Encouragement

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What's your spiritual resume look like?

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What's your spiritual resume look like?

I had to construct a resume - a “curriculum vitae” in more official terms. It’s been a very long time since my last one! But the institution for which I am teaching this summer required it.

To be honest, my resume writing skills were so rusty I had to borrow one from a colleague to use as a template. As I read all his impressive achievements, I began to wonder how mine would stack up. Not very well, at least in the academic context.

The word curriculum in Latin means a race. Vita means life. So a curriculum vitae means literally the race of life.

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A handful of quietness

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A handful of quietness

A handful of quietness.

It sounds like the title of a novel you found at your local Christian bookstore, doesn’t it? Or maybe just somebody’s desperate cry for peace after a busy day.

It is in fact a Bible verse. The full verse reads like this: “Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind.” It goes on to talk about the futility of a man who keeps on working harder and harder in order to amass more and more riches, but has no heir to pass them on to.

There's a lots of interesting things in Ecclesiastes, and you really have to study up on the background to understand it properly. But there’s gold in it if you look.

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Carrying the treasure

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Carrying the treasure

“We have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us” (2 Corinthians 4:7). Here in one sentence is expressed the secret of the release of the power of God. God’s destiny for us is to carry his power, the treasure of his presence.

The enemy knows how to attack. That attack so often comes in the form of one thing after another that gradually wears away our defences, grinds us down and leaves us weak, exposed to temptation, and feeling like giving up. We carry the treasure in jars of clay. Clay pots were the humblest form of kitchenware in those days. They were cheap and unattractive. Their greatest value was the food they held within them.

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Run to win

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Run to win

I have been running a lot. Only on treadmills, I admit, as I’m not dedicated enough to knock myself out running and freezing at the same time.

The truth is most of us spend a lot more of our lives running than we think. We are usually found either running away from something or running toward something.

We usually make mistakes at both ends.

Instead of running away from our fears or difficult situations, we should stay and face them. The only way to conquer fear is to look it straight in the face and ask God to show himself as the one whose perfect love casts all fear out. It is not easy, it is a process, and we desperately need God’s help and the help of others, but in the end it’s always worth it. Sometimes I think my whole life has been a process of overcoming different kinds of fear.

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Every square inch

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Every square inch

This afternoon found me in a series of massive barns praying over chickens. Let no one say a pastor’s job is boring.

And yes, I am serious. My friend Mat raises chickens. A lot of them. In fact, he has eight barns with forty thousand chickens in each barn. They run free and look quite content.

The problem was this. A mysterious bacteria had invaded the barns. In spite of every possible precaution being taken and the vet pronouncing the barns to be in outstanding shape, chickens were dying. And antibiotics are not an option for this business.