Last night I was awake for some time in the middle of the night. And is so often the case thoughts came flooding through my mind one after another. Making the prospect of a short period of wakefulness increasingly impossible.
Continue reading “Allowing time for the mud to settle”Cultivating quiet in the cacophony of life
Our world is a cacophony of noise. From the moment that we wake until we finally drift off to sleep at night, we are bombarded by sound. Furthermore, our lives are filled with demands, requests, deadlines and expectations. We are complicated, self-obsessed, and selfish – so often driven by desire. And the world and culture that we find ourselves in simply pours fuel on the fire. How are we, in the midst of all this, to cultivate a life and an attitude of quiet?
Continue reading “Cultivating quiet in the cacophony of life”Hearing God part 3 – Hope for those who don’t
I was in conversation with someone recently, and they spoke to me about how they have never heard from God. They said that they have tried. That they have sought to listen, and they have asked God to speak, but they do not hear anything. They told me how they longed to hear from God in the way so many others seem to, and yet that has not been their experience. And I said that I understood. For I too was once in that place.
Continue reading “Hearing God part 3 – Hope for those who don’t”When God speaks courage in the face of fear
Bravery and courage these are such weighty words. Indeed they are not terms I would use to describe myself. When I think of bravery, I think of knights in armour, clad for battle, unwavering before the storm that assails them. Courage seems to be the trait of those who wander far off lands in search of the lost, wounded and broken.
Continue reading “When God speaks courage in the face of fear”The God of the impossible
I wonder if God has ever spoken the impossible to you. If he has given you a word, a picture, a vision, or a verse that was unmistakably from him. Where you were so sure that it was from His mouth and no other you could have bet your very life on it.
But then you look at your life, you look at the circumstances that surround you, and you question your sanity. You question your certainty. You doubt whether God could ever say something like that, to you.
Continue reading “The God of the impossible”Thoughts and reason, but what about the imagination?
Years ago I stumbled across a relatively unknown essay by A.W. Tozer, entitled, ‘The sanctified imagination’. It is well worth reading, though somewhat challenging to find, I managed to track it down again here. This idea caught my attention, it held me and welcomed me as a thought that was both foreign and yet somehow familiar.
In my neck of the woods, we seem to be cerebral people. We live in our intellect, we debate, argue, refine, argue some more, we like to think well and like others to think that we think well. And, other methods of thought and being are somehow relegated to places of less importance. Do we feel? Maybe, but we must never be driven by our emotions. Do we imagine? Perhaps, but let’s not get lost in flights of fancy.
Continue reading “Thoughts and reason, but what about the imagination?”The hope of the practice of the presence of God
For as long as I can remember the most fundamental thing I’ve known about reality is that there is an all-powerful, all-loving God who is attentive to us and present in all. This is the bedrock truth influencing and overshadowing everything else.
But, for me, this awareness about God has been partnered with an enduring frustration. Why can’t I retain awareness of God and God’s presence as I live through my life each day? If God holds this prime position in reality, then shouldn’t this colour everything? Yet, much of the time, how I experience the world – what draws and retains my attention, where my thoughts dwell, how my feelings are influenced, the sensations in my body – seems disconnected from that fundamental truth.
Continue reading “The hope of the practice of the presence of God”The invitation of Jesus
There is a cry repeated throughout scripture and one that is voiced numerous times by the Son of God himself. Jesus says,
“Come to me.”
Here are just a few instances where this is found in the Bible: Isaiah 55:1-3, Matthew 11:28-30, numerous verses in John 6, Revelation 22:17.
I wonder if often we, myself included, fail to do just this. It is as if we are happy to do things for God, to talk about “God stuff”, to read books about God, to sing and listen to songs about God, to even speak to God. But do we take the time to actually come to him? What would that look like if we did and how would it be different? And what does this mean in practice?
Continue reading “The invitation of Jesus”Hearing God part 2 – How does God speak?
When I was younger, I was terribly frustrated that the Bible didn’t give a blueprint for how to hear God. For it doesn’t. I expressed my frustration to a wise person that I know (also known as my Dad). He said to me that the reason God doesn’t do this is that he speaks in an infinite variety of ways. And he speaks to each person differently. If the Bible told us one way we would all be looking for that one way, instead we have to learn, to seek, and to find. Instead, we each get to go on the incredible adventure of discovering how God speaks to us.
Continue reading “Hearing God part 2 – How does God speak?”Lent 2020 v2.0: How coronavirus has rebooted and upgraded my Lent practice this year
Just the other day I stood before my kitchen calendar to count the number of days since the coronavirus lockdown began. When that number turned out to be 40, something (God I hope) caught my attention.
Continue reading “Lent 2020 v2.0: How coronavirus has rebooted and upgraded my Lent practice this year”