Loneliness distorts our inwards selves. It matters not whether we are in on the company of others or not, loneliness creates an emptiness within us. We are restless within ourselves, never at peace, never at home. Yet instead of drawing us closer to another, loneliness distorts our experience of community. It inevitably drives us away from others.
Faith
Who is your “Joshua”?
Who is the Joshua in your life? Who is the person that you can support in their faith development, or their experience of ministry? Who can you invite to join you as you journey in faith? This may seem like a tall task, but in truth, it doesn’t have to be.
Listen More, Do Less: An Advent Rhythm
The season of Advent, with its slowness and simplicity, calls us to a radical action of stepping away from the noise so that we can be attentive to a deeper voice. We turn away from the jingles so that we can hear the words of the of one who created us and comes to us in love and grace.
Listening to Jethro
God doesn’t want you to live your spiritual life in private exhaustion. Like Moses, you may tell yourself that “it all rests on me”, or that “I’m the only one who can do this”, but that is simply not true. The truth is, a reluctance to allow anyone to come along side you will, eventually, work against your spiritual vitality. It will leave you spiritually depleted and exhausted.
Responding to Rejection
Why do we give such credence to one negative comment rather than a plethora of encouraging statements? Logically we know this shouldn't be the case. We know we should rest in encouragement and love rather than in negativity. But we can’t always guard against rejecting comments, and when they come, they shake us in the deepest part of our soul.
A Blog about Prayer….part deux
If prayer occurs amidst an ordinary and distraction-laden life, then the apt question is, “How might we include these distractions into our prayers? Rather than treating each interruption as something that rips us away from Jesus, how might we embrace these distractions, even transform them, as tools for our devotion?
A Blog about Prayer
If we think this that prayer can only occur when all is quiet, we inevitably find ourselves viewing every hiccup or distraction as a negation or prayer. And once prayer is negated by interruption, it’s easily abandoned. We end up reserving prayer for those special times when no one is around, and all is silent.
God Bless the Incompetent
Ministry isn’t about competency or prowess; it’s not about maximizing our endeavors or achieving some ever-increasing public recognition. In the life of faith, we never rise above our own frailty. In fact, the places where we feel foolish, weak turned-around, or less-than, may be where God’s blessings are most fully revealed.
Beyond Pass or Fail.
In the life of faith, we sometimes use the language of “testing” to describe God’s interactions in our lives. We might even say something like “God’s not troubling you, He’s testing you”, to describe life’s difficulties. But have you every wondered what we mean when we talk about God testing us? Is God the heavenly equivalent to a disgruntled driving instructor?
Divine Discomfort
Ever year, on the Thursday before Easter, the church gathers to hear the account of the Last Supper, and to re-enact the washing of the disciples’ feet. As priest of the parish, I kneel with a towel in my lap. One by one, people come forward for me to wash their feet. It’s a dramatic moment, spiritually rich, and packed with meaning. But let’s be honest, it’s also uncomfortable.
Reverend Kyle Norman 