When Weakness Isn't Weak

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express (Romans 8:26).

We do not like to feel weak. We especially don’t like to feel spiritually weak, but that is exactly what we experience when we struggle to pray or do not know what to pray. As we find ourselves in spiritual weakness it not uncommon to hear from somewhere: “You just don’t measure up.” If we believe that, then we may find ourselves feeling distance from God.

7 Ways to Improve Your Prayer Life

These days the way to get eyeballs seems to be to write headlines like these real ones I just pulled off the Web:

• 15 Ways to Stay Productive over the Summer
• 20 of the Worst Marriage Proposals Ever
• 10 Ways to Find More Space at Home
• 4 Perfect Yoga Poses for the 4th of July (what?)
• 6 Snacking Habits that Could Help You Lose Weight
• 11 Tips for Writing Killer Headline Titles

It Should Not, but It Does

“The universe shouldn't exist — at least according to a new theory. Modeling of conditions soon after the Big Bang suggests the universe should have collapsed just microseconds after its explosive birth, the new study suggests.” So begins a story reported on NBC News.  Those conducting experiments and doing the study found the newborn universe "should have experienced an intense jittering" that made its collapse inevitable.

The Forgiveness Project

Earlier this week as I taught a class on the title of my book The Baptized Life, we looked at the topic of baptism and forgiveness. I pointed out that living the baptized life means living a life of joy that comes from God’s forgiveness of us and a life of showing forgiveness to others. It is forgiving others as God in Christ has forgiven us (Ephesians 4:32).

Darkness and Light

I follow a rather famous person on Twitter because he, like me, has MS. Let me share three of his recent tweets:

Number 1: Time off. On Cape Cod. Needed sun.Warmth.Got rain. Freezing. Shivering. Great way to relax. Are you kidding me? This is why I am an atheist.

Number 2: The search for peace is heartbreaking.  No road maps. Little reason for hope.  We cannot go home again.  Who can?  Life can be so sad.

Regret

Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret... (2 Cor. 7:10)

Regret. Regretful. Filled with regret. Burdened by regret. Those are not pleasant words or phrases, but they describe a fact of many people’s lives. Forbes magazine took a shot at describing the 25 Biggest Regrets in Life. It may be instructive to consider a list like this, but sometimes it is other “smaller” regrets that eat away at us.

Still I Rise

This week saw the passing of an inspirational American icon. A black child of divorce, raped at age eight in the Jim Crow South, mute from then until she was 13, pregnant at 17 in San Francisco, Maya Angelou found herself in poverty and crime. But she would rise. Before her death, she would write seven autobiographies, become a prolific poet, teach university courses, influence presidents and the powerful, and receive more than 30 honorary doctorates.