“Not I, nor anyone else can travel that road for you. You must travel it by yourself. It is not far. It is within reach. Perhaps you have been on it since you were born, and did not know.” – Walt Whitman
Image via forgottenchildren.org As a society we are experiencing an unusual season of difficulty and fear-producing happenings. They are durable over time which has the potential to wear us down spiritually as well as physically and emotionally. Anxiety and depression are on the rise across our society, and following the rise is an increase …
Difficult passages in the life of a person, a community, or a nation often drive people to prayer. While prayer is always available to us, so many of us are not available to pray. We are too busy, to hurried, to distracted, and to selfish in our paradigms to stop to communicate with our God. …
Part three in a three-part series on acceptance of difficulty. “We must accept and cooperate with the inevitable. If we rail and kick against it and grow bitter, we won’t change the inevitable; but we will change ourselves.” - Dale Carnegie Unfortunately, the Dale Carnegie quote above reflects the way many people go through the …
Part 2 in a series on acceptance of difficulties, trials, and suffering. “Whatever is in the cup that God is offering me, whether it be pain and sorrow and suffering and grief along with the many joys, I am willing to take it because I trust Him.” - Elisabeth Elliot In the previous post, we …
Acceptance and the Problem With Bears “That which does not kill you makes you stronger.” – attributed to Frederik Nietzsche One of my favorite quotes is this one from Frederik Nietzsche. It is because it has been handily rewritten by the wilderness community into this: “That which does not kill you makes you stronger...except bears. …
John Eldredge is one of my favorite writers whose writings have significantly challenged my faith and moved my toward greater intimacy with my God. Over time you will find my reviews of his most influential books (so far) in my experience. In one of his books he writes about his former ministry partner, Brent. John …
In 1956, five missionaries, all young men with families, died at the hands of the Waodani natives in the jungles of Ecuador. Jim Elliot was among those who died by the spears of the people they were trying to save. Much of the world was riveted by the news reports of the five missing men, …
Amy Carmichael, the famous pioneer missionary to Japan and later to India more than 100 years ago, told of a time in which she was anxious because of a major set-back in her travels with two other missionaries. The group was returning to the mission station by boat, and the boat was late. Days late. …
This is the fourth post on this topic. “When trials and temptations crowd into your life, don’t resent them…welcome them as friends!” How can such difficulties possibly be for our good? And if they are for our good, does our God keep adding more adversity, more difficulty to our lives? And if He does that, …
“Life is hard. Then, you die.” This is the happy, hopeful message I read on a bumper sticker several years ago. I have never forgotten it, in large part because I was struck at how truthful the message was, and yet how it totally missed “the rest of the story.” Yes, adversity dogs us. Setbacks, …
One Pursuit 