Just as I hummed and hawed, wondering how the few dollars I had in my wallet, Spotify picked a new song. It was new to me, which is one of the nice things about Spotify. It will randomly pick songs it thinks that you will like. It did more than that.
Spotify picked a song that spoke right to the worriedness that was trying to creep in and squashed it like a bug. Continue reading “Consider The Redwood and The Daisies”
Everyone is talking about Chris Pratt and his MTV Movie Awards speech. Some are calling it a sermon.
I totally understand why they are talking about it, why is it being shared and passed around social media. It isn’t often that we have an A-list superstar in Hollywood encouraging people to take care of their souls, and believe in God.
(Though to be fair, there are a lot of people with Christian faith in Hollywood. It’s just that they didn’t win an MTV Movie Awards a couple nights ago.)
So, why the headline? Why the warning? Because bullet point Christianity is dangerous.
There are times we head something enough that we don’t question it anymore. We get so used to hearing it that it seems too obvious to be obvious. This is especially true with the Bible.
Some of us have heard the stories and specific passages so many times that they don’t pack a punch anymore. They hit us like a dead leaf floating on a light summer breeze.
For example,
“So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.”
How many times have you read that? Heard a sermon about it? Probably as many as I have, which is a lot.
But have you ever let the passage just sit with you? Make you ask questions, like ‘WHO IS THE SECOND EVE?’ Continue reading “Who Is the Second Eve?”
Sometimes a song just captures what you are feeling. The joy, the freedom and youth of a great dance song.
Sometimes a song takes you on an emotional journey. Either up from the bog of sadness to Cloud 9, or the other way around, not the destroy you but to feel deeply a shared human feeling.
Other times, a song reminds you of the deepest truth, the one that your soul needs to know most.
This is a story about that song, the kind that speaks right to your spirit in a time of crisis.
As a parent, I want my kids to be safe. Always safe. I would love it if I had a guarentee that stated my kids would never get sick, never have skinned knees, never break a bone, and never have anything traumatic or devastating happen to them.
I want to wrap them in bubble wrap, and would but I don’t want them to choke on the plastic either, so…
We pray. We pray prayers for health, for safety, and against sicknesses and bad things happening. And sometimes we say the words “hedge of protection”…
Is that something we should pray? Is there any biblical support for such a turn of phrase as asking for God to put a hedge of protection around someone? Or is this something we as Christians need to stop doing? Continue reading “Should We Pray For A “Hedge of Protection”?”
Our Heavenly Father,
Today is a day we set aside to honour and show respect to our earthly fathers. It’s a day that we press pause on and look at the men in our lives, and say ‘thank you God.’
Thank you God for our fathers. Thank you for the dads that are young and full of energy and spirit. Thank you for the old dads that have wisdom and experience to pass on. Thank you for grandpas, grandfathers, grandpapies, and papas. Thank you for great grandfathers, and even great great grandfathers. Thank you for the legacy of men that have risen up and taken the role of “father” seriously and lived to see the fruit of their labour, the fruit of their choices.
Lord, we thank you for our fathers. Those of us that still have our fathers here, with us, we thank you that we have that encourager, that educator, that builder of our faith, that strong male example in our lives. Thank you God for the fathers that are present, here, not gone off somewhere, leaving their families and responsibilities. Thank you for their integrity, their dedication, their obedience.
We also thank you for those dads that aren’t here. Though they may not be with us today, as dust returned to dust, we remember them still, and love them. Thank you God that we can hold onto those memories of our fathers, the great men that were and are no more. On days like today, Father, give us peace. Not that the sorrow goes away, but when we do cry, when we do weep as we miss them, God, may your Spirit be there with us.
While many of us spend this day being thankful, not all of us know our dad. Some of us are fatherless, and without that male role model. To those, God, I pray a softening of their hearts. That there would be no anger, no hatred, no violence towards these men in their hearts. Yes, it is hard to be without a dad. It is unfair to leave someone without a dad, but you have not left these little children. You have no abandon them.
So, Father, I ask that you would speak to the heart of the fatherless. Speak your gentle truth, that you love them like a dad. That you are not leaving or abandoning them. That you are proud of them. That they are loved, much more than they know. That you are the one that they can look to and call “Daddy.”
Lord, whatever the situation, whatever the circumstance, we ask that you would bless our earthly fathers. I ask that you would embolden them with strength of heart, that they would carry out your will with conviction, and teach it to their children. I ask that you would encourage them with courage to love, because there is no other way in which our world will be changed. I ask that you would speak to each father, each dad, and they would be uplifted. Being a father is not easy, God, help these men to be living, breathing examples of Jesus.
In the holy name of Jesus,
Amen
This article first appeared on Christian Thought Sandbox.
A few years ago, I wrote about giving dads a break on Father’s Day.
I’d heard to many sermons about fathers, essentially, sucking at their role and them needing to get with the program. They were failing their wives, children, the church, everyone. And that couldn’t stand.
It frustrated me that it seemed to happen every year. But now, I feel like we need more Father’s Day messages like that. Continue reading “I’m Not Going To Be Nice This Father’s Day”
