Author: Jocelyn

  • the salvation of loss

    the salvation of loss

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    by

    Jocelyn
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    I’ve heard a few stories of loss this week. No deaths or anything that would make the church bulletin prayer list, really — just more of your everyday, behind-the-scenes, run-of-the-mill kinds of loss. Loss of friendships. Loss of psychological bearings in a new season of life. Loss of inheritance. Loss of what were sunny expectations…

  • An open prayer to God-Who-Shows-Favor

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    Jocelyn
    in

    This may come as a surprise to you (I know it definitely has to me!), but the longer I walk down the path toward God, the more drawn I am to already-written prayers. I find such ease in just reading, such comfort in finding my own feelings and thoughts already amply expressed, such unity in…

  • Maybe you CAN be and have all that you want…

    Maybe you CAN be and have all that you want…

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    Jocelyn
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    …if you let God have influence over what it is that you want. I don’t think I’m alone in my insatiable desire for more. I think all of us have some discontentment, idealism, or longing — whatever you want to call it. We just have it for different things. Some of us can’t get enough…

  • I need pastoring.

    I need pastoring.

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    Jocelyn
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    Yes, I need pastoring. But it’s not what you think. First, let me say that I think overall we’ve done a grave disservice to the title and meaning of “pastor.” Because when I say “pastor,” don’t you automatically only think of people who work at church buildings and deliver sermons on Sunday mornings?? It’s sad,…

  • Daily Strength for Daily Needs

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    Jocelyn
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    I have developed a bit of a habit of beginning my work day with just a few minutes of quiet. The more difficult my work, the more consistent I seem to be. Hm. Anyway, the few minutes of quiet are usually composed of something like read-praying, or pray-reading. (I’m not sure which.) I find myself…

  • my paraphrase: philippians 2:12-13

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    Jocelyn
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    Wrestle, exercise, and go to practice every day to experience more and more what it means to let God restore every aspect of your being. Don’t ever get smug or over-confident toward God; just let God keep energizing you to focus on living congruently (with your motivations and actions in increasing alignment), trusting only in…

  • Soul Practice: Walking through Difficult Things

    Soul Practice: Walking through Difficult Things

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    Jocelyn
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    I’ve run up against something difficult today, and I’ve had to preach to my heart again the sermon about what to do with difficult things. Anyway, I thought maybe it could help a few of you, in case you, too, have run up against something difficult recently, and so here she is. Dearly beloved: It…

  • fill in the blank: “the world was made for _____”

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    Jocelyn
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    In Ishmael (which I briefly reviewed here), Daniel Quinn tells a story that keeps returning to my thoughts. I will retell it to you here in the way that I retell it to myself, though I cannot guarantee that my memory of it will have entirely very much in common with Quinn’s original story. Nevertheless, it…

  • 2017 book reviews, part III

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    Jocelyn
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    KIDS // PARENTING // SABBATH IX. Kids’ Books The Peculiar Miss Pickett, Nancy R. Julian. 1972, 91 pages ***   Miss Pickerell Goes to Mars, Ellen MacGregor. 1951, 94 pages ***   Chronicles of Narnia, C. S. Lewis. ***** This summer my boys were 7, 5, and 2. As soon as school was out, we…

  • 2017 book reviews, part II

    2017 book reviews, part II

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    by

    Jocelyn
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    ART // JOURNALS // FICTION // OTHER V. On Art and being an Artist The War of Art, Steven Pressfield, 2002, 165 pages ***   Beate Not the Poore Desk, Walter Wangerin, Jr. 2016, 141 pages ***   The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron. 1992, 217 pages ***** Julia invites one into the community of artists…