Observations

Reading "Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy" by Eric Metaxas tunes my imagination to what might happen in my own lifetime.

Have you ever felt like your spiritual life was under water? For some, this is their sad reality.  Drowning in the depths of despair and fear, pain and confusion, there is no clarity or strength in their belief.  There is no substance to their faith, no hope in their heart...

Think with me for a moment… Love songs tell of the glory of the loved and the response of the lover. They highlight the value of the person being loved and the commitment and actions of the one who’s offering their love in return. In a way, then, “worship songs” are like love songs to Jesus, and “love songs”… Are like “worship songs” to people.

His heart is beating...but he cannot breathe on his own. Only his life support tube keeps him functioning. His heart is beating, but he can do nothing but lie there, draining the resources of his caregiver. His heart is beating, but he is causing great stress to his family, for whom it would be so much easier to pull the plug...

To the young and the young-at-heart: It is a sad and subtle thing to exchange big dreams for achievable goals, and to do so often results in a life that finds its hope and answers in list-based follow-through, rather than life-giving faith. Beware the shrinking of your horizons and do not too quickly surrender the half-wild fire of youthful ideals for the tame coals of premature age. O God, protect us from surrendering to the ideal of safe options, and keep us recklessly dependent on Your provision ’til the end.

As a customer, do you ever feel “processed”? I avoid long lines at Starbucks (and other places) because I don’t want to be processed as part of a batch. I want to be treated like a person. Here’s a question I’m forced to ask myself, though. What about when the tables are turned? Do others feel “processed” by me when I don’t take the time to engage them as people? Here’s what I’ve discovered: to be free to treat people as people, I must have clock time and mental space to do so. This requires managing my tasks and responsibilities well so I can be unhurried and unstressed in my dealings with others. If I’m not able to be efficient with the checklists of my work, I’ll usually end up treating...