Refresh: Can Good Come from Conflict? Listening for the Spirit’s voice
Today’s Refresh is a lightly edited version of a sermon I have often preached. I wish the topic had faded into irrelevance, but it hasn’t. How do we find what God is saying to us when we are in battle with one another. Though times and examples change (and this first appeared in 2015), I hope some of the principles are helpful. Refresh: Can Good Come from Conflict? Listening for the Spirit’s Voice. Most of my sermons only get preached once. They serve a particular purpose, and while I file them away, hopeful that they will prove useful on another day, most of them never...
Read MoreBecause No is just an invitation to a different conversation…
I think it’s Brené Brown who said that “no” is just an invitation to a different conversation. That’s a helpful reminder to dive into opportunity thinking, rather than to assume all is lost when faced with a rejection. But how might this look in practice? There is an intriguing Latin phrase, “numinibus vota exaudita malignis,” which roughly translated means “enormous prayers which heaven in vengeance answered”. Attributed to the Roman poet Juvenal, the idea appears in CS Lewis’ writing on prayer, where he notes that some prayers which on...
Read MoreRefresh: A Time to Speak – 10 Reasons to Speak Up
Today’s Refresh post is the other side of last weeks. This time we look at not when to be silent, but when to speak up. It’s an important topic, and was first published on the blog in Nov 2015. Refresh: A Time to Speak – 10 Reasons to Speak Up The last post looked at 10 reasons why silence is golden. But there is a flipside. The writer of Ecclesiastes 3 is right. There is a time for everything under heaven… and that includes both a time for silence and a time to speak up. Here are 10 signs that it is the time to speak… 1) While we should be still and know that...
Read MoreBecause grief is love with no place to go…
I’m not certain where the obscure title of today’s post comes from (it’s often attributed to Jamie Anderson) but I’ve been pondering it ever since I heard it as a throw away comment in the wonderful Three Pines mystery series. “Grief is love with no place to go”. Profound, isn’t it? I think it is usually accurate. But I also wonder if it can be reframed, so that the love we have within remains life serving – even joyous. Let me try to unpack what I’m thinking… You’ve probably heard a similar sentiment expressed, that...
Read MoreRefresh: 10 Reasons why Silence is Golden
I enjoyed rereading todays refresh post. Number 5, “Silence releases us from the oppressive bondage of always having to have the last word” resonates with me, and I think it has something to say to us during challenging times. It’s a short post. Hope you enjoy it. Refresh: 10 Reasons why Silence is Golden We live in such a noisy world. Getting ourselves heard can be a real problem. With everyone else so busy talking, no one really seems to want to listen to what we would like to say. Should we care? Here are 10 reasons why silence and being silent can be a virtue… 1)...
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