Will you sit with the helpless ones and hear their cries even if you are powerless to break through the walls that bind them? Will you sit and ache with them so they don’t suffer alone? Will you honor the cries that no one else hears and give validity to their pain? Will you face death with a tenacious hope that resurrection is always possible?
I needed the one thing I did not have: space to respond to anxiety. Space to make order of the chaos. Space to rest in the midst of panic and fear. Space to see and hear what was pure and true about my life, about me. Space to know that the ground Jesus and I had walked once before was not lost. I was not anxious Ellen exposed for her true self. I was Ellen in a state of anxiety. My old victories were not undone. A new victory was mine just ahead.
How is play linked to spirituality? Marilyn Elliott muses about the difference between religious activity and spirituality, and what holy playtime can do for your soul.
Today’s Soul Care post is a grace-filled story of hope from Ellen Martin. Read as she shares her struggle with anxiety and the triumphant victory of Christ over a longing, trembling heart.
Significantly, when we ignore the quest for balance, we miss a golden opportunity for influence. Like us, the average person in the pew also struggles with finding balance. They too can become addicted to pushing, producing and advancing to the detriment of their quality of life and relationships.
The other evening, my husband watched our two-year-old and cooked dinner so that I could lounge in bed and watch Netflix. I wasn’t sick. I wasn’t stressed. I wasn’t threatening an if-you-don’t-help-out-now-I’m-gonna-lose-it melt down. And, without divulging the details of our personal life, on this particular night I know he had no ulterior motives. He was simply being—kind.
The invitation to remember the pain only for the sake of remembering is not the purpose. The purpose is to remember the Lord’s faithfulness amidst the pain. His consistency. His love—before, during, and after. It is for healing. And hope. And redemption.
Whether you are a clinical counselor, a pastor, or even just someone trying to care for your own soul, there will be something here for you.
Only humans have transcendent longings. Your dog might think it is a human, might act like a human and want to sit in the best chair. It might even have human like emotions. You may even be convinced your dog IS a human! But your dog never looks into the sky and dreams about flying through the air like a goose. Or closer to the ground, the poodle never looks at the greyhound loping down the street and thinks, “If it kills me, I am going to beat him in a race.” Nope. Only humans do that.
Formative power is a part of what it means to be made in the image of God. Formative power means that we have power to participate in our formation. And it also means that when I force my opinions and choices on others (even beloved others) I am robbing them of their God given formative power.
Formation is not only about the spirit. Human persons are embodied spirits, and as such, we cannot separate our spiritual selves from our physical, emotional and material selves. When you have a sick heart, your whole world likely feels sick, and vice-versa. Proverbs 17:22 says it pointedly, “A crushed spirit dries up the bones.” To over spiritualize our formation and distance it from the bodily experience of life is to foster deformation.
Gardening my life It is now evident the plan is not moving forward. When I dug up my overgrown garden last fall I intended to hire a landscaper and design something less random, plan for
