Featured
Some people enjoy change. Others avoid it whenever possible. Regardless, change itself affects some of the circuitry within our bodies and brains. Current brain research shows us that the brain is adaptable – a concept called ‘neuroplasticity.’ Behaviors and thought patterns that we reinforce with repetition create stronger neuropathways, feeding the habitual nature of our actions. In order to weaken these pathways, new ways need to replace old ones, which is most difficult starting out. By way of analogy, if you were finding your way through a dense jungle,
A play in one act, based on John 4:4-42
Setting: A well in Samaria, around lunch time
Narrator: speaks scripture verses, clearly but without inflection, very neutral
Disciples, two or three serious men
Samaritan Woman holding a water jar, a bit sloppy and disheveled looking
Samaritan villagers two or three
Last year, at the formation of Redemption Church, we put into place an expectation of periodic sabbatical rest for pastoral staff. Jason Hess, immediately after the merger took a three month sabbatical to get much needed rest and healing from the inevitable weariness and wounds that come from shepherding the flock of God. During that time in 2019 we also scheduled a sabbatical for myself for the Summer of 2020 not knowing the strange and difficult days that would befall us this spring. So now we have had to decide whether we should continue on with this plan given the strange times that we are living through.
“My throat hurts,” Rachel, my wife, said to me as I walked into the room, “and I feel achy all over.” It had been a normal Friday (whatever normal means during a pandemic). Rachel and I had taken care of the kid and tried to get as much work done as possible. She mentioned earlier in the day that she felt a mild tickle to her throat but thought nothing over it at the time. We talked as she was curled up and feeling miserable on the couch, and decided it was best if she isolate herself in our bedroom until we knew more clearly what this might be. Over the next 10 days, her cough and body aches got worse, and she experienced
The perspective of Revelation destroys our guilt as it teaches us that that it is in those moments of very real failure and weakness that we glorify God. It is our failures that both reveal and lead us to experience the very real holiness, power, justice, goodness, grace, and mercy of “the one who is and was and who is to come, the Almighty” (Revelation 1:8) his parent and child scene may be all too familiar to many of us.
The rolled eyes. The defiant posture. A cursory “no”. Then our anger boils, temper flares, and voice rises. And once again we feel the weight of having “failed” as parents.