Spiritual Ponderings

I remember a time when I was quite young that my parents for whatever reason, allowed me to ride somewhere in a car with a young man I didn't know. He evidently seemed trustworthy enough for my parents to send me with him for a ride alone, and while I have no recollection of where we went, I distinctly remember the nature of the conversation we had in the car that day. This man was not a member of my brand of religion, so I felt a bit awkward. I was raised very religious, and most of my life I had only been around people who belonged to my church so I knew little of how to talk with 'outsiders.' I was however, keenly aware about witnessing to unbelievers about 'the truth.' At the same time I was not yet thoroughly trained with all the answers for every question people might ask, so when he asked me what my church believed I suddenly felt paralyzed with fear. I felt like God was putting me on the spot and felt ashamed that I was unprepared to have an answer to ...

I need to give just a little context for this post. Our dear friends John and Lauren Griswold with their three lovely children, Tyleigh, Noah and Atreyu, have suffered deeply over the past three years. First John broke his leg so badly after just putting on a pair of roller blades to enjoy some fun with his kids Christmas morning 3 years ago that it has never healed since that time. His suffering and pain has been intense this entire time which has unavoidably affect the entire family. But to add more to the injury, a few weeks ago a bizarre accident occurred in which both he and Noah were smashed between their car and an out of control pickup truck in which the driver had just died of a heart attack. Noah suffered multiple breaks in his leg and hip but John's upper leg (the same one that was broken before in the lower part) was broken multiple times and his hip and pelvis were literally smashed to pieces. He is now home in a wheelchair full of metal and ...

The kingdom of heaven is about vulnerability. Jesus came to redeem the idea of vulnerability and to change our minds about its viability. Consider how many times when Jesus was on earth that He went through circumstances or told stories that would challenge our ideas about vulnerability. More than once when the disciples found themselves in a life-threatening storm on the Sea of Galilee, they experienced intense vulnerability, something they did not like or want to face. Yet Jesus allowed them to experience that so as to teach them to always bring Him into the equation and to learn to trust in His love and power so as to overcome fear in every such situation. When thousands of people found themselves very hungry with no way to obtain food readily, they felt very vulnerable which often leads people to become angry or resentful or to look for someone to blame. Jesus led them through that experience to teach that being vulnerable in this way should not upset our trust...