I once offended a woman by extolling the virtues of repentance to her. I believe the misunderstanding lay in our definition of the word. I think the image she had in her mind was of penitents on their knees making a painful trek to the Vatican. My image was of Christian in front of the Cross in Pilgrim’s Progress shedding his burden of sin and shame. Say the word repentance and we often default to condemnation and the list of our shortcomings we carry in the back of our minds. Of course, she may have just been angry at the…
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I imagine most everyone feels self-destructive at one point or another. Sometimes the teen years can prove too much or during times of great stress, we can all separate from our selves emotionally. But one of a successful and healthy person’s duties is to care for themselves, making sure that they don’t turn their lives into a train wreck that can claim lives other than just their own. Being self-destructive, like most things is a matter of degree. While perhaps some are just a bit careless with their lives, others are bent on ending a relationship with themselves once and…
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I suppose each person has their own idea of what an abundant life looks like, but I am pretty sure people agree on what it feels like to lack one. The promise of an abundant life is perhaps one of the most abused promises precisely because of our individual interpretations. And when those interpretations are mostly external, expectations are likely to be disappointed. The one sure place to look for signs of an abundant life is the only one who really understood what one was. And I suppose even Jesus, like the rest of us, suffered interruptions of that life,…