I don’t like living with mystery and paradox any more than the next person. I prefer maps over mystery. I like to know where I am and where I’m going. But life is ambiguous. It unspools in cycles in no predictable order—and for people of faith, there are a lot of loose ends. It’s easy …
The Blessing of Loneliness
A few short months before the lights went out, life had been good – not easy or by any means perfect – but reasonably good. I was healthy, married, pastoring, and gardening on my days off in the backyard of our dream house. It was as if I had gone to sleep one night and …
“Why me?”
We’re in charge of requests, not results. Results are God’s department. I don’t think God’s waiting for us to wince enough when we pray or to use certain spiritual formulas (which tend to be more magical than spiritual). Donald Miller writes, “Formulas seem much better than God because formulas offer control; and God, well, He …
Unfair!
When our kids were young and complained that something we did or didn’t do was “unfair,” I usually gave the stock parental response: “Who said it was supposed to be fair? Did I ever say that life was fair?” I don’t think they bought it, but it quieted them for the moment. Then when the …
Light at Last!
I said at the beginning that though this is my story it’s not just about me. It’s about all of us and about how all of our stories intersect under the influence of the creative genius of the Writer of his grand narrative. No matter the chapter in which you currently live, the plot he’s …
