When he was still a long way off, his father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him. Luke 15.20 Times are when you don't pray. There's been a lot going on, you've been on holiday, you're not feeling up to it, you're busy, stressed, anxious, overwhelmed. There are always … Continue reading Starting again, again
Category: God
How to find God in the humblest of things (IV)
You are part of something unimaginably bigger than you. You can have little or no idea what that is about. It is above your pay-grade. You are a single letter in the book of God's story. Each particle of this world is your sister or brother because we are all born of the same star; … Continue reading How to find God in the humblest of things (IV)
How to find God in the humblest of things (I)
God reveals himself to the humble in the humblest of things, while the great who never penetrate beneath the surface do not discover him even in great events. de Caussade, p.5 6.51am Why am I sitting at this screen rather than walking out into the morning? I often do this. I am casting about for … Continue reading How to find God in the humblest of things (I)
Experiments (part 1)
An early love of mine was chemistry. I completed my studies with a BSc in Chemistry and a PGCE. I taught chemistry up to 11-18 year olds for 3 years. That was enough. Most experiments in science lessons are not experiments: they are demonstrations. The teacher knows what the answer is. If you don't get … Continue reading Experiments (part 1)
Do not be consistent
Those who write about God, like John V Taylor in The Christlike God, suggest that there are two fundamental, and fundamentally different, experiences of God: the numinous and the mystical: in a numinous experience you feel yourself "to be in communion with a holy other" who can "attract, fascinate and compel" as well as evoke … Continue reading Do not be consistent
The God who tears
Come, let us return to the Lord who has torn us and will heal us. God has stricken us and will bind up our wounds. After two days, he will revive us, and on the third day will raise us up, that we may live in his presence. Let us strive to know … Continue reading The God who tears
Waiting
I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting. Wait without thought, for you … Continue reading Waiting
Make no improvements
Time after time I came to your gate with raised hands, asking for more and yet more.You gave and gave, now in slow measure, now in sudden excess.I took some, and some things I let drop; some lay heavy on my hands; some I made into playthings and broke them when tired; till the wrecks … Continue reading Make no improvements
Read from the heart
But these two ways of describing the mystery of God—the way of darkness and the way of light, the ambiguity of silence and the transparency of articulation—can never be separated. There is danger in posing a sharp dichotomy between apophatic and kataphatic approaches, as if one were superior to the other, as if the higher … Continue reading Read from the heart
Trust Me (conclusion)
[This is the conclusion to Monday's post, Trust Me.] So, in what can we trust? Firstly what it is not: I cannot trust that I will find a parking space. I cannot trust that I will get that job I want. I cannot trust that my life will go well. I cannot trust that I … Continue reading Trust Me (conclusion)