Who has the right to complain? One of the students in the recovery program at the Mission where I work made this comment, only slightly refined by me: “The only person with a right to complain about how they are being treated is the one who is treating everyone else perfectly.” The context for this discussion was the perennial poor treatment of the students, who run the program, by the “friends and neighbors,”…
There is a huge difference between the enemy’s ways with you and God’s. Have you noticed how the enemy (a.k.a. “the accuser of the brethren”) is always breathing out heavy threats, bearing down hard on you for every fault, putting pressure on you to fix yourself or your problems pronto, pushing you to be your own savior? How different the Lord’s ways with us are! With God there are no demands pressuring us to rescue ourselves…
What is normal for a Christian? Normal is running to Jesus and God the Father saying: Lord, I need Your help and Your leadership: help me trust You; show me what to do. I fully surrender to You: send whatever You want to send; allow whatever You have to allow; ask of me whatever You desire; withhold me from and withhold from me all that is needed. This is normal. You and I have been shown the Ruler of the…
We all want to be accepted, don’t we? We yearn to find those people, places and events where we feel like we truly belong, where we can “be ourselves” and not have to put up a false front. What if there is a place we can always go and be accepted immediately—just as we are, even when we are most messed up? What if there is someone who will never push us away, but always welcome us with open arms?…