Life of Worship
Looking upwards.
Related topics: Christian Music, Creativity and Art, For Reflection, Spiritual Practice
LATEST POSTS
a psalm of david, when he fled from absalom his son
I'll be honest. Just writing this stuff on how to lament is tough. I've gotten feedback as I share on this topic that some people just can't relate. Some prefer to focus on the joy of the Lord, and others on simply finding contentment. And all due respect to other...
how we love
Lillee bounces down the aisle and slides into the pew like she comes to this church with us every week. She pulls a hymn book out of the rack. When time comes for the children’s sermon, she beats everyone to the platform steps and takes a seat next to Miss Jeannie,...
of waterfalls, honey, and mushrooms
The upper falls, they say, is the third largest vertical waterfall east of the Mississippi at over 200 feet across with a 48-foot drop. The river falls at more than 50,000 gallons per second and looks like honey tumbled. “Look,” my husband says. “There’s why.” He...
when you have no idea where you are going
It's been one of those weeks. You've had them, right? Times of hard decision-making and what-ifs that lead to more waiting and second-guessing and flip-flopped fear and trust, and you just want a final decision to be made and hope you can live with it. Except each...
to be deceived by beauty
They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. Mark 4:18-19 (ESV) I'm aware of the deception, but I make no effort to resist....
how to be happy: declare yourself bankrupt
Our pastor tells a story about how France’s King Louis XIV planned his own farewell extravaganza. He left instructions that at his funeral service, the Notre Dame cathedral would remain dark except for a single candle above his golden coffin, the candle...
when God smokes
I've started a new book. Well, I haven't exactly started to actually read it yet. Like starting at page one. I've been thumbing through it to decide if I really want to read a book with such a scandalous title as The God Who Smokes written by someone named...
who’s in control here?
A brilliant New Testament scholar once asked a group of us what is the most important word in the New Testament. We all took stabs at it. Was it love? Faith? Hope? Sanctification? Grace? "No," he said. "It's the little word let. L-E-T." Let Jesus Christ do his good...
to be content in every condition
God sends the stormy wind of his providential and painful visitations, to sweep away the clouds and cause the hidden luminary to shine forth. ~ John Angell James, Benefits of Affliction Every day I have a choice – to choose despair or delight, grumbling or...
beholding Glory: Kingdom come here on earth {blessed are those who mourn}
There is a way for us to behold glory, and it looks like reaching across the table and just crying with someone who's hurting, not saying much. Sometimes all you can say, your arms around them, is this sucks. I understand what it means to be angry at God--I've been...
and then i jump
I brush the hair from my mouth and eyes, pull hands up into sweatshirt sleeves, and lean into the wind as we trudge up the path. We gather under the pavilion to struggle into harnesses, clip heavy ropes to anchor loops, tighten helmets. I feel much less brave than...
all i have seen…
It’s hard work these days – with joints that flare and lungs that clog - to leave the comforts of home, so if you ask me why I’m compelled to push through the pain and hobble about with a camera, the short answer is this... For his invisible attributes, namely, his...
how brokenness sings
They found the lump in August. By September she was bald. The wall of her chest, I mean. Cut clean from the cancer, but also dismembered from her femininity. And the healing was long and slow. Most of the scars, they still ache, when she thinks of it all....