The people who walk through our doors every week have become our family. We are all so different; politically, socially, spiritually (the list could go on and on). But there is something about the table that allows us to put our differences aside and commune.
Dreher’s plan is an “option” for certain people, but certainly not for all. I wonder if, after some of the criticism he has received, Dreher would edit anything from the book. I’d be curious to see what changes he would make if he were ever to rewrite it for a second edition.
I sometimes dream about what it would look like if we could collectively shift from a scarcity/abundance mindset to one that recognizes enough. I don’t know how we can make that shift as a society, unless it is as a change that starts with individuals and families, slowly building to a critical mass.
Our lives will be a song of sincere love towards God and others, a stream of worship that elevates our lives from mere performances of humankind to daily and intentional displays of Christ’s love for and towards God and our neighbor.
My challenge to myself and to you is to ask: How can I be present for someone today? This is not just about acts of service or help. It’s taking time to listen, to empathize, to grieve alongside others.
I wonder if God is speaking to me and to us as God’s people through Acts 8 about the simplicity and effectiveness of just sitting down with people whose lives are very different from our own with curiosity, care and thoughtfulness.
Books can help us better understand the world around us, to confront our issues or find comfort in the stories of others. Here are five books that do just that.
That seems to me to be just the right response to the gospel. The Bible is replete with announcements that should stop us dead in our tracks with amazement.
God continues to bring people and situations into my life to reveal to me that I still play insiders and outsiders. Yet if Jesus submitted himself to a woman who was a religious and national outsider and allowed her experience of the world to reshape his reality, remembering his mission to bring redemption to everyone, who am I to believe I’ll ever be beyond it?
This is Christian community development: cultivators between the two gardens who labor, pray, and bleed alongside those dwelling in the land, our rural and urban communities, know that by the grace of Christ we are cultivating and developing God’s garden.
Reader I don’t know your current status in life and I don’t know whether you’re in a season where your marriage or partnership feels like it’s currently built on sand or cement but I want you to know that you’re not alone. There is not a single marriage out there that hasn’t been where you are. Maybe you’ll make it through together, maybe you won’t. This post isn’t to persuade you to stick it out, it’s really just an acknowledgement that sticking it out is hard.
When we view pastimes, hobbies, and vacation as escape from work, we are missing the reality that work and play exist together and benefit each other. For me, fishing is not an escape from work, but a transition from one thing God has created me to do, to another thing God has created me to do.
God gave us the Sabbath for our own good. As with other laws, when God gave this one, God wasn’t being a killjoy, or trying to set us back.
I have a lot of things going on in my life…perhaps you can relate? So when asked, “How are you doing?” my automatic answer came blurting out, “I’m so busy…”
The goal of both resolutions and habits is behavior change. But many resolutions include a short-term goal and have an ‘all or nothing’ feel about them—either you follow through or you don’t. By contrast, habits can be a means to step-by-step, long-term change.
I regularly came home from church and planned an afternoon with my family that included “mom time” – in other words, getting ready for classes on Monday. Of course, while working, I would feel appropriately guilty and tell myself, “I’ll plan better this coming week.”