Category: spiritual formation
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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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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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Ke$ha “Hymn”
Have you heard Ke$ha’s new song, “Hymn”? It is quite beautiful. Hauntingly beautiful, in my humble opinion. I am embarrassed to say that if I would have heard this song in my twenties, it would have made me instantly angry, defensive, and judgmental. I would have gotten out my theological red pen and gone to work…
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Who do I want to be when I grow up? Spiritual Formation series, part 8.
I’m stuck in a rut. I’ve been finding myself obsessing lately about: What do I want to be when I grow up? Its symptoms are obvious, once I’m honest about them: anxiety, fear, impatience, anger, endless streams of unanswerable and unhelpful questions (What am I doing with my life? I’m not doing it very well today… Am…
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What is Jesus Praying for You?
I spent two days last week with some students and full time Christian missionaries at Eastern Washington University teaching, coaching, and spiritually encouraging. I drove home with that wonderful happy-exhausted-full feeling. And then when I got home, I went to bed embarrassingly early two nights in a row. 🙂 The talk I gave to students…
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People Posture. Spiritual Formation series, part 7.
As I have let Jesus continue to spiritually form me, I have noticed a great – perhaps singular – change in my posture toward people. My old posture assumed: that most people have a good and happy life, that they have it mostly ‘all together’ that my job was to get those people to give…
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Prayer is presence to the presence of God…
Or: Never judge a book by the outdated author pics on its back cover. I have read a fair amount about prayer in the past couple of years; I had had some sense of God’s wanting to grow my heart and mind in the way of prayer, and so I gave it some of…
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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…