in a dark hole of depression, or you don’t have the skills, energy, or even understanding, it can feel like yet another stone of struggle to carry. Confusion reigns, and the self-loathing chatter begins. It cycles around and around in the […]

Faith & Mental Health

A Church for the Little Ones

Perhaps it’s the little ones where we should give our focus. What would a church for the ‘little ones’ look like? There is a church that I drive past most weeks, and as I do, my heart sinks. Years ago, I went into this church building several times and […]

Spiritual Formation Spiritual Practices

Slippery memory? Create a Logbook

I have a slippery memory. Memories of the good can slip away, but having a habit of recording the good can change our thinking in wonderful ways. My mother kept a red ledger book in one of the kitchen drawers, and it kept her. It kept her grounded in the […]

Spiritual Formation Spiritual Practices

I Don’t Believe in Luck

Some people believe in luck; I don’t. I believe in wisdom and work, empowered with faith to build a boat that catches providential wind. I remember the first time I bought a lottery ticket. I’ve only ever done this twice. I remember all the thoughts that raged around in me. […]

Spiritual Formation Spiritual Practices

Leaning into Providence

Sometimes I feel alone in the struggle, but when listen deep I sense a providence. A providence I can lean into. It was the strangest thing I have experienced in a dog’s behaviour. Our family once had a dog that leaned. He could come alongside you, cross his legs […]

Spiritual Practices

Stringing Pearls for The Delight of Heaven

We could rake the muck forever, but what about stringing pearls? What will bring the delight of heaven to full song? I recently watched someone restringing a necklace of pearls. With mindful precision, a fine silk cord was taken and inserted through the pearls with a small needle. A […]

Faith & Mental Health

How to Pray for a Narcissist: 10 Ways

I want to pray, but don’t know how. How to Pray for a Narcissist. It begins with honesty. It prays for light. Can a narcissist change? That’s a question many people ask. But it’s much like that old joke about psychologists changing a lightbulb. How many psychologists does it […]

Faith & Mental Health

Satan: The Perfect Narcissist

What does perfect narcissism look like? We can see it in the evil of Satan. I read a list the other day about the characteristics of those with narcistic personality disorder. Grandiose Sense of Self-Importance: They believe they are superior and special, deserving of exceptional treatment and recognition. Exploitative […]