With Gifts Like These, Who Needs Enemies?

I will soon write a post about the opposite of gentle and quiet (vexing and contentious, if you must know… for more about gentle and quiet, see The True Christian Woman: A Gentle and Quiet Spirit ),  but I just wrote a devotion for my church that I thought possibly worth posting.
Whether or not it helps you, [...]

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The Journey to My Holiday

Now I am about to take a detour to discuss the positive things that appear to be happening on my journey to find that Holiday at Sea.
Bet you can’t wait…
At the end of August, I attended a week-long seminar/school called NextStep. This course follows Larry Crabb’s School of Spiritual Direction (which teaches how to have spiritually forming conversations). The second course helps [...]

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More Dusky Hour Reflections…

In my last post (My Dusky Hour of the Soul), I discussed some passages from Tim Farrington’s A Hell of Mercy.
I’d like to share another here, a passage that really resonated with me in this time of wondering and waiting…
 What the dark night shows us, through the intensely resisted revelation of our spiritual bankruptcy, is that we [...]

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My Dusky Hour of the Soul

 My husband recently listened to St. John of the Cross’ Dark Night of the Soul on his iPod.
After hearing the description of this phase of spiritual growth, I’m not sure I can claim to be passing through the Dark Night. But what about the Dusky Hour?
Since I lost my job, I’ve not posted for two reasons:

I’ve [...]

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How Bad Can it Get?? Apparently Worse…

Ok, I notice my stats are down, so it’s time for another post.
Here’s the background to this particular post:
Hate my job. Husband out of work several years. Both of us looking for jobs. Neither of us finding anything. Economy sucks. No jobs out there. Feeling trapped. Etc., etc. So, we don’t need any more trouble…
I did have a [...]

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Advice on Advice

The other night I shared my pain with a group of friends.  It wasn’t the night I hit the wall, but the same issues led me to a pit the day this group met. I was severely low when I shared.
So, what do you think I got in response to my pain?
Advice.
Yep, advice and a lecture [...]

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Suffering Alongside of Me

I hit the wall last week. I had a meltdown. Stresses and unresolved (maybe never resolved?) issues and fear of the future immobilized me. I wrote about it in last week’s post: I Hit the Wall Tonight.
I ended up having conversations with two friends and a counselor the day after that helped greatly. (I also got two very encouraging [...]

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The Contradiction of Christmas

Isn’t it amazing that so many people celebrate the birth of Jesus, yet reject Jesus himself? How weird is that? Even those who  accept Jesus might unwittingly reject the Jesus of the Bible:
·      The Jesus of the Bible was born in a stable, not a 6 BR house with 3.5 baths
·      The Jesus of the [...]

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There’s Adultery Among Us

Our small group had a discussion about idolatry a while back.
We are studying a great book about Revelation: Discipleship on the Edge by Darrell W. Johnson. Johnson points out how the book of Revelation reflects the Biblical theme that the church is the bride of Christ. Our group discussed Johnson’s point that every time we [...]

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The Root of All Evil

The root of all evil.  They say it’s money (don’t they?).  Or if you talk about what’s the foundational sin, the root of all sins, the sin underneath our outward acts of sin, they say it’s pride.
Pride.
Well, I don’t buy it.
What is pride, anyway? When I try and connect the word pride with some of my sin patterns, [...]

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A Poem That Really Moves Me

Holy Sonnets XIV  (by John Donne, pictured below)
 
BATTER my heart, three person’d God; for, you
As yet but knocke, breathe, shine, and seeke to mend;
That I may rise, and stand, o’erthrow mee, ‘and bend
Your force, to breake, blowe, burn and make me new.
I, like an usurpt towne, to’another due,
Labour to’admit you, but Oh, to no end,
Reason [...]

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Taking a Hiatus

Greetings, any wanderers who stop by these parts.  I haven’t written or even visited my blog or WordPress for 2 weeks.  Haven’t even checked the stats!!
I do have two more “doubt” installments I’d like to share, but something has come up that pretty much stopped me in my tracks.
Panic attacks.
I am not sure what’s going on with me. [...]

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Without a Doubt?

Am I without a doubt? Not quite, yet. But, my doubts are not quite as strong as they were. 
It is really odd for me to pray and not be entirely sure that there’s someone on the other end of the line. I have been encouraged to hear from many folks who struggle with doubt. It seems [...]

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More About Doubt

I sort of feel this responsibility to keep posting about this issue, especially for those who come to my blog and may start to question their own faith by what I have written elsewhere: Doubting Less, but Not Doubtless and Doubting at Last.
A few things have crossed my mind these past days. I’ll share them in a series [...]

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Doubting Less, but Not Doubtless

I am very grateful for the comments many of you left after my post: ”Doubting at Last.” Your stories were quite helpful.
I am serious when I say the online community I’ve met since I started blogging often counters by its maturity (not as in, “I am mature,” but as in “I have no idea if I am even [...]

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