Faith
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Week 12: the table (part 1)
“I will come back every f*cking week for the rest of my f*cking life whenever I’m in this town,” he said as he wiped tears from his face. The very best compliment I could have ever received. My new friend “T” started shedding tears as I ended the night in prayer. I had shared the Continue reading
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Week 11: silence
Stillness, silence, and waiting are acts of faith. They are a willingness to face the nothingness, the emptiness, the void. They authenticate a stark willingness to accept the possibility of hearing nothing, receiving no answers, gaining no direction. Sometimes (or often), it is silence for silence, darkness for darkness. But this is where we discover Continue reading
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Week 10: you are a light
“God doesn’t give a gift without giving an obligation to use it.” – Christian Wiman We sometimes assume that to do what we do not desire is to be right, to be the martyr. But to be what we were made to be, this is to be the true martyr, because the greatest battles of Continue reading
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Week 9: losing to find (part 2)
“Piously we produce our images of you / till they stand around you like a thousand walls. / And when our hearts would simply open, / our fervent hands hide you.” – Rilke We want control. We crave it. Many of us want to be told what to believe, how to believe, how to live, Continue reading
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Week 8: losing to find
If (or when) we begin to diverge from what we were so stringently taught to believe, feelings of fear and guilt may follow. Our context, upbringing, circumstances, and environment are so powerful, and have so much control over our thinking and beliefs of what is good and bad, right and wrong, true and untrue. If Continue reading
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Week 3: these three men
Sitting there with those two men (“K” and “J” we’ll call them), I felt something I haven’t felt in a long time. A little spark, a little hunger, a little thirst, the challenge of not having the answers to difficult questions; men of various backgrounds and different experiences and opinions, listening to one another without Continue reading
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new (and untold)
For most of us, trying and attempting new things is usually scary and intimidating. It’s uncomfortable, sometimes awkward, and maybe even a little embarrassing…Even though the same position we find ourselves in may come easily and without discomfort to many others, we may have to face fears and apprehensions of our own that others won’t… Continue reading
Big Sky, Christianity, courage, Faith, fear, Just Do It, Life, Montana, New, Ski Instructor, Ski School, Skiing, teaching, Trust, Try -
familiarity
…But when [Christianity’s] fundamentals are doubted, as at present, we must try to recover the candour and wonder of the child; the unspoilt realism and objectivity of innocence. Or if we cannot do that, we must try at least to shake off the cloud of mere custom and see the thing as new, if only by seeing it Continue reading
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empty tombs, pt. 1
I’ve recently begun to reread the various gospel accounts of the resurrection, which just so happens to be around the time of Easter. Despite the familiarity of this story and all the cringeworthy “Christianese” cliches, often overdone Easter bunny and Easter egg decorations, and sometimes cheesy church services that accompany it, there has suddenly entered Continue reading
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nearness
“How can a man remain what he was when he has gotten near God?” the nearness of God… “But as for me, the nearness of God is my good…” We’ve probably all heard the phrase, “Getting” or “becoming closer to God,” as if we bring ourselves near(er) to God through our own efforts, obedience, faith, Continue reading
a kingdom built of seeds 