Category: Suffering
Recovering From Injury – Rehabilitating the Soul – Part 2
So I hope yesterday you became convinced of that forgiveness is more about our own well-bring than it is about someone else and what they did. For when we release others from the wrong they committed against us; when we give up our desire for revenge, it’s actually ourselves whom we are setting free. We ...
Recovering From Injury – Rehabilitating the Soul
After my workout at the gym one day, while doing a routine stretching exercise, I heard a snap. Immediately I felt a sharp pain in the back of my leg. I knew instantly I’d pulled my hamstring. Serious? I was being careful! I was doing everything right! How did that happen? I wanted to scream. ...
The Unfinished Places of our Soul
Eugene Peterson observed, “You know, if there were one other word that could have been used for most translations of ‘salvation,’ it would have been ‘healing.’ ” Interestingly, most often in the New Testament when the Greek verb “sozo” occurs it is translated “saved.” It not only means being rescued from destruction, but also ...
A Grace Available
“I’m going in for a biopsy.” I could see the fear in her eyes and the concern on her husband’s face. The word “cancer” unspoken but hung thick in that corner of the café that day. No one signs up for this. “What if?” lurks under the surface of our hearts. The loss of a ...
There’s more going on than what you see.
Our walk with God will always, at some point, take us through darkness where life makes no sense. When these kinds of trials come, it’s often difficult to see beyond the trial. It clouds our perspective of God’s goodness, (“Does he really care about me?”); we question his power, (“Is God able to intervene in ...
A Theology Compatible with Suffering
Let me say right up front….I am not a theologian. I don’t have the smarts to even enter the ring with those who are. But…It seems to me that a lot of people hold to a theology of God that is not compatible with suffering. It is not compatible with the wounds and pain we ...
God of All Grace
Someone said it again this week. In speaking of a trial they were going through, they said, “Well, God must want me to learn something.” For sure, tragedy has a way of adjusting our perspective. Someone has said, “Deep suffering makes theologians of us all.” I am more and more convinced, however, that it is ...
Gail Johnsen 