Dr. Alan Noble says, “And so courage comes along and courage says you have to risk suffering or experience suffering for the sake of the good.”
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The focus of your thoughts significantly affects everything else that happens in your life and evokes the feelings that frame your world and motivate your actions.*
Life Without Lack (p. 3).
'COEXIST (I Will Bless The Lord At All Times?)’ is a lullaby for parents of children caught up in war, featuring a soundscape by Brian Eno.
Coexist is the idea at the center of this lyric. That religion has become a reason to go to war is crazy to us. It’s easy to fall into despair - there's so much to be fearful of, not least because, as we succumb to war, we are not doing enough to combat truly existential threats like the climate emergency.
Easter Lily EP available now. Read Propaganda. https://t.co/OB3mVe69vu
Being a Christian doesn’t mean pretending that everything is ‘all right really’ when actually it isn’t. To lament is to recognize that things still are out of joint, and that we can and should bring our puzzled sorrow and frustration into God’s presence. God’s gift of lament (following the Jesus who, according to Isaiah 53.3, was ‘a man of sorrows and acquainted with infirmity’) is the way we join in with God’s own sorrow at the continuing tragedy of his world.
Second, though, the importance of genuine celebration. Keeping the season of Easter isn’t whistling in the dark. It is opening our eyes to the light – and, in astonished gratitude, determining day by day to live in that light. Once we get Lent right – once we learn to lament properly, with our bodies as well as our minds and hearts – we can then praise God for Jesus’ death and resurrection, and for the new creation into which we have been brought, without any danger of making it sound cheap or trivial.
-From Wilderness to Glory: Lent and Easter for Everyone
Powerful and personal reflections from Francis Schaeffer on prayer, suffering, and the sovereignty of God during his battle with cancer in 1981:
"God is not a dispensing machine. God is a personal God, and I must allow Him to answer my prayers in the light of His wisdom instead of my limitedness."
Franky Schaeffer: "And that's not a cop-out?"
Schaeffer: "Not at all. It's rooted in the heart of all things and that is, He's infinite; I'm finite. I'll tell you something, nothing could terrify me more, and I'm being very serious, nothing could terrify me more than that I could ask for anything today and get it, because I don't know enough."
Franky: "Including, for your own health?"
Schaeffer: "Oh, absolutely. Just as much as for anything."
Franky: "Are you willing to say that as a person who, ok, let's face it, has cancer that's serious enough so it could be killing you?"
Schaeffer: "Yeah, of course...
If I could wave a wand or push a button and get rid of it, in one sense, of course I'd do it. Who wants cancer? Let's not kid ourselves. It's no pleasure to live with this thing on top my head all the time...
But on the other hand, more profoundly, I think I can honestly say sitting here that I would rather trust God's wisdom than mine."
Please join me in praying for a break through that our federal workers who are working without pay (with perseverance, hard work and smiles) would be paid on this gorgeous day at our nation’s capitol.
Fantastic to launch of "Blood & Water," chronicling the life and legacy of Pakistan's Shahbaz Bhatti, in London. Thanks to CSW, @MervThomas, @CecilSChaudhry, @TheSanctuaryCD and @BishopAngaelos for hosting!
Get your copy now at @IgnatiusPress: https://t.co/H9T4UX3DmU