There and Back Again: India and Beyond

Photo by  Joanna Kosinska  on  Unsplash The past year has been an interesting journey filled with many ups and downs. It is sometimes hard for me to believe that just a year ago, I was about to face one of the most emotionally tumultuous times of my life. But, the Lord is good and His faithfulness will never cease to amaze me. Through all the weeks of pain, He remained constant, and He has brought healing to a heart that felt as if it were lifeless. Praise be to the Lord who breathes life into the dead parts of our souls! With that amazement and joy, I wanted to share the following passage from Isaiah, which is considered to be a prophetic statement concerning the coming Messiah, and one which I believe is fitting, not just for the season, but for my life and perhaps even for yours. “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or ...

Photo by  Dawid Zawiła  on  Unsplash Suffering. From the news reports of people around the world who are going without food to the phone call that informs us that a loved one has been diagnosed with a terminal illness, we are constantly faced with the reality of pain and suffering. It can be almost overwhelming, and for some of us, we just cannot face it. When I think of suffering in my observations and experiences, those are moments I would rather not recall. Suffering, in my view, looks like my Grammy, slipping away in the ICU while the family gathers around to say their goodbyes. It looks like my family being torn apart at the seams in the midst of depression, anger, and feelings of failure in the wake of leaving our first place of pastoral ministry. It looks like the advanced stages of cancer, raging inside my aunt’s body, completing its destructive mission of death. These are the images that come to mind now, as I sit here writing, knowing that just thi...

Photo by  Jacob Meyer  on  Unsplash While in India, it came to my attention that just five years earlier, there had been a massacre of Christians in the state in which I was staying. It was sobering to realize that not too long before my appearance, many of my brothers and sisters had been murdered simply because they chose to follow Christ rather than practice the Hindu religion. Since that time, I have become increasingly aware of the atrocities being committed against my Christian brothers and sisters. And with all the news concerning the spreading of ISIS, the school shooting in Oregon which targeted Christians, as well as the emails I receive each morning recounting the struggles and sufferings of believers around the world, I have become more and more concerned lately about my brothers and sisters who are being persecuted for their faith. As a twenty-something citizen of the United States, I have rarely (read: never) experienced persecution for my belief...

Photo by  David Monje  on  Unsplash My dear friends and readers, after a several-month-long hiatus, I am back! Since finishing my series on Trusting God, I have struggled to know what to share with you all next, and up until now the result has been some unfinished writings that have yet to materialize into any published posts. However, it has been impressed on my heart to share my recent thoughts about the power of the Gospel, and I am planning a series which will be an attempt at putting those things into writing. Based on 2 Corinthians 4:1-18 and inspired by a sermon my father recently preached, this series will explore the power of God to bring life from death. I am so very excited to share what the Lord has been placing on my heart and at the forefront of my mind! I trust that He will use this series to encourage your hearts. Deception. We see it all around us, so much that it almost seems like a normal piece of life. Just turn on the television to watch...

Photo by  Daryn Stumbaugh  on  Unsplash Throughout this blog series, I have discussed what it means to trust the Lord in a variety of contexts: when our desires and dreams are yet unfulfilled , when we are lonely , when we fail to measure up , and when we surrender to the Lord’s way . In this post, I would like to explore one of the things that can undermine our ability to leave what we have surrendered in the Lord’s hands – fear. As humans, we are well acquainted with fear – we fear change, we fear the unknown, we fear losing control, we fear being lonely, we fear that we won’t measure up. We fear. The problem is that if we give into our fears, we find ourselves falling deeper and deeper into despair, succumbing to more fears and ultimately paralyzing ourselves. Even worse, we often end up hurting the people around us. It reminds me of the 2013 Disney animated film “Frozen.” The movie portrays two sisters (Elsa and Anna) – one of whom is ruled by her fears,...

Photo by  Jared Erondu  on  Unsplash Often, we are tempted to think that surrender is a dirty word. No one wants to give up their rights, their freedom to choose, their opinions of what’s best for them. After all, for those of us in the Western world, our lives revolve around ourselves – we pride ourselves in our accomplishments, in having the freedom to live our lives in whatever way we choose. We revel in our autonomy, and we hate even the thought of surrendering any part of ourselves. This attitude permeates our entire culture and affects every aspect of our relationships. But what does it actually accomplish? Absolutely nothing. Instead of the American dream of a couple with 2.5 kids living in a house with a white picket fence, there is painful tragedy as marriages crumble and children are caught in the middle of the divorce proceedings as their autonomous parents attempt to divide up their assets. Instead of people having the opportunity climb up the econom...

Photo by  Christian Kaindl  on  Unsplash As humans, one of the biggest struggles we have is between the pride we have in ourselves and the reality that we really don’t have it all together. We like to think that we are good, successful, kindhearted and generous people. But, the reality is that we are often far from being any of those things. We, as sinful creatures, are full of rude and selfish attitudes which have a tendency to rear their ugly heads in the most inappropriate of situations. Our pride can easily get in the way of our ability to build and maintain relationships with the people around us and rob us of the opportunity to be in community with even fellow Christians. Our pride comes out to bite us most when we are confronted by the idea (and often, reality!) that we do not, and cannot , measure up. This can happen when a college student gets his or her grades back at the end of the semester and sees that they were sorely lacking, or when we compare ...

Photo by  Fabrizio Verrecchia  on  Unsplash Have you ever felt lonely? I mean, really lonely? Like that aching, gnawing feeling that you are all alone in this world and that there is no one and nothing to satisfy. Or the feeling that you are alone in the midst of a sea of other faces and you don’t really matter all that much. Shortly after moving out of my parents’ house post-graduation and obtaining a job, I found myself feeling incredibly lonely – but, not the kind of lonely that comes from living alone or not being able to spend time with my friends. No, this was the kind of lonely that comes from desiring to have the closeness that comes with being in a romantic relationship, but presently not being in that state. Not that I have a lot of experience with romantic relationships, but like most people, I have a desire for those things. A desire to love and be loved, to hold hands and whisper words of affection in another’s ear, to talk about life and dream...

Photo by  Ruben Mishchuk  on  Unsplash Several weeks ago, my pastor challenged me to do a Bible word/theme study on what it means to trust God and what trusting God looks like. Since then, I have been encouraged by a friend of mine to share what I’ve been learning via this blog. My plan is to make this the first post of a blog series on the topic. It is my hope that you will be both encouraged and challenged as you follow my journey through Scripture and the lessons I learn along the way. Have you ever hoped for something so much that it caused you to ache with the longing, only to have those hopes totally dashed? Have you ever had a dream to do something incredible, only to realize that your dream is not realistic and is in fact, impossible? Have you ever desired anything so much that you would be willing to risk everything just to make it a reality, only to find out that what you desired was a fake? My guess is that most of you could probably answer “y...