But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” I take a lot of comfort in this verse this morning. There are impossible situations at every turn, messy relationships, messy health, messy politics, messy everything. My heart and mind wake up feeling messy with other people’s strife. My email is messy […]
Treating Others With Respect and Trust: Spiritual Boundaries, Part 5
…love always trusts, always hopes… The first evidence of God acting with self-constraint in relationship to us is in the second chapter of Genesis. The story of the Fall teaches us – among many lessons – that God treats us with respect, and does not force or coerce us to come into relationship with him. “All of […]
Spiritual Boundaries, Part 2: Real Life is Now
(post #12) writing for a month within the sacred smallness of this very real life: see all posts here Note: this is the second part to a short series-within-a-series on spiritual boundaries. Read introductory story here. I love my charismatic upbringing. The confidence afforded me in my relationship with Christ, the foundational assurance that I am loved, and wanted, and […]
Spiritual Boundaries, Part 1: Sacred Smallness, Real Life is Now.
(post #11) see list of all posts here Picture this, I’m 17 years old, and my tiny youth group has joined all the other Assemblies of God churches for a youth convention. The AG liturgy is followed perfectly. It’s an unspoken liturgy, because we consider it to be “the movement of the Holy Spirit” even […]
Still The Loneliness Reeks
(post #6) see list of all posts here _________________ Where are you in this grid of stone quarried from what lies beneath the hills of Sonoma County? The Flying Goat boasts windows of sunlight, walls of minimalistic white, coffee roasted at $16 a pound, and still the scent of urine comes in its doors. Where […]
A Brave Thing vs. A Great Thing
It is a brave thing to die for one’s fellow-men; it is also brave, and often far harder, to live for them. Livingstone did both. Indeed, the humble Blantyre mill-boy had done the noblest and highest thing that man can do; he had given his whole life to help God’s less happy creatures. And this […]
Mourn With Those Who Mourn (survivor songs #33)
Mourn With Those Who Mourn by Ramone Romero “Remember those who are imprisoned, as if you are imprisoned with them. Call those to mind who are afflicted, as if you are the people who wear their bodies.“ Hebrews 13:3 Harmony asked me to share five paintings for this series Survivor Songs, the theme of which has […]
Mourning The Missing Pieces – guest post by Heather Way (survivor songs #32)
When kids come to The Children’s Home it is because they were taken out of their own home…for one reason or another. They have loss and deep sadness. And they usually embody fear. These kids have so much to mourn, yet I often see them mourning nothing. They are numbed to the losses in their […]
Tearing Down The Fence: the grief and healing of re-entry – a guest post by Hallie Ziebart (survivor songs #29)
Tearing Down The Fence by Hallie Ziebart __________________ __________________ I mourn. Oh, have I learned how to mourn! My life became not what I expected, or hoped for, or thought I was promised. Life unfolded, joys and sorrows have come and gone. Sometimes I feel bewildered. Sometimes angry. Sometimes thankful. And sometimes I feel nothing […]
When Does Comfort Come? – mourning while parenting a child with invisible special needs (survivor songs #26)
When Does Comfort Come? by Laura Camacho _______________ _______________ I’m writing a note to my 9-year old daughter’s school and I can’t stop crying. Every word feels like a sob. I’m coming off as calm on the page, but beneath each sentence lies soul crushing exhaustion and heartache. She needs to have Wednesdays off […]