Making a home in hostile places

In early November I returned to Arizona for a couple of days. On my drive from Phoenix to Tucson I had some revelatory moments. I share them here. There are no safe places. True peace is never of the world. I’m learning that my life has been about escaping all the ties that bind myContinue

Sermon: Family Matters – Present

Family Matters – Present
Has there ever been an ideal Biblical family?

The First Family: Adam and Eve raised a murderer
God eventually had a do-over with humanity
The Second First Family: Noah’s son, Ham, raped his mother while his father was passed out drunk next to her

You speak either truth or falsehood.

God says that He will fight our battles, but He also calls us to be present for the battles. We have to physically prepare. He does not send us into battle unprepared which means we will have many skirmishes. We have to show up. We can’t fight if we aren’t present. We have to believe – have faith – that He will deliver us as victors in the battles He has placed us in. Without faith it is impossible to please God, ergo to do anything for Him (Hebrews 11:6). If we choose not to show up, not to prepare, not to believe, then we have removed ourselves from the battle and from the possibility of victory. {Click to read full post.}

Thank You, Lord.

Thank You, Lord.
{Click to read post.}

Reaching for the Real by Gwen Smith

When I need soul-strength, nourishment, that will get me through the next few minutes, hours and days, it is vital that I go to the living source. To the unending power, perspective, and portion of Jesus.

To God be the Glory

I didn’t think I had any appreciation for the darkness until I began to explore the illusion of my own invisibility. I could sit back and watch life happen to others. I could give myself time to sulk over my wounds. I could plan and fantasize about a more perfect tomorrow… thereby minimizing the triumphs and worries of today.

When did I begin to believe the lies about me? When did I first believe, like a memory, the false image of what my life would be? When did I stop appreciating my own power? When did I stop recognizing my own beauty? Wonder of wonders, I am here! Of all the impossibilities in the world, I have developed a voice that has cowed and destroyed demons attached to my life and banned them from my present and my future. Of all the unthinkable happenings in the world, a neglected and forgotten girl-child grew into a fiercely independent and productive woman who seeks to love and nurture those in her care. {Click to read the full post.}

When Truth Destroys

Then I thought of how each of those relationships would probably still be as superficially satisfying and emotionally frustrating as ever had I held my tongue and worn the mask of false communion that so many keep in place as if their lives depend on others believing in their shallowness or trusting in their vanity. I mourned each of these relationships – family and friend. It was never my desire to come to the end of people. {Click to read the full post.}

I asked to be a lover…

I didn’t comprehend the magnitude of what I was asking. I thought I was ready to love. I thought I was ready for love to work through me. I thought all I needed to do was be a willing vessel… remain open… offer myself – my humanity – and my resources… and give what is needed when it’s needed. I thought the resistance to love would only be temporary – so short term as to be unremarkable. I thought the ugliest rejection I would encounter would be “no, thank you.” {Click the link to read full article.}

…and the people said “HELL NO!”

The world teaches that love is a soft thing – warm, cuddly, tender, weak. Perhaps those who bask in the labor of someone else’s love experiences warmth and softness, but those who labor to love… well we weather tempestuous storms, debilitating uncertainty and endure heart-breaking on-the-job training. We don’t immediately see the benefits of the humiliation, shame, loneliness, sadness, abuse or temptations that hammer at us throughout the workday. But when we get to a certain point on our walk, we are able to look back and see where one humiliation prepared us for the next until humiliation was no longer a concern. We see how shame shrouded us in darkness until we decided to cast off the weight of shame and expose ourselves to more light. We can look back and see how loneliness felt excruciating for a time, but it was only in our aloneness that we were able to draw closer to God.

Singleness is not the prize.

The last eight years of my life have been a continual pursuit of truth and life. The most prominent truth I have held onto is: “It is not good for man to be alone (Genesis 2:18).” These words are attributed to God during His process of creating humanity. I understand this statement to mean that it is not good for woman to be alone either.