spiritual formation Archives

7 Steps to Help Those who Ruminate.

Sometimes I think I am like a cow. I ruminate over things, chewing my thoughts this way and that. Trying to extract something good out of them. Much of my life I have worked on farms, I even have a University Degree in Agriculture. I humorously call this my first […]

Mental health Relationships Spiritual Formation

Let’s Rethink the Word ‘Boundary’

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I struggle with the word ‘Boundary.’ Not because I don’t believe in the concept of boundaries or because I don’t think they are important. It’s just that the word ‘Boundary’ doesn’t convey any sense of relationship value. The word ‘boundary’ feels like it’s all about the one making the boundary […]

Spiritual Formation

Too much Traffic in your Mind? Try Journaling

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Sometimes my thinking feels like it’s in a traffic jam. An impatient traffic jam. Journaling can unclutter mental health confusion. Horns tooting, temperatures are rising, gridlock. Just too many neurons are firing off! One of my favorite artists, Bruce Cockburn, captures it well in his song Five Fifty-One Knots in […]

Spiritual Formation

How To Create A ‘Pool Room’

‘This is going straight into the pool room’. We all need a place to put our encouragements. Where is yours? Classic Australian comedy and especially loved by us Kiwis watching our ‘across the ditch’ neighbours making fun of themselves. All of Dad’s most prized possessions are in the Pool Room. […]

Spiritual Practices

With No Dark Corners – an Invitation to Holiness

Confession – One of my favorite shows is Ice road Truckers. In a recent show there were mouse droppings scattered all over the floor of the Kenworth truck of Ice Road Trucker Rick. He was unwell and had potentially Hanta Virus. The truck was quarantined and one serious […]

6 Markers of Mentally Healthy Spirituality

Mental health Spiritual Formation

6 Markers of Healthy Spirituality for Mental Health

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What would a Mentally Healthy Spirituality look like? Over my life, I have been involved in many different styles of Christian denominational expression, or Ice Cream flavors as I like to say. Staid conservative Bible fundamentalism, ‘swinging from the chandeliers’ Pentecostalism, social justice activism, and many other ice cream flavors. […]

Mental health Relationships Spiritual Formation

You Want to be Known but …

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To be known is to be pursued, examined, and shaken. To be known is to be pursued, examined, and shaken. To be known is to be loved and to have hopes and even demands placed on you. It is to risk, not only the furniture in your home being rearranged, but […]

Poetry Spiritual Formation

Never Borrow Sorrow from Tomorrow

Never Borrow Sorrow from Tomorrow Deal only with the present — never step into tomorrow, For God asks us just to trust Him and to never borrow sorrow, For the future is not ours to know, and it may never be, So let us live and give our best and […]

Spiritual Formation

4 Joys to Grasp when your ‘Hands are Tied’

It can be frustrating when your ‘hands are tied’. ‘My hands are tied’ is an idiom that means that you are unable to act or behave in a certain way because something is constraining you. There is no freedom. ‘I would love to raise your salary but my hands are […]

Spiritual Practices

P.L.O.M. (Poor Little Old Me)

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It’s an acronym I learnt this week from All is Grace, Brennan Manning’s memoir. He was describing his time in a rehab facility for his alcoholism when he received feedback from his fellow alcoholics in a peer review worksheet. I SEE YOU USING THE FOLLOWING DIVERSIONS TO KEEP FROM DEALING […]