Abundant Life
- Abundant Life, Self, Self Awareness, Self-Acceptance, Self-awareness, Self-forgiveness, self-improvement
Godly Self-Care: Learning to Live Whole
Self-care is often the source of disdain for Christian bloggers. Sometimes they have a point in that much of self-care advice is shallow and merely a diversion from the actual underlying issues that cause us suffering. I have nothing against pedicures, chocolate, soothing music, or hot baths. But I truly believe that self-care, in its proper sense, is absolutely godly and even more of a command than a suggestion. The human is the crowning glory of creation, whose central injunctions are to steward the earth and make more humans. I hate those memes suggesting that humans are an invasive species or a virus from which nature suffers. But in all…
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How I Learned that God is Good
God is good all the time. All the time, God is good. I hear that at church a lot, but that isn’t where I learned that God is, indeed, good. Humans must acquire some kinds of knowledge experientially because an intellectual assent isn’t belief. The dictionary allows for both, citing belief an acceptance of a statement as truth and as confidence or trust in something. In spiritual matters, merely intellectually consenting to God’s goodness can still leave one staring in terror at the inevitable void. We acquire the ability to rest in the knowledge of God’s goodness through the slow process of building a relationship. Ironically, I learned that God…
- Abundant Life, emotional health, Emptiness, Fear, Self Awareness, self worth, Self-Acceptance, True self
The Five Wounds of a People Pleaser
I think most of us struggle with being a people pleaser at some point. Our development as adults requires that we let go of the fear of man as the Bible calls it. We first individuate from our parents, a task that takes decades. After that, we must carve out our identities, choosing what we will and will not stand for as a person. Often this process means eliminating friends along the way, determining which relationships are toxic and which are life-giving. C.S. Lewis famously said that man’s strongest drive was to belong to a group. In essence, humans are herd animals. And like sheep, each of us has gone…
