-
Life sucks sometimes. It's hard. But we were never promised an easy life, we are almost always guaranteed a tough life.

Scripture is chock full of examples of life being hard, of it sucking, of it beating the crap out of people. But it talks about a God who continues to walk with us and love us and ask us to live for others.

Life is worth it. Because how we live our lives shapes us and it can shape others.

Watch this short video about Caio Terra, a Ju-Jitsu black belt. He speaks much wisdom. He is speaking about martial arts but the ideas apply to all of life.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bread of Life. A reflection on John 6:35-40

-
        I love this middle part of John’s Gospel. From chapter 5 through 12, John’s Gospel deals with unbelief. Well, persecution and unbelief, but today I want to focus on the unbelief. John’s Gospel is the Gospel of Love, a spiritual manifest of who Jesus declares, repeatedly, who he is. And we don't we believe him. I think it would be safe to assume, that a lot of us go through periods of belief and unbelief. I’ll let you in on a little secret. I did. It was only for about two years, but who’s keeping track. I know many folks in ministry, maybe more so in my field of chaplaincy, that struggle continuously with unbelief. But it doesn't make you a bad person, and especially not a bad Christian.  I recently read a quote by Timothy Keller. He’s a well known Presbyterian Pastor and has written about experiencing God during periods of doubt and struggle. He says: “The basic premise of religion-that if you live a good life, things will go well for you-is wrong. Jesus was t
Read more

Paternity Leave

-
Image
 I haven't blogged in over a year. Father forgive for I have sinned.  It's been a busy year. My wife and I now have a son, Calvin who is now 3 months old. Oh, and the pandemic. I have done something I don't normally do. I took time off from work. *Gasp* I have taken a month to be on paternity leave with Calvin while my wife returns to work, albeit from home. (see pandemic.)  So I will attempt to use the next 3 weeks to blog my experience of being a stay at home dad and some theological musings around that.  Oh, and if you haven't guessed, our son is named after that reformer, and a certain cartoon. 
Read more

Love is as deep as the tears in our hearts that no one sees

-
Joel 2:13 Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. Rend your hearts and not your garments. Well what the heck does that even mean!? Well good thing I went to seminary and barely survived, I mean studied Hebrew! Well the Hebrew word qara (kaw-rah) actually means to  tear, so Joel here is telling us to tear our hearts, and not clothes. Um, no, that would hurt!          But the prophet Joel is talking here in the 2nd chapter about coming to the Lord with fasting, mourning and weeping and to tear your heart and not your clothing. In ancient Israel, tearing your clothing was an act of symbolism, it expressed grief and morning. So Joel is telling the people to come to God when in grief not ripping your clothes in an outward expression of sorrow, but in a inward looking, self reflective, self aware act of submission and mourning.     
Read more