Author: Jocelyn
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Self-forgetfulness. Spiritual Formation Series, Part 5.
Life with Jesus has seemed to me lately simply growing in self-forgetfulness. If I had to summarize all of the work that I have seen God do in my life in the past decade, it would probably be something along these lines. He keeps carving out more and more space in my heart and mind to…
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A week of death in America.
I know a lot of people have already written about our past week in America. I join, humbly, a cacophony of other voices: some angry, some terrified, some heartbroken, some astonished. Two isolated deaths motivated, apparently, by racism. Five collective deaths motivated, apparently, by retribution. Other deaths, other lives interrupted that I’m sure didn’t make the…
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One Square Block
Every other week or so, I go on a prayer-walk around my church building. Sometimes I pray more attentively when I am moving instead of holding still. I just walk around our one square block a few times, silently listening and talking to God. Mostly I pray for the people in our community, leaders and…
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maybe “One Day in Your Courts” isn’t better after all
I’m not trying to start an argument with a dead psalmist. I was just listening to the song “Better is One Day” in Sunday worship service a few weeks ago and I noticed how much Gnosticism that song has produced in me over the years. {Gnosticism is despising / rejecting the material world and embracing…
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Milestones. Spiritual Formation Series, Part 4.
Parents, physicians, therapists, and educators alike use milestones to measure and quantify growth. Milestones are incredibly helpful when it comes to ensuring that everyone from tot to teen is on track for normal physical, emotional, mental development. Why, then, when it comes to spiritual markers in the life of faith – signposts to keep us…
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Mere mortal
I’ve done Bible studies before that preach over and over again that I am a Princess in Christ, a daughter of the King, a triumphal conqueror over sin and the Devil, an emissary of Jesus with His power at my fingertips. Maybe you’ve done those studies, too? And maybe I’m showing my inflated self-perspective here,…
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“For the one who is not against us is for us.”
(A fresh look at what Jesus may have meant in Mark 9:40.) This phrase has been reverberating in my head ever since our pastor preached on it recently. As a young evangelical Christian, I used to think of the people who were against me as the people whose ideologies were primarily different from mine: atheists, Satanists,…
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Congruence. Spiritual Formation Series, Part 3.
I’m not entirely sure where and when I first heard the word or the idea of congruence. But I know where and when it was that I first listened. I was reading Eugene Peterson, as I do every summer, and I had come to the very end of his Christ Plays in 10,000 Places.* I read: The Christian…
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Tough Questions // What does it feel like to love?
My friend and our church’s youth director, Kelsey, has a beautiful vision for the youth in our community. Her vision is that each student would have one safe, close adult relationship (outside of a parent) and that the youth group would be a community where students feel known, loved, and safe to wrestle with all…
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For Richer & For Poorer
What good gifts do you have? (Health, Wealth, Beauty, Home, Friendship, Family, Marriage, Children, Work, Passions, Natural Talent, Strengths, etc. etc.) Think about them for a moment. If you have a minute right now, make a list of them somewhere. Look them over; assess their worth – see if you can! Now. With this incredible…