In our fast-paced, consumerist, interconnected, microwaveable, express-delivery primed culture, slowing down to rest feels like the most /un/natural thing in the world. It puts me in mind of a mile-long freight train just putting on its breaks. Have you ever heard the diabolical screeching? That’s that’s how strongly my mind resists coming to rest!
What’s that? You would still like to try? OK! It’s difficult but not impossible.
Almost 100 years ago, the world, and especially America, experienced an exciting economic boom. Everything seemed possible through the new modern technologies, such as the automobile, movies, radio, the telephone, TVs and airplanes. Society broke with many long-held traditions and embraced great change. The popular TV show and movie, Downton Abbey, helped many of us see what a decade of disruption and change it was in the Roaring 20s. On[…]
I’m going to tell you one of the most effective tools I’ve found for the work that I do over here in the Middle East. What if I told you it’s also effective in America as well? Would you want to use it? It transcends cultural boundaries. It opens up hearts. It reaches over denominational lines. It takes people from the farthest-flung corners of the earth and puts them on[…]
1. Minimalism – (https://www.becomingminimalist.com/what-is-minimalism/) Minimalism takes the focus away from what we have and puts it on the meaning that we get from the things we do have. Pastor and conference speaker Louie Giglio once joked, “Is there anything in the world more anti-Jesus than a storage unit?” (Don’t get offended—I said joked!) Seriously, no offense if you have a storage unit, but let’s think about it. You can do[…]
I’ve been provoked. I’m angry. I have a righteous indignation. It all started in one of the city’s many malls the other day. I was getting another charger for my cell phone (hopefully one that won’t break this time) and some groceries. As I finished, I was walking toward the taxi line to head back toward my part of town. As I approached one of the mall’s atria, I begin[…]
It is my great pleasure to feature Stephen Garner for the first time. I hope you enjoy my father’s unique blend of biblical insights, illuminating anecdotes, and punny repartée. Our numerous hikes together over the past decade have then a powerful connecting force during my young adult years. Read more of his work at https://hikerdude.wordpress.com/. Someone asked me once how I became interested in hiking. I hadn’t really given it[…]
Have you found God’s plan for your life? Wouldn’t it be nice if every one of us got a letter in the mail when we were 17 years old telling us exactly what we were made to do? I definitely did not, yet the journey has been both winding and incredibly satisfying. I hate to break it to you, but God probably isn’t going to write your life instructions with[…]
[Orig. pub. Oct. 23, 2016 on Ramblings of a Bluestocking] Ok, let’s be raw. I’ve always been a very driven person. In college, I knew what degree(s) I wanted, where I would be in ten years, what kind of job I wanted, and what kind of man I wanted to marry. However, if you haven’t had this happen at some point in life, you will: the sudden realization that everything[…]
It’s not often that an offshoot of the Allman Brothers Band starts a conversation about God‘s revelation. I went hiking last week of my father in Shenandoah National Park. As we tackled a particularly steep 800ft ascent, my father began laughing as the iPod he was listening to shuffled across a song by the band Sea Level. I chuckled along with him as we both labored with our legs to[…]
My connecting domestic flight was delayed in the Bangkok airport. Tired and ready to be at the conference as I was, I felt the strong pull of the secluded food court. I had not gotten used to the exchange rate of US dollars to Thai baht, so I didn’t realize until I was signing the receipt that I was paying $14 for a burger and fries! For that price, it[…]
In college, I got a group of friends around me that were like me in that they believed in Jesus, but they were different in some surprising ways. They talked about relationship with God in a different way than I’d ever considered. For them, the Christian walk was not so much about getting from spiritual point A to spiritual point B, but rather sauntering through God’s woods. That happened in[…]
The flea market is often where you find the most spiritual people. For many years, my cousin’s father sold collectors’ knives at the local market. I remember going with Kyle to visit his dad’s stand one time. We leisurely wandered around looking at all of the lights, wall decorations, used furniture, antique stoves, classic video games, and especially the colorful group of characters gathered there. I remember one in particular,[…]
