Spiritual Formation

Reasons for our lack of lived-out unity are many. I offer four themes I’ve observed and questions to consider.

Love is a pretty big deal.

In college, I spent countless hours studying: polishing essays, working through complex derivations, learning new vocabulary. In the busyness, I was often drawn back to the greatest commandment: “Honor the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.” I wondered especially about honoring God with my mind. 

I’m trying to pray audacious prayers.

What if eternal life is less about the continuation of time forever and more about the removal of the limitations of time forever? Less about the “ten thousand years” and more about the divine irrelevance of years?

Over the next few days, many of us will look more closely at the cross than we normally do. But we will likely not linger there long enough.

My friend Jennifer leaned over my cubicle wall.

“You know when my whole life changed?” she said to me. “When I realized I didn’t have to just bake cookies all the time.”

In the Protestant tradition in which I grew up we did not practice Lent (though many Protestant denominations do), but as an adult I have come to love Lent as my favorite season of the church calendar. Here are 10 reasons why.

I was in sixth grade and living in Saudi Arabia when terrorists bombed the Al Khobar Tower there. I felt the blast shake the neighborhood where I was babysitting at the time. When the smoke cleared from the building, where many kids from my elementary school lived, 19 Americans were dead, and nearly 500 people from many countries were injured.

What if we decided to give Jesus our pain and anxiety rather than trying to carry it ourselves? What if we stopped to listen to others around us who are broken and hurt? What if we stood to advocate for justice when we saw injustice happening? What if we chose to love our neighbors, even when loving looks sacrificial?