Author: Jocelyn
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2017 book reviews, part I
SPIRITUAL FORMATION // NEW AUTHOR // EUGENE // ENNEAGRAM Happy year’s end! It is time for my annual book reviews posts. This year I read a lot, at least for my still-have-young-kids-who-interrupt-me-practically-every-forty-seven-seconds self. So, I’ll give you my full list and give each a 0-5* rating, but I’m only going to comment on the…
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a certain lodgepole pine
I love beautiful things. I mean, don’t we all? Christmastime seems to me to be a time especially for beautiful things, and so I love Christmastime. When outdoors everything is just a bit deader, a bit darker, a bit less warm (at least in my hemisphere), we do our best to make up for it…
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Two courses in the river of Love. Spiritual formation series, part 10
Most of us can agree that God is Love, that the Way of Jesus in this world is Love, and that God wants nothing more for each of us than to become a more loving human being. I think a lot about Love. The Love of God is so vast and comprehensive, I find that…
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how my thinking changed about devout orthodoxy when I watched a documentary on Hasidic Judaism
I just watched a documentary that follows a few young Hasidic Jews as they struggle to leave their religious community and make a life on the outside. (All week long I’ve been imagining them as Hasidic-exodizers, leaving their Hasidic religious community for a different way of life. The irony is splendid – is it not?…
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God works with whatever he’s got. Spiritual formation series, part 9.
I used to think that God does whatever he wants. I’d read about something “God did” in the Bible or signs of “God’s work” in the current news media and, put together with “God is all-powerful,” I’d deduce that whatever happened must have been 10,000% exactly what God wanted. Now, I think that God just…
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heresy, redefined. (something to mull over.)
{First, a quick side note. This week is a big week for me. It is Final Edit Week. I’m submitting Passions Trilogy to the printer this Friday: Friday the 13th. Hm. And yikes! (I think the Yikes! is more about the final-final-must-be-perfect edits than the superstition of the day. Also, incidentally, why is it that self-imposed deadlines feel…
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A letter from Jen. Re: Judgment.
Last week I got a splendid email from my friend Jen about — you guessed it: Judgment. She shared so transparently, wrote with such penetrating introspection, and gave such a brilliant example of an everyday struggle that I felt I had to share it with you all. Jen graciously gave me her permission to publish her letter…
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Judgment, again.
I promise I’m not trying to beat a dead horse. From the fantastic conversations I keep having about judgment, I am learning that the horse is still very alive. In all of us. So I’m just keeping the conversation going this week. And I sincerely thank those of you who are joining in, whether I…