What if… you never received approval from anyone? Would you still be OK? Could you still be… you, without some form of approval; healthy, or unhealthy? I’m really not sure what answer—if any—would be the “right” answer to those questions. I’m not even sure I have any answer. The fact that we members of the…
Tag: God’s Nature
You Have Value
Note: The following thoughts are not really well-formed, nor necessarily “going anywhere”. I am mostly working them out as I type. In the season of life I am currently in, it’s been quite obvious to me that we, people, are flawed. Even the best of us. There’s a deep-rooted—at the core of us—tendency… but more…
Pure, (Truly) Awesome Creativity
We use the word “awesome” far too often in our culture. That sounds like something you’ve heard your grandpa say, or your great-grandpa. (Or his grandpa…) We assign it to anything and everything: sporting events or just a moment in said event, a movie, a meal, and pretty much anything that may happen in the…
[From The Archive] Distorted View of God?
I re-discovered this post recently via a few related links from something else I had been writing. I really can’t recall how I got there, but as it might have done for you, the title grabbed my attention. I wondered, Now what was I thinking here… Turns out it was one of my more favorite…
Lord, Save Us From Your Followers
Being a fan of documentaries, and, having many thoughts on the nature and condition of the church, I was intrigued enough by the title and description of the movie above to click the play button on a recent visit to Hulu.com. As the video began, I wasn’t entirely sure which “side” was being presented. I…
The Soul Felt Its Worth
O holy night… the stars are brightly shining. It is the night of our dear Savior’s birth. (With me so far?) Long lay the world… in sin and error pining till he appeared and the soul felt its worth. I was listening to a podcast1 recently (titled, Your Sense of Belonging) where the lyric from…
Children Obey Your Parents
We had an interesting conversation with our teenager the other night. Ian is thirteen. That means he’s officially a teenager. He’s been there—especially in his own mind—for quite a while now, even before the calendar said he was. That’s how he came into the world, actually. He’s usually ahead of the game. And that’s his…
[From The Archive] Feeling Loved, And Lovable
This week’s trip into the Archive will be much shorter than last week’s (sorry about the link overload with that one!) Maybe because there’s been so much to read here lately that I want to give you a break… But probably more because the content of this previously-posted article is beautiful in its simplicity. I’m…
The Illusion of Control
For some reason, though everything tells us otherwise, we all seem to have this illusion that we are in control of our lives and our surroundings. I may be speaking a good deal from my American perspective, but I do feel like it’s more of a human thing than a cultural thing. (We Americans just…
[From The Archive] Peace
This week’s From The Archive was chosen from one of several posts I found that had elements of this theme of “the illusion of control” that has been swimming around my thoughts for some time now. Each of the articles previously published had at least some small perspective on the idea that we are not…