God Invites Me
It’s hard to get our heads and hearts around all God is inviting us to. All his strength, his wisdom, his emotions, his views of the world, we are invited into all those realities. And there is more. What might it be like to sit at his table and listen to the Trinity talk? What might it be like to hear how they look at things, how they pace themselves, how they see us and see the world?
God Is Pleased with Me
I have been hurting for so long. My body, once lithe and strong, is now frail and unreliable. I feel like a stranger to myself. This illness, which once brought empathy, now isolates me. The town calls me unclean and crosses the road when they see me coming. Even simple joys seem like a thing of the past. Each day when I wake up, I tell myself that somehow, I’ll be fine. That somehow the pain in my body won’t overwhelm me. That somehow the wailing in my soul will quiet.
God Sees You
Up on a hill in Wales in a little chapel, a small stained-glass window brought home a truth to me: God sees me. Coming at a time when I was thinking through some of the changes that had come my way, I felt a little sore in heart and a bit befuddled in mind. I didn’t know what I needed nor have good words for what I wanted as I entered the tiny space.
God Longs for Me
It was 2001 when I went on my first silent retreat. By that time, I had been counseling for eleven years, been through six years of counseling, lived through what felt like excruciating years, and proved God in some really difficult moments. I was hungry for more, hungry for him. That’s how I arrived in England at a little village to meet with a woman I respected very much. Sitting down for our first meeting, I can’t tell you how important it was to me that she know I was hungry for God, so I told her how far I had come and that I had worked really hard to get there. I had a lot of words.
Do You Love Me?
One of the most poignant moments following Jesus’ resurrection is His encounter with Peter on that Galilean beach. (John 21) Three times after Christ’s arrest, Peter denied Him. Remember Peter’s bitter tears after the rooster crowed? (Luke 22)
Who Do You Say that I Am?
The Apostle John’s story fascinates me: A simple fisherman, he was called by Jesus and lived alongside Him throughout His earthly ministry. John took Jesus’ mother Mary under his wing and cared for her, as requested by Jesus. He suffered flogging, imprisonment, interrogation, and exile. John’s brother and fellow apostle James was killed early on by the sword. John lived longer than any other apostle, pastoring in Ephesus, and was eventually banished to the Isle of Patmos in his old age. John wrote the fourth Gospel, three epistles, and the book of Revelation.
