Heart
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Delight: the Ministry of the Holy Spirit
Delight did not come easily to me as a child. I had a somewhat lonely childhood. I even suffered from a lengthy stint of childhood depression. So when a lovely older lady named Winnie, from the house with the luscious orange and lemon trees a block away, invited me to milk and cookies in her backyard, I immediately agreed. This was back in the seventies when parental supervision was more relaxed. “You are such a good girl!’ she would say to me, and such was the pleasure in her tone that I was forced to reconsider my idea of myself. I never thought of myself at bad, particularly, but neither…
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Baby Heart Revival: A Transforming Miracle
The third grade daughter of a friend of mine had a hurting heart. Childhood depression isn’t always obvious, but this little girl was very introverted, always looked ragged, and was unaffectionate and disconnected from her mother. In fact, she would hiss at her if she tried to hug her. Childhood depression is hard to treat because eight is too young to experiment with medication, and generally, children aren’t self-aware enough to get a lot out of counseling. But children have one advantage over adults, and that is that they are still connected to their youngest selves. Adults can have a difficult time accessing their inner child, but an eight year…
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Prayer as a Competitive Sport
Sometimes it is possible to read too many books on one subject. One’s head gets filled with all theory and no practice. I found myself in this position a number of years ago when I had read as many books on prayer as I could get my hands on. I became very sensitive to the various approaches to prayer and observed carefully the people around me as they prayed. Some seemed to be in earnest, actually too earnest, as if trying to prove their sincerity. Others shouted at the devil, and still others read long and eloquent prayers out loud. The cool pastors were all very casual as if talking…
