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The Unknown God: Our Misconception of Identity Part 2
A misconception of identity is as dangerous as a misconception of love. I used to think that very little mattered. By this, I mean that whenever things happened that were unpleasant or painful, I would dismiss it with the idea that it didn’t matter. I would just get over it. Of course, this was merely a minimization of how deeply events really affected me. As I moved out of denial, I began to realize that everything matters, though perhaps not with the same impact. And the one that matters most is how we understand ourselves in relation to God and our neighbor. Our ways of relating to others are one…
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How Our Relational Style Affects Our Faith
I find that if I have a misconception of love and thus of God, that is, one that does not align fully with scripture, I need look no further than my relational style. Because we are in a genuine relationship with the Lord, we will often have similar hang-ups to those we have in our human relationships. All of us have a relational style, learned from parents and friends that we bring to our marriages and parenting. It should then come as no surprise that those relational styles affect our connection with God. A misconception of love, too, is common. As a naïve seventeen-year-old, I took my first husband’s overwhelming…
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The Great Reversal is Coming!
Reversal is everywhere in the Bible. That the Bible is a revolutionary document probably comes as a surprise to some because these days it is commonly viewed as an old-fashioned narrative that is out of date. But the philosophical and literary weight the Bible pulls influences so many current arenas, not the least of which is how we relate our personal stories. To give some historical perspective, the pre-biblical narrative of the day was a circular one. Like the snake devouring its own tail, the pagan narratives were stories of endless cycles that never arrive, merely circle back around to its origin over and over. Reincarnation is an example of…
Healing Through Art & Words
