Living Abundantly
We all have a story to share. That story has seasons of happiness and sadness, of love and fear. As United Methodists, we share a story based on Christ's sacrifice for us and his redeeming love. Through that love, we find grace, mercy, faith, and love more profound than we could ever imagine. A love for all, a place for all.
The Kingdom of God
How often do we sit at a standstill because the task or call seems so grand or overwhelming that we think there is no way to move forward? How can we make a difference? Where do we even begin? It is easy to overlook the small opportunities or the next step ahead because we believe that those opportunities would not make a real difference. It’s hard to see how this tiny part impacts the larger view. We sit in the darkness, lost in the messy middle, wondering if the breakthrough is coming or if we missed it.
Breakthrough
We often think of the Israelites wandering in the desert without a purpose, left feeling like a forgotten people with the Lord nowhere nearby. They were lost and wondering, left in liminal space, wondering if the promised land would ever be something they would find. They broke free from a life of slavery only to feel lost in the unknown promises of freedom.
Spiritual Disciplines
There was a season in my life when I would just be overcome with fear and live into anxieties more than living into life. We had been going through some counseling sessions processing some extended family events that were unfolding, and some other things came to light for ourselves, and this was mine. I couldn’t even name why I had all this fear or where it was coming from, but when I would start to write it all down, pages and pages were filled with fears deep in my soul.
Advent Devos
Advent. The season we journey through with anticipation of the first coming of our Lord, Jesus Christ. A season where we focus on hope, peace, joy, love, and the birth of our Savior. It is easy to rush through to Christmas morning.
But as we go through each week living into the promise of hope, peace, joy, and love that this season brings, we are also walking through a time of darkness—a time before our Lord walked the earth over 2000 years ago in human form. Today, a time as we remember His first coming in anticipation of the second. There are so many things during the Christmas season to celebrate and participate in, but when it comes down to it, we focus our hearts and minds on the hope found in Jesus.
Dusk to Dawn
In the middle of the day, darkness covered the earth. The light of the Son dying. Hung on a cross, pleading with the Father. Christ’s final breath, it … is … finished. Darkness surrounded, the temple’s curtain torn from top to bottom, the earth trembled.
The world was left in darkness. Some in doubt and fear and others in the hope of the resurrection promised. The story as they knew it had come to an end. In the ending of the old story and yearning for the new story’s promise, they found themselves in the darkness waiting for the Son to return.
Lenten Devos
Where do you seek wisdom from? Is it wisdom of the world or wisdom found in God? I think we often get caught up in seeking knowledge and discernment. Sometimes it is easy to learn from more concrete sources in the world. But we know that the wisest man is still foolish compared to God’s wisdom.
Journaling Prompts
Change. There are probably two basic gut reactions to that word. You either just cringed at what may come next or got excited thinking about the possibility of something new. There may be some in-betweeners, but I think, for the most part, change triggers something in us that makes us want to hunker down and cling to our foundation. Brace for impact.