For One Hour

I've been thinking about shame a lot lately. It is a word I hear a lot around the church. I've always thought of it as something you feel when you've done something wrong, and I think it does apply there. But we may also feel it about ourselves in ways that don't relate to guilt. I had lunch with a vibrant, brave, joyful friend recently who has walked through really hard times in the last few years. I think she could be fearful and ashamed of what has happened in her life. But instead I see in her this clinging to Jesus and this joyful belief that He is her defender and He lifts her head. She has done the hard work of seeking out godly counsel and seeking out forgiveness and seeking out ways she needs to fight sin in herself. I think sometimes the sum of all we've done and all that's happened to us results in a cloak of shame hanging over the real person we are. We are not really sure why it is we feel ashamed, but there must be some fault in us that has cau...

One of the hard things for me about where we live is that once we pass winter and I'm eager to get outside in the springtime, my allergies hit! So the one thing I'd love to do after a long cold winter actually makes me feel horrible (allergy medicine definitely helps!). I was out walking recently after it had rained a lot and my allergies were not acting up. I thought to myself, "The rain must have covered up the pollen or something because I'm not reacting to anything." Then my next thought was, "But I know what rain does--feeds those flowers and trees and eventually will cause even greater growth!" It made me think about seasons in our life--sometimes we look around and all we see is gray and cold and rainy weather. It can be hard to imagine it will ever change. Then, out of nowhere, this beautiful new growth appears, stronger and more beautiful than we could even fathom. I think in the Christian life, the Lord consistently sends trials (or rain) to H...