I have a lot of friends, pastors and non-pastors alike, believers and unbelievers too, who are going through deep valleys of pain, illness, loss, sorrows, and betrayals right now. No one is immune to these things. Life, since the fall and until Jesus returns, has always meant that all these things will visit our lives … More Thinking about Sorrow
I don’t know what I am grimacing about in the image frozen in the video, but, as I have said before, these videos are pretty raw. They are almost all recorded in the early morning hours, often when insomnia is keeping me awake, in one take and no script.
We are driving down the road together. The “we,” being my bride, who is driving, and me, the one who can no longer drive at night because my eyes don’t function without the brightness of day. We are listening to National Public Radio. People are telling stories for an audience that laughs and “oohs” and … More There are Stories that Make Me Weep.
Yesterday evening, I attended a Christmas service that included a wonderful message and an impromptu children’s reenactment of the Christmas story. Just before the message, the pastor gave the microphone to anyone in the congregation who wanted to answer the question, “What does Christ mean to you?” “Here’s the catch,” he said, “you have to … More Christmas: What does Christ mean to you?
There are those times in life when we lose. But there are also those times in life when we think we are losing and we aren’t. Sometimes life is kicking us in the shins and when we fall to the ground in pain we get kicked in the head as well. In our family, we … More When You Think You are Losing
The Comfort of God’s Name I have a number of friends and family members who are artists. Going to an art gallery with them is an education. They help me to see things and understand things that are there for all to enjoy, but they have developed the eye to see them. Fortunately, they can … More Broken Hearts Do Not Repulse Him
The platitudes of wisdom are like a hot knife of hate in an ill-timed moment. “Timing is everything.” Certainly, that is part of what Solomon means in the second line of his couplet in Ecclesiastes 3:7: “A time to be silent and a time to speak.” Job’s friends are stunned into silence by the magnitude … More The Harrowing Withering of Suffering and Loss
As I prayed through Psalm 60, I was struck by how relevant David’s Psalm of lament was for our lamentable time. There is more we can do then pray but prayer is always the place to start. The moral breakdown of the nation is everywhere evident and almost nationally ignored as the nation’s violent underbelly … More When the Violent Stalk the Land
[Picture credits at the end.] Sometimes, we only learn of His care through the times of trauma and pain. I don’t know why this is I just know that it is. It is not a story of which Christians down through the ages have been unaware. C.S. Lewis put it this way: “Pain insists upon … More Pain and Sorrow and there Effect Under Christ
I was reminded of this sculpture as I thought about all the subtractions and deletions and upheaval of the last few months. (7-22-2020, and again on 9-8-2023) The artist’s name is Albert Gyorgy. He is Romanian, lives in Switzerland and is semi-reclusive, or at least, it is very difficult to get much information on him. … More Sorrow and Loss
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