by David Anderson
“If you died tonight, where would you spend eternity?” I heard that over and over in the church of my childhood and youth. It was a stock ending to an evangelistic sermon aimed at getting people saved. I grew up in South Dakota, but if you went to a Baptist church in Wisconsin or Washington, […]
by David Anderson 12 Comments Filed Under: Adult Spirituality, Belief, Conversion, Daily Practice, Death/Dying, Faith/Trust, Letting Go, Now/ the Present, Prayer/Meditation, Salvation
is the queen of surrender. When the angel comes to her with the news, both impossible and outrageous, she says simply, “Let it be.” Let what is about to happen, happen. This isn’t passivity or indifference. It isn’t fatalistic. Not, “Well, it’s bound to happen, so there’s no sense fighting it.” It’s curious, wanting to […]
by David Anderson 7 Comments Filed Under: Faith/Trust, Lent, Letting Go, Listening, Reality--trusting it, Surrender, Transformation, Uncategorized, Vocation/ Calling
always knew where this life-in-God was taking him. But his Gethsemane night of agony reveals his deep confusion and misgiving: he didn’t think it would come to this. He falls on his face and prays mightily for God to find another way, sweating blood. Nevertheless, he prays, “not my will but yours be done.” Jesus […]
by David Anderson 8 Comments Filed Under: Belief, Faith/Trust, Lent, Letting Go, Surrender, Transformation, Uncategorized
is not like the puff adder, the snake who inflates himself to look bigger than he actually is. John gets smaller. John was a baptizer—that’s how he got his name, after all. And at the start he was quite popular. Baptism business was brisk. Until Jesus and his disciples began baptizing, and people started flocking […]
by David Anderson 5 Comments Filed Under: Lent, Letting Go, Power, Surrender, Transformation
became great in the act of surrender. After his long odyssey, Abraham finally made it to the land of Canaan. His nephew Lot had come with him, and they had both done very well. In fact, they had so many flocks and herds that the land could not support them both. Their herdsmen were quarrelling, […]
by David Anderson 2 Comments Filed Under: Blessing, Choice, Family, Guidance, Lent, Letting Go, Surrender, Uncategorized
has decided he wants joy more than he wants order or a clean accounting of things. When the prodigal comes home from his bender, having wasted his early inheritance, the father throws a party. That doesn’t make sense to most of us parents, and it sure didn’t seem right to the elder brother. Why, he […]
by David Anderson 10 Comments Filed Under: Adult Spirituality, Conflict, Faithfulness, Family, Forgiveness, Freedom, Grace, Lent, Letting Go, Love, Mercy, Surrender
only did what we’d all do. He had more than he could use, and since there were no Public Storage or CubeSmart or LifeStorage facilities back in the biblical day, he built barns, lots of barns. We hear about our pack rat when someone in a crowd surrounding Jesus yelled out, “Teacher, tell my brother […]
by David Anderson 3 Comments Filed Under: Abundance, Letting Go, Money
was undoubtedly bored. Ever since humans took to the waves, ennui has been aboard. Like war, life at sea can be “interminable boredom punctuated by moments of terror.” In the psychological doldrums, sailors carved scrimshaw, made up sea shanties, sang them over and over, played cards, drank beer and rum. Noah’s voyage was worse for […]
by David Anderson Leave a Comment Filed Under: Breathing, Daily Practice, Discernment, Faith/Trust, Guidance, Lent, Letting Go, Now/ the Present, Prayer/Meditation, Surrender, Transformation