Being caught in a trap was felt by the poet who wrote ‘The Snares of Death Encompassed Me’, but they had a way out. I was recently watching one of those ‘survival’ reality T.V. shows where people are thrown into the wilderness and they have to survive. The show […]
spiritual formation
114 posts
The practices of your week and day may drain your life, but what practices restore your soul? ‘Oh, that’s so good for the soul’ Sometimes I hear people say that. Sometimes I say it myself. It’s that moment when you feel a restoring of something drained out of you. You […]
I want lived truth. Truth that will help me in my everyday life, but so much of what I receive is unlived truth. Please stop trafficking unlived truth. I’m trying to limit my contact with a lot of unlived truth. Open up social media and most of its fluff and […]
They were stuck. Stuck in a Stage of Faith, but with help and gentle curiosity, they were able to take that next step towards wholeness. It was like the someone had turned on the lights in their thinking. They looked at me in absolute shock while I was explaining some […]
Many things go into the shaping of one’s life. ‘I am a product of long corridors, empty sunlit rooms’ says C.S. Lewis. What are you the product of? Mathematics wasn’t my strongest topic at school, but somewhere in the deep recesses of my mind I recall the term ‘product’. […]
When your world is a mess, it may seem lonely, but God is always holding us. I am held by something far bigger than myself. Currently, you are travelling at a speed of about 1,000 miles (1600 kilometers) per hour. That is the speed of the rotation of the earth. You don’t […]
We place value on things such as beauty, strength, power and riches, but there is something more valuable. I want wisdom more than silver, gold, and rubies. I couldn’t believe it. I was doing some research for this post and found that there is a website where you can measure […]
It’s a noisy world with lots of stressors wanting our attention, but there is a still small voice longing to be heard, so quiet yourself and listen. I have a pendulum clock on a bookshelf near me. Yesterday, I noticed the pendulum was swinging back and forth freely, but now […]
Something was wrapped over them. A shroud. But there is a waiting to be found and a rich party to one day be found. There was something draped over them, or at least that was it felt like. A shroud. What’s a shroud? It’s something that envelopes or obscures. […]
I haven’t lived a perfect life and I wonder if my problems are punishment from God, but maybe I don’t know the whole story and that God is overflowingly full of grace and mercy. They wanted retribution. Payback. A desire for revenge coursed through their veins for what had happened […]
There are times when I have doubts. I question God, and I wonder. But over the years, I have built up a memorial of stones that reassure my soul. I have questions. I have doubts. Places in my thinking where I question what I have taken to be true. Evidence […]
One tough moment after another can bring you to the question, ‘Does God hate me’? But I want to know more, so I sit with those at the coal face and grow in my knowing. No one knows coal like a coal miner. I could go to a scientist and […]
Life can go on and on from day to day, but when we stop to notice little moments of delight, something profound can begin to grow—hope, joy, and thankfulness. Bible stories come alive. For me, there is nothing quite like sinking my teeth into a perfectly ripe Black Doris plum […]
Fear can be like a shadow creeping up and over you, but what do you fear the most? Understanding what you fear the most can bring assurance. It was a simple wire bridge on a confidence course. Not very high, the three-wire bridge was a challenge for some and not […]
Like a steady stream, a diet of words can shape us in ways unintended, but what if we had someone feed us good words? Perhaps then the heart would find a new course to flow from. As she climbed a couple of lectern steps to read the passage, I wondered […]
So many good things go unnoticed, but when we learn to take in the good and let it nourish, then our whole direction of a life can change. My neighbors have some small children. Yesterday, while walking in the garden, one of the little boys ran up to me to […]
We are happy to accept good from God, but what about trouble? There is something deeper available when we center on clinging to God. As a gardener, I work in all kinds of weather. Rain, sun, and wind – both light and strong. In the extremes, I complain. The furnace […]
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 […]