We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.

IMG_4161

Dying to Live

Image by Benjamin Corey

A few days ago, Benjamin Corey over at Formerly Fundy posted a blog about an encounter he had with God in the Holy Land. He shared that he’s been going through a difficult time, and that God met him in a desolate place to speak to him. You should definitely hop over and read the whole article. Here’s a short snippet to give you an idea of what God said to him:

Letting go and embracing death to ourselves, death to hopes, and death to our own dreams so that something new and beautiful can grow out of that death is hard– especially since our part is just the dying part– and that we have to wait and trust for the fruit it will bring. Yet, I believe with all my being, that this is the crazy, illogical life that God invites us into.

And this is the backwards invitation of God: if we want to truly live, we first must become willing to die.

Related Reading

Do Something Beautiful

Wonderlane via Compfight Richard Beck posted this reflection of the woman who anointed Jesus’ feet with her hair and the idea of a Christian aesthetic. It’s inspiring. From the blog: More and more, I’ve come to describe my faith in similar terms, in aesthetic terms. Some things in the world–big global things and small things I…

Grieving with the God who Pulled the Trigger?

Lawrence Krauss recently wrote a thought-provoking, soul-searching essay for CNN Opinion entitled, “Why must a nation grieve with God?” Krauss was disturbed by a comment made by President Obama at a memorial service for the victims of the tragedy at Newtown CT.  Commenting on Jesus’ statement to “Let the little children come to me,” Obama opined:…

Podcast: Dear Greg: My Friend Committed Suicide. Should I Pray for Her Soul?

When does our story end? Greg talks about suicide and praying for the dead.   http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0414.mp3

N.T. Wright on the Whole Sweep of Scripture

Here’s a really fine video message from N.T. Wright on how to read Scripture. So many of the misunderstandings we take away from Scripture happen when we pick out a verse here and there and neglect the whole story. We hope this will bless you and encourage you to “press your nose against the window.”

On Dying and Compassion

Last week many of us were talking about end of life issues after we viewed Brittany Maynard’s heartbreaking video sharing her decision to take her own life in the face of her terminal illness and the prospect of terrible suffering ahead. This inspired a response from another woman, a Christian who is also dying of cancer, imploring Brittany…

Don’t Be a Functional Atheist at Christmas

All of us raised in Western culture have been strongly conditioned by what is called a secular worldview. The word secular comes from the Latin saeculum, meaning “the present world.” A secular worldview, therefore, is one that focuses on the present physical world and ignores or rejects the spiritual realm. To the extent that one…