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Break A Leg: Practicing God’s Presence in Pain
On my very first birthday, I fell off the front porch of our home and broke my leg. Because I lived in a remote village in Papua New Guinea with my missionary parents, I was flown to the closest town with a western doctor. Upon admittance to the hospital, my leg was put in traction and my mother told to go home. The nurses loved me. Who wouldn’t adore a one-year-old baby cooing and doing acrobatics on the traction ropes? My dear mother, having five other children to care for, could only come to visit me after three weeks. Medical practice in the early 1960s also did not allow parents…
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The Soul Forming Power of Everydayness
Don’t discount the mundane, the 24/7. It may be the very place God is going to meet you. You may feel imprisoned by the ordinary in your life but He wants to empower you to look beyond and see His presence in all things. Brother Lawrence modeled this – living in the Presence of Christ as an ordinary kitchen worker in a French monastery in an earlier time (1600- 1691) torn and uncertain as our own day. During his boyhood the Thirty Years war began, which engulfed all of Europe. From his conversations and letters, published and translated in The Practice the Presence of God, Brother Lawrence intimately shares his…
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Learning From Brother Lawrence – A Simple 17th Century Monk
Jesus knew – he understood how they were feeling – their doubts, their confusion…the abrupt ending of his life then his resurrection, then his last words…he knew their hearts. He spoke to their fears. How would it be once He was gone? What would they do? How would they manage? Before Jesus ascended into heaven he told those present- his disciples: “I am with you always to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). Highlighted later in the New Testament the write of Hebrews offers of God, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). Jesus prepared the disciples ahead when He promised to…
