The Hope of Healing

Jesus says to you: ‘Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly’ (vv.28–29, MSG). Just relax and let God be God. And that’s the Memo

Everyone is trying to find their way to joy, and if not joy, at least happiness. That’s a good desire, by the way: It fuels our search. It keeps us moving forward. Folks who give up even wanting to be happy are deep into what might be called depression. But in Christendom there seems to be this perennial debate about how to get there. One camp, rising in popularity for obvious reasons, promises a life above and beyond suffering. If we just worship/believe/proclaim,…

If you’re like me, looking ahead to next year and what may be on the horizon seems a bit overwhelming. A whole lotta trepidation. What do I mean by that? Well, let me see. An ongoing worldwide pandemic, job security, heating bills, the cost of gas, inflation in prices of almost everything I buy, supply chain problems (if you need something you can’t find), being isolated again (maybe), going back to the office, shortage of help in my business, school for me or…

Our bus finally arrived at our much-anticipated destination—an archaeological dig in Israel where we would actually do some excavation work of our own. The site’s director explained that anything we might unearth had been untouched for thousands of years. Digging up broken shards of pottery, we felt as though we were touching history. After an extended time, we were led to a workstation where those broken pieces—from huge vases shattered long, long ago&mdash…

Have you ever sensed the Holy Spirit prompting you to take a break from the holiday preparations and sit for a while in Jesus’ presence, only to brush it off and focus on the next task on your list? I know I have. We often push ourselves at breakneck speeds, waking early and staying up late, squeezing every daylight hour for all its worth. Then we’re so exhausted by our hustle, we can hardly savor the beauty of the season. And sometimes, this busyness is really…

“Deck the halls with boughs of holly,” the well-known carol begins. And so we do. Some of us prepare for Christmas at the first hint of cold weather, while others postpone the inevitable as long as possible. But at some point we all get caught in a vortex of activity—most of it fun and festive but exhausting nonetheless, leaving our souls feeling both stuffed and empty. Often, it’s in the midst of this hubbub of holiday cheer that we quietly wonder, &ldquo…

The world is full of people with broken hearts, broken spirits, and broken relationships. The pain of a broken relationship includes a very real sense of personal loss, not unlike bereavement. Sometimes the hurt is so great it prevents people from functioning properly and, in extreme cases, can result in mental breakdown or even a desire to commit suicide. The world puts forward various ways to assuage the pain: taking antidepressants, writing an angry letter and tearing it,…

I suffer from a disease called chronic disappointment disorder, or CDD. It’s not a real disease; don’t ask your doctor about it. It may be fake, but it affects me—and my celebration of Christmas—in a very real way. For most of my life, the sting of disappointment accompanied every holiday. I felt let down when quarreling children ruined my serene Christmas morning. My spirit deflated when my pumpkin pie looked more like a science fair project. I…

What if you stood before a firing squad and the only way to avoid death was to deny your Lord? Standing before the most powerful Jewish ruling body of the day, Stephen didn’t back down from speaking the truth about his Lord. Stephen undoubtedly felt the leaders’ anger intensify, and he knew that the penalty for speaking so-called blasphemy was stoning. Still, Stephen continued his overview of Israel’s history: he had a point to make about the…