What do you do when life knocks the breath out of you? How do you handle heartache and discouragement? I’ve dealt with low-level chronic pain for more than a decade. Rather than ignoring the pain, do what I learned. Process through the pain with God. 1. Tantrum – This first step may surprise you. Whether […]
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My Infatuation with Miss Mystery
“What I think you really want is God,” my friend said to me. What a slap in the face. No, I want the girl! The protest nearly made it out of my mouth, but I caught it when it was still in the back of my throat. Surprised at me? I wasn’t talking about my […]
What My Church Never Told Me (Cont.)
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 […]
What My Church Never Told Me
Walking to the edge of our theology, the farthest reach of what we understand of God, is like getting waist deep in the ocean that goes on as far as the eye can see. I was raised in a church culture that did not value mystery. In it, the most important thing about life was […]
The 1 Thing that’s Missing in your Christian Life
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 […]
Hosted Amongst the Tribesmen: a Descriptive, if not Humorous, Anecdotal Recollection (Part Two)
– I didn’t think we were risking our lives bringing the seemingly unknown stranger atop our vehicle. There’s such a honor culture here that we knew he legitimately just wanted a lift. The people in East Africa are quite friendly and content it as a whole, and the tribal individuals in this area especially so. […]
Africa 2017: A Day in the Life
6:50am. Wake up. I prepare my bucket shower. I go to the bottom floor of the house and fill up the electric tea kettle with water. Put it on for a few minutes, and it is boiling. Pour it into the plastic basin that I have in the downstairs shower/bathroom. In the areas of the […]
Tend the Seed (Healing School 10)
I heard a thought-provoking sermon by Kris Vallotton recently regarding God’s promises and miracles. “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.” Proverbs 13:12 He argues the reason that desire fulfilled is a tree of life is because the promise comes in the form of a seed–one which […]
Me & Joseph (Healing School 6)
One day, maybe even tomorrow, I will be healed and intermittent chronic pain will be simply a memory. Similarly, after a while, Joseph was able to serve as second command of Egypt. It’s a happy ending to the story. But I guarantee it was not an easy one to live. How he chose faith every […]
You are Three + the Democracy of Healing (Healing School 4)
(Click here to read the introduction to the series Healing School.) For you to approach the subject of healing, you need to know what you are healing. What … are you? You see, you were not exactly an original. When God made you, he was redesigning after a pattern. The pattern was none other than […]
The Tension (Healing School 3)
I believe and will tell anyone that I am fully healed. Yet just an hour ago I was experiencing serious pain. Crazy talk? Let’s look into this. Smith Wigglesworth, a well-known healing minister from a century ago, would see remarkable miracles of God. I heard one story where he punched a man in the stomach, […]
7 Pets: A Story about Living with Intermittent Chronic Pain
Rev. John Watson famously wrote in the late 1800s: “Be pitiful [compassionate], for every man is fighting a hard battle.” This post is a little bit about my battle. First, I call this series Healing School, not Pain School, because the main thrust is not to describe the nature of my pain to you. Even […]