A Biblical Answer To the Conundrum of Grief
As we face our pain, we also face the inevitability that once it’s noticed, pain invites us on a journey of meaning-making.
As we face our pain, we also face the inevitability that once it’s noticed, pain invites us on a journey of meaning-making.
Those who don’t retaliate when they’re attacked, betrayed, contravened, desecrated, or exploited are blessed.
God saves the desperate soul who is so lost only He can help them.
Goodness is our mission, should we choose to accept it.
Grief teaches us to hold life extremely lightly, and by this feather-hold, we live grateful.
Never pretending that the difficulties of life don’t exist, we overcome them through faith that says, “Let’s go!”
We stand in our own way far too often when we insist on taking control of situations and people.
Focusing on what is good in our lives negates focus on what isn’t so good.
Although the choice to dwell on the betrayal seems justified, it is not.
We go either of two ways but we can’t go both ways.
There is life on the other side, we just need support to get there one day at a time.
Leaders are inspiring when they’re thoughtful, and anticipating ways of giving to those in their care.
Acceptance is that place of peace for doing the right thing, moment to moment, in series, for a lifetime — bearing for our imperfections.
When we stay within our control, we master the moment, and we live our best life in the moment.
We all want to be treated with respect, and that actually needs to start with us.
The good always serves us in the long haul and we know it.
As soon as the drink becomes a pattern for coping a person is in trouble.
When we stay within our control, we master the moment, and we live our best life in the moment.
There comes a time in all our lives when our life is screaming at us to listen.
Connection will do its job when we can rest in the comfort of trustworthy others.
The cycles of escape and anger should be their own evidence of the wrong path.
There is the intractable presence of hope beyond the overwhelm if only we cling to the fact that good is coming.
Entitlement conveys an agenda where only one, or only those who are important to one, matter.
As we give away the deeper connection of our empathy, we give others access to the power of God.
Blessing comes in no better, nor more pungent form, than through forgiveness.
To overcome the temptation to react, we must maintain humility of heart.
Hope becomes tangible through encouragement; through putting courage in.
True love subsists in risking everything for righteousness, simply because it is the right thing to do.
Forgiveness is at the heart of peace because forgiveness itself is at the heart of healing.
The way back to peace is to forgive while remembering and honoring how and why we extended such grace.
There are no two ways about the fact that forgiveness is the way to LIFE.
This life through death is never more poignantly lived than through the death to self of extending mercy toward someone who does not deserve it.
Forgiveness is beauty, the beauty of God, a beauty we are to enact by example.
Jesus is not only our Savior, Lord, and King. He is our dearest, most faithful Friend, who always has our back.
It only takes one fraction of defiance, and we are in opposition to God.
When humanity shares God’s character in ease with forgiveness, that humanity bears God’s holiness.
Our forgiveness is a promise made back to God, that we promise never to judge as we accept in this that God alone is judge.
The City of God executes the mercy of their Maker, because, due to their character, they see far beyond a selfish justice.
All of life depends on the love that is in forgiveness, for anything else in this hard life leads to bitterness when the heart is hurt.
The forgiveness of God is enshrined in the perfection and safety of faithfulness.
When Christians forgive one another, they herald a power the world does not know, and the world notices the transcendence of this love.
Whenever we discuss concepts of forgiveness and justice, we notice that MERCY is at their intersection.
It is wisdom to honor the Lord in the normal flow of life BY honoring the way life works.
It is s only those who party with the truth—who are comfortable, resigned to facing their own truth—who can, in that moment, love.
The very reason we are motivated to BE the person of Light is that we have acknowledged that the darkness is IN us on a daily basis.
There is no greater love in this world than for someone to release their right to justice.
The moment we recognize that forgiveness is the key to moving on in spiritual growth is the moment we are freed of that which is folly.
Empathy expands our humanity, but judgment reveals entitlement.
Our sole task is to find God’s hope amid the struggle, because if we have hope we have the fuel to propel faith.
Humility is an inherent equality. We are to champion this humility.
When there is nothing left to lose, there are few expectations, hope, joy, and peace suddenly come sharply into view.
The real blessing that comes from forgiveness is patience for self, for others, and for life.
Knowing that God’s justice is perfect, we can leave others’ debts against us with God, just as we must reconcile our debts before God.
To live, we need the forgiveness of others, and just as much to live, we need to forgive.
Forgiveness is the wisdom of God that crushes evil’s design to steal hope, kill love, and destroy peace.
As Christians, we have access to this grace gift, but we can only live in it when we add nothing of ourselves to it.
Persecutions can and often do lead to disheartening that usually boomerangs back as a hardened heart.
Something precious must be lost in the material for us to gain in the spiritual.
If a person has a genuine calling from God on their life, they will not be able to refuse that call.
The power of walking away is the wisdom of the ages at the right time.
The fact that we have nothing left is not the end of our world.
It’s always the victim who gets punished and gaslit, and the one who did the manipulation in the first place tends to get away with it.
There’s so much fear and even dread experienced when we’re conditioned by others’ judgment.
The greatest paradox is that the moment we need a boost most is the moment we can procure a boost least.
We are not to be the people who minimize the true impact we have on others.
We give our peace away to “keep the peace,” somehow always knowing we’re settling for a counterfeit peace.
Joy and peace, peace and joy, are a two-for-one deal.
Where there’s entitlement without accountability, tyranny follows, whether it’s a quiet and seething undercurrent or it’s overt.
Others can cause us to be stressed and even to respond poorly, but even in these cases, we’re still required to rise above it and respond well.
To be able to see and own our role in how we impact others is the most important gift we can bring to our world.
It ought to be self-evident when our relationships are going wrong that our heart is still the problem.
We need to find the truth that will free us, and secondly, we need to believe it so we can live it.
That truth beams into all the darker corners that weren’t previously seen, and it’s painful.
There is a purpose as we receive the present yet continue to look forward to the next thing.
Life is an invitation to humility, and the more humility we show, the more gratitude is on offer for the simple things in life.
Many people can accept the concept of God’s grace and cosmic forgiveness at a head level but cannot yet feel his forgiveness in their hearts.
In a world where evil seems to reign, there’s only one cogent defense—true belief in the (eventual) justice of God.
What a person needs is to BE, and to be able to do that LONG.
In situations where there is regret for what we cannot undo, even as we process it again and again and again, we find ourselves arriving at a place of self-judgment and self-recrimination.
Show me a faith that continues to expect good from God amid catastrophe and I will show you a faith that people notice.
All relationships ought to be accorded the justice of peace because it’s a human right to feel safe.
I see you tell yourself, “I’m a pretty good husband and I’ve got a pretty good marriage,” all the while having no idea what’s really happening.
Everybody in the grasp of the silent abuse that renders their hope to despair would do anything to change their situation and experience.
Grief leaves us alone in that crowded room where everyone else is alive and awake and of good cheer.
Forgiving people who have just moved on without having to face the injustice they caused is excruciatingly hard.
In letting go of what we cannot change, we experience acceptance, and in another language that’s peace.
When we act in lovingly patient, kind, and generous ways, we heal, we are restored, our hearts are kept healthy.
You know there’s no limit to both pain yet also the unequivocal presence of God that meets people in it — by faith.
Being vulnerable is about the most courageous thing we could do, especially when we’ve endured the trauma of someone betraying our trust.
Even if the other parent of our children has done unspeakable crimes, it’s not our place to be unkind.
It is not for us to get upset about other people’s behavior over which we have no control.
The most loving thing about giving someone an opportunity to change is it invites them into a larger version of themselves.
Lament is central to true healing, one day at a time, by faith over the long haul.
As in all relationships, intimacy’s supreme moment is safety in being able to be completely honest in the relationship.
Death gives life its meaning if only we can view the whole of our lives, every single aspect, through the lens of, “This life is fleeting.”
What ultimately drew me out of that depression was Proverbs.
Overcoming addiction is the easiest hardest thing. There’s a way that works every time.
Everything that the church does that doesn’t serve God’s purpose will need to be broken.
The psalmist calls for the Lord to contend with those who contend with them, to fight against those who fight them.
There’s a secret for growth unearthed in the absolutely paradoxical step of sharing our weakness, our guilt, our shame.