Link Love
Every year I take some time away at the beginning of the year to reflect on the previous year and pray over the coming year. I've been doing this for the past five years and it has proven to be one of the most helpful disciplines for me—so much so that I think I probably need to do it quarterly instead of yearly. This year a friend and I rented a cabin a few hours from our home and it was perfect. I printed out several articles I read this month that I wanted to continue mulling over, as well as the list of questions I go through, before I went and I wanted to share them with you here.
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These questions are a compilation of several lists others have created and I curate it each year depending on where I know I need more intentional work.
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2014 was a year where I felt stuck. I felt caught in my own brain and thoughts and locked into a cage of my own making. Wendy's article on the Sanctification Spiral was hugely helpful to me this week, just a reminder of God's faithfulness to finish us in His time: When you feel “stuck,” when you feel like you are continually rehearsing the same struggles, remember this: sanctification is not an endless, repetitive circle. It is a growing spiral in which each round penetrates more deeply into our identity as fallen, but redeemed, image-bearers of God.
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2014 was a year where I forgot to look up often. I love nature, I love creation, but I felt stuck in a concrete box of suburban living. But the truth is the sky is always there and there's more too, if I'll look for it: Even if I turn out to be wrong, I shall bet my life on the assumption that this world is not idiotic, neither run by an absentee landlord, but that today, this very day, some stroke is being added to the cosmic canvas that in due course I shall understand with joy as a stroke made by the architect who calls himself Alpha and Omega.
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For some reason I felt irked by the plethora of "Top Ten 2014" posts I saw in December. I'm not proud of that (especially since I've indulged in my share of top tens before), but I did appreciate Tim Willard's Top Ten. It encouraged me on multiple levels: In the very small “Christian media world” of books, organizations, conferences, and so on, it’s easy to see the folks who seem to be the most successful and culturally relevant and mimic them. But this is not wise, nor is it fulfilling.
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2014 was a year where I felt the question posed often, "Do you WANT this?" This article came at the perfect time for me this year. You may not agree with all or some of his conclusions, but I found comfort in the transparency of the confession here. My soul needs to be around ready confessors: The key question for Christians is the same one Jesus put to the lame man at the pool of Bethesda: “Do you want to be healed?” Similarly, for pastors, I would say that the key question is: “Do you want to heal?” Too often, either pastors or laypeople (and sometimes both) think they want healing or to heal, but actually would rather give or receive sugar pills.
