I want to thank you for responding to my post about feeling God’s love. You were so honest in how you described your feelings of discouragement, and the deep wrestling that are undergoing. My heart grieved for you when I read that you have not felt God’s love for over a decade.
Spiritual Formation
When You Fear Deconstruction
Deconstruction unmoors us, it leaves us drifting aimlessly through our questions and struggles. Yet these questions or struggles are rarely answered or addressed; rather, they are displaced or abandoned.. . .But what do you do if you don’t want to deconstruct your faith?
Asking Questions: A spiritual practice for Discouragement and beyond. (A guest post by Kandi Zeller)
In our culture of certainty, questions can seem threatening and unnatural. By contrast, Jesus spent much of his ministry asking questions and challenging assumptions. The sheer volume of these questioning instances in the Gospels should encourage us: if we are to be formed in the image of Christ (Romans 8:29), might we sometimes be formed by asking questions?
A Light in our Darkness
The life of faith isn’t always straightforward and clear. There are times when life seems to zig when we wanted it to zag; where suddenly the path before us disappears, and we find ourselves feeling stranded and alone. But the light of God’s loving mercy shines upon us no matter how dark things appear.
Misreading Jesus
There is a scene in Luke’s gospel where Peter denies Jesus three times. Immediately following his denials, Peter sees Jesus turn and “looked straight at him” (Luke 22:61). I have often seen this scene through the lens of rebuke. I have pictured Jesus giving Peter a stare of disappointment. Perhaps the faint whisper of “Oh Behave!” can be heard coming from Christ’s lips. When we view Jesus’ gaze this way, it becomes easy to assume that this is how Jesus looks at us.
The Blessing of Goodbye: A guest post by Reverend Theo Robinson
Saying goodbye is never easy. And some goodbyes are harder than others. But no matter how painful, saying goodbye is important. A lack of a goodbye can feel like unfinished business while the opportunity to say goodbye can be extremely healing
The Blessing of a boring Psalm.
Psalm 136 isn’t one of the popular psalms. In fact, if there was ever an award for the most boring of psalms, I’m confident it would go to Psalm 136. The psalm comes across as pedantic, dry, and frankly, a bit uninspired. At first glance, it offers nothing more than a broad retelling of Israel’s history. And if that weren’t enough, every other line in the psalm is the same. That’s right, the psalm repeats the same statement 26 times. It is this repeated verse, however, which is significant.
Jeff Probst is not God
A friend once asked me where God was during his turmoil. He was going through a large upheaval in his life; he couldn’t see anything beyond the obstacles he faced. He felt physically, emotionally, and spiritually exhausted. “Is God even near me in all of this?” he grieved. “No.” I responded.
Searching Rubble for Gold: A guest-post by Sue Fulmore
The legalism, judgementalism, patriarchal systems, and poor Scriptural interpretations all need to be tossed out. As we do so, we also need to guard against tossing out the proverbial baby with them. I would never presume to tell anyone how to go about this process of deconstruction, but I also don’t want us to forget all that is good and worthy of holding onto.
Reverend Kyle Norman 