Feelings are a primary blessing and a primary problem for human life. We cannot live without them and we can hardly live with them. Hence they are also central for spiritual formation in the Christian tradition. Feelings live on the front row of our lives like…
Lewis, Clark, and the Corps of Discovery explored their way towards the Pacific with an overarching belief: to find a river flowing westward was the ticket to success. Imagine their shock when they saw the Rocky Mountains. Instead of navigating waterways, they’d…
A perfect new luna, sitting alone in the dark, will make you hold your breath. God made fancier moths but none more ethereal. Lunas are like sea glass or frost on the first two weeks of a garden. They are like Rivendell and powdered sugar. Their wing tails cross at the ends like lace-trimmed sock ankles on…
When rain falls on a hill, the water drains off. How does it drain off? In rivulets. Initially, they are just small rivulets, but each time rain falls, the rivulets cut deeper and deeper. They can become deep chasms.
Now let’s compare these rivulets with thought patterns in our minds. The longer we think along any given line…
“Hannah rose” (1 Samuel 1:9, ESV). What does it mean to get up off the couch when you are still hopeless? What does it mean to wait without being passive?
The Hebrew word … quwm … means “to rise up” or “to stand up.” It can also mean…
Jesus does not say, “Come to me, all you who have learned how to concentrate in prayer, whose minds no longer wander, and I will give you rest.” No, Jesus opens his arms to his needy children and says, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28, NASB). The criteria for coming to Jesus is…
Perhaps one of the greatest reasons we don’t ask God for what we want or need is because we’re afraid that he won’t do it. We fear that he’ll say no, that he won’t answer the way we asked, or that he won’t even answer at all. Unanswered prayer is perhaps one of the most…
On most mornings I turn to the Scriptures as much out of a good, lifelong habit as anything else. On some mornings I approach God’s Word with a more keen sense of purpose. And sometimes I come with a real desire to meet God. But on many occasions—often outside my daily routine of Bible intake—I turn to the Word of God out of…
When Jesus’ presence seems absent in the midst of my pain, I find that canned spiritual answers and my usual spiritual disciplines, things that once helped me feel connected to him, no longer work. So one day, I try a new spiritual practice, something…
This post originally appeared on the author’s blog at Jay-Stringer.com. Times of uncertainty like the one we’re in naturally intensify anxiety and powerlessness, and with it, the spread of pornography use. We turn to behaviors that provide relief from the …
Read moreCoronavirus, Porn, and Anxiety: When Three Pandemics Converge