Living the Questions
In Evolving in Monkey Town, Rachel Held Evans talks about “living the questions,” which is something she picked up from a Rilke quote: “Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question.” For Rachel, this means learning how to ask questions, and how to be patient when the answers don’t come easy. Which is something I often struggle with. Sometimes I get tired of the whole “learning process.” I wrestle with Scripture the way Jacob wrestled with the angel; I’m pinning God to the ground with all my strength demanding Him to bless me. But lately I’m starting to realize that maybe...
Misused Bible Verses–Matthew 26:11
Whenever I hear some one quote Matthew 26:11–”You will always have the poor among you . . . “–it’s usually when some one doesn’t want to talk about fighting poverty. If Jesus said we would always have poor people among us, then why try to fight poverty? Why not just write a check to a charity? Is this what Jesus really meant? Let’s look at the text in context: “Meanwhile, Jesus was in Bethany at the home of Simon, a man who had leprosy. During supper, a woman came in with a beautiful jar of expensive perfume and poured it over his head. The disciples were indignant when they saw this. ‘What a waste of money,’ they said. ‘She could have sold it for a fortune and given the money to the...
The Doubting Worshipper
If I may be frank, for the past couple of weeks depression’s been kicking my ass big time. I don’t want to get into the details, but during this rough period God has felt far away. When I cry out for help, I hear nothing. It made me wonder if perhaps the past ten years of following Jesus had been just a waste of time. The other night, however, I picked up my pocket-sized Gideons Bible and skimmed through the “Where to find help when . . . ” section in the front. I looked up Depressed and flipped to Psalm 34: “I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.” (V. 4) Then I looked up Faith fails and came across Psalm 42:5–”Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put...
Help My Unbelief
If you’ve ever seen the TV show The X Files you probably remember a post Mulder had in his office that had a picture of a UFO, and underneath were the words, “I want to believe.” That’s how I am when I go through periods of doubt. I want to believe, but I’m not sure if I can. I’ll read something that challenges the doctrines I cling onto so tightly, and then I go through a “dark night of the soul” period where I don’t know what I believe in anymore. Were the past ten years of following Jesus just a waste of time? Was I better off as a nonbeliever? Last week while I was on my blogging break, I asked some friends what sustains their belief in God, and I got some pretty good feedback. One person said,...
Making War
John Piper – Make War When I first came across this video, I was a little uneasy. Being Mr. Nonviolence, I was like, “Say what now?” But when I pushed play, I learned that John Piper here is NOT talking about declaring war on others, but on ourselves. Our addictions. Our hatred toward others. Our apathy towards injustice. Our sinful nature. “My greatest enemy is not Satan,” Piper says. “My greatest enemy is John Piper.” Lately I’ve been thinking about this video and what it means. There’s definitely an battle within me, but mostly I don’t fight back. I just surrender and let the darkness take over. Then the darkness tortures me with guilt and shame. I like to think of myself as a lover, not a...