Intimacy with God Despite Our Imperfection

Spirituality is not a formula; it is not a test. It is a relationship. Spirituality is not about competency; it is about intimacy. Spirituality is not ...

Michelangelo Redeems Broken Marble

In 1463, members of the City Council of Firenze (Florence) Italy decided they needed a monument to enhance their city. They commissioned a sculptor to ...

Cannot Choose Which Cross

God can never make me wine if I object to the fingers he uses to crush me. If God would only crush me with his own fingers, and say, “Now, my son, ...

Aroma of Grace

Musician Steven Curtis Chapman writes:

In brokenness, I have felt tangible expressions of God's grace…. I had stacked some rocks out at this little ...

Taming Our Sinful Nature

In an article about Asian men who train eagles for hunting, Stephen Kinzer writes:

The capture, taming, training, and keeping of eagles is highly ritualized. ...

Flawed but Fruitful

A house servant had two large pots. One hung on each end of a pole that he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it. At the end of the ...

God Uses the Imperfect

I shall never forget in my student days at Emory--not my seminary days, but after I'd served a parish for a time and went back for an advanced degree--I ...

Tested through Other People

It is no use pretending we are broken before God if we are not broken in our attitude to those around us. God nearly always tests us through other people. ...

The Benefits of a Broken Heart

If your own heart hasn't been broken, you tend to be insensitive, except to those people you like.

Failure or Opportunity?

Somebody asked Winston Churchill one time, "What most prepared you to lead Great Britain through World War II?" For a period of time, Great ...