My Journey of Redemption

I re-read the book No Graven Image by Elizabeth Elliot this year, and I found that it resonated with me profoundly as I am living through a difficult end to a difficult season of life. The book challenges the assumption that we are guaranteed results in our efforts for God, and the so easy to slip into fallacy that God is helping us do our work, not we participating in His will and plans. It’s so easy to think that God needs us to do for Him, and our basic human instinct is that if we do good, then good must result. If we sacrifice for God, then He is obligated to pay up. If we do a difficult thing, we are owed some sort of payoff. And if we start to get into the dangerous habit of thinking of our results as what actually matters…instead of knowing God, then we have an idol in the making. First, in case you’re worried about my grasp of basic doctrines, of course I believe that the bible says—there is great reward for righteousness, that it won’t all turn up in this life, tha

I was talking with Ruthie yesterday about a co-worker's health struggle and the pressure she has been under from other co-workers to take a drastic and irrevocable step that would have lasting emotional impact to solve it. One of the preassurers has caused me a lot of pain with they way they constantly minimize and dismiss the struggles and suffering of others, including me. In the car on the way to church this morning, this person mentioned they were raised to downplay injury and illness (as was I), and it occurred to me that this might be a piece of the story of who this person is, as well as a danger of teaching kids that Christians don't suffer big. While there is a lot of value to teaching kids to suck it up (as I have seen and dealt with lots of kids who can't handle anything without a meltdown or massive production), I am realizing more and more how careful I need to be about dealing with kid's pain, because how I handle them will set patterns for how they h