The other day, I was talking to my mom about the rhythm of life, and how quickly time seems to go by. This is especially true as we get older. When I was in high school, our teachers seemed to be so old.
At dinner with some old friends when I was home in L.A. several weeks ago, we realized that those people we thought were so ancient were about our age now. Ouch…
Although the entire movie is very powerful, there is a scene in The Passion of the Christ that had a great impact on me the first time I saw it. In fact, I use a clip of Jesus’ encounter with Mary in a talk I’ve given often over the years.
If you try to find the exact scene in Scripture, you won’t. Tradition holds that there was an encounter between Mother and Son sometime during Jesus’ long walk towards his cross. Since John’s Gospel puts Mary at actual crucifixion (John 19:26-27), there’s no reason to doubt that she would have followed along with the crowd.
As Christians move into the three most important days in our church life, its good to take a pause. This goes for you and me too. We all lead such busy lives, and it’s easy just keep running from thing to thing, place to place, each and every day.
When I met with a group of guys last Sunday night to talk about the formation of a men’s group, those with small children said that the only time they could consistently meet would be Sunday nights, because its one of the few free blocks on their calendars. That’s pretty much the same for the college students who want to join us. We’re busy, our kids our busy, our friends are busy.
I’m winding down my visit with my mom. It has been a good trip, and I’ve stayed longer than I have in quite some time. I’ve had the chance to catch up with old friends and see some of my family that I haven’t seen in a long time. Of course, these experiences remind me of just how far away I live. 🙁
This time of year, the lemon trees in my mom’s back yard are in full bloom. If you’ve never experienced this scent, it’s really quite beautiful. I picked up on it as soon as I got out of the car the night I arrived, and I’ve enjoyed sitting in the back yard breathing in the sweetness each day.
A friend of mine recommended I pick up a copy of Secrets of a Prayer Warrior by Derek Prince. Right about now, I need all the help I can get on the prayer front. I don’t know about you, but it seems like the number of serious things to pray about at this time are greater than they’ve ever been.
As I type these words, however, I’m mindful of generations past who have had to deal with wars, famine, great disasters, etc. But, in my life right now, there are just so many people/issues that I want to life up to God. I hope this book helps 🙂
I broke the news to a group of college students last night. Nine months from today, we’ll be celebrating Christmas. That’s right. Today’s the Feast of the Annunciation, the moment humanity learned of Emmanuel, God with us.
You may recall that the image above, the Cortona Annunciation by Fra Angelico is one of my all time favorites. I’ve had the chance to see it several times in the Museo Diocesano, and each and every time, the vibrancy and beauty of this great artist’s masterpiece leaves me stunned.
At the end of last week, I did a post entitled, What’s He Up To? The point of the posting was that we needed to trust that God is active and moving in our lives, even though we sometimes don’t see it.
I challenged everyone, including myself, to submit everything to God so He can turn our struggles, fears and doubts into something greater than we can imagine. Yesterday, I got some terrible news that had me asking once again, What’s He up to?
One year ago today, I published my first post on Making All Things New:
I’m embarking on a new adventure! For the last eleven months, God has been doing some amazing new things with me. It’s been a radical transformation of my body, mind, and spirit. I want to share with anyone who will listen what’s happened to me, with the hope that maybe they will find some good advice and make some changes for themselves.
307 posts and nearly a quarter of a million hits later, I want to thank everyone who has joined me on this adventure. It’s been fun, and I’m ready to start the next leg of the journey.
Thanks for all the prayers for our Confirmation retreat. I’m happy to say it went off without a hitch, and when you put on such an event that involves hundreds of people, that’s no small feat. I promise you that the Holy Spirit was with us each step of the way.
So often I find myself ramping up my prayers to the Holy Spirit whenever I focus on something really big, like a retreat or a major decision. When it comes to the little things in life, however, I think I try and go it alone more often than not. Now, I’m not talking about asking the Holy Spirit to help me decide what I’m going to have for breakfast. Rather, I’m talking about inviting God into normal rhythms of life.
We have about two hundred teens going on their Confirmation retreat this weekend. It takes literally hundreds of hours to prepare for this annual event, and I’ll be the first to admit it’s pretty exhausting. I’ll also be the first to say that it’s also exciting to watch the Holy Spirit at work.
I think most of us know that the Holy Spirit is a part of God. Through Scripture, we understand that the Holy Spirit was there in the beginning as a mighty wind (Gen. 1:1), and will be there at the end as life-giving water (Rev. 22:17). But sometimes, in the midst of our daily living, we miss the presence of the Holy Spirit. What can we do to change that?