I’m playing catch-up again tonight! Here’s a late post with the prompt from yesterday… The act of asking questions is the beginning of contemplation. When I contemplate, I ask questions of myself, of the world and of God. . . Questions that don’t always have to have an answer. . . Questions that make me think beyond my daily concerns. Contemplation is my soul searching, my mind seeking, my heart longing for something beyond myself. I ask life’s philosophical questions. I ask practical and pragmatic questions. I sit and think and wonder and listen. Contemplation requires asking. It also requires silence and time…
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I’m a day late posting this free-write because I just desperately needed a day off from pretty much everything yesterday! But here it is, regardless… This week my son and I were reading a passage in John Bunyan’s classic Pilgrim’s Progress for his school lessons. The part we were reading a conversation between the characters named “Talkative” and “Faithful.” We learned that Talkative liked to discuss ideas of faith and Christianity, but that in his hometown he was known as a hypocrite, doing all sorts of things that were definitely un-Christian. When Faithful confronted him with the truth of his actions as…
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As the wife of a music pastor, the words “praise and worship” carry a lot of connotations and ideas with them that I don’t have time to go into here. But one of the things about being involved in leading church music is this: Sometimes I have to praise God when I don’t feel like it. And I have to do it in front of people. Now, I know that may sound like I’m saying that I sometimes I’m being fake and just putting on a show. But no. Actually, the truth is that when I get up to sing with…
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Since moving to a more affluent area last year, I have been somewhat reluctant to open my door and invite people over. We currently live in a rather small, shabby old rental house with lots of quirks and annoying little problems that we can’t change since we don’t own the place. I haven’t decorated much since we know this is a temporary situation. It isn’t the color scheme I would choose if I owned the house, and the kitchen is far from ideal. I feel, quite honestly, a little embarrassed to have people over because I know that most of…
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There are so many “how” questions I could write on. I had trouble deciding which direction to go with this one. But in the spirit of the theme of community, I settled on exploring the question “How are you doing?” These days we commonly ask “How are you?” as a greeting, not an actual question to which we expect an open and honest answer. But I think we also long to have someone look us in the eye and really care about the truth. How are you really doing, friend? How is your health? How is your walk with the…