Archives For Life

Top 10 Posts of 2014

Chris —  December 30, 2014

2014 has been a phenomenal year for me personally, and I appreciate all that you have done for me. As I gear up for next year (Podcast! Webinars! Freelancing! More!) I’m sharing some of my favorite content from the year before.

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Recently, my church community Austin Mustard Seed and my former church community, Vox Veniae had the opportunity to learn from Dr. Cherith Fee Nordling on the important, yet often tricky concept of “embodied spirituality. Here’s an excerpt from a recap by Chris Morton.

Orthodox teaching, as is encapsulated by the Nicene and Apostles Creeds, states the mystery of our faith is this: Jesus is simultaneously 100% God and 100% human.

Obviously, this is a paradox. No one thing can be 200%. Heresies, argues Fee Nordling, crop up when people try to explain Jesus as anything other the mystery of 100% God and 100% human. 

The problem that many of these heresies are trying to solve is “the flesh problem.” Many cultures, including many people today, don’t know what to do with our bodies. Our modern secular world seems torn between animalistic epicureanism (do whatever feels good!) and an obsession with productivity (life and body “hacking.”) 

These heresies and many more, all try to address the same struggle: if bodies are bad, then how can Jesus be fully human (embodied) and fully God?

According to Fee Nordling, this isn’t a philosophical point. A misunderstanding of our bodies cheapens the story of scripture and causes many problems for daily life. The alternative is to understand what humans are, bodies, and all. The result is a much more tangible story of how God is plotting to help us “get our lives back.”

Read the whole article here.

You can listen to audio from the retreat here.

Bonhoeffer was an expert on waiting, suffering, and thus, Advent. Here’s a great quote about enjoying what we’ve got. Which is really central to waiting, isn’t it?

We prevent God from giving us the great spiritual gifts he has in store for us, because we do not give thanks for daily gifts. We think we dare not be satisfied with the small measure of spiritual knowledge, experience, and love that has been given to us, and that we must constantly be looking forward eagerly for the highest good. Then we deplore the fact that we lack the deep certainty, the strong faith, and the rich experience that God has given to others, and we consider this lament to be pious.

We pray for the big things and forget to give thanks for the ordinary, small (and yet really not small) gifts. How can God entrust great things to one who will not thankfully receive from him the little things?

If we do not give thanks daily for the Christian fellowship in which we have been placed, even where there is no great experience, no discoverable riches, but much weakness, small faith, and difficulty; if, on the contrary, we only keep complaining to God that everything is so paltry and petty, so far from what we expected, then we hinder God from letting our fellowship grow according to the measure and riches which are there for us all in Jesus Christ.

Life Together

Should you “fake it” on Sunday morning?

There are a lot of good reasons to be a part of a church community.

A few of them have to do existential affirmations on eternity.

People who are a part of a church community tend to live longer, stay married longer and be generally healthier. Church provides a sense of shared cultural practices identity that seems to be disappearing from our increasingly monolithic culture. A lot of people go to church because they think it’s good for their families.

So it has its benefits.

Beneficial enough that some might consider joining a church community even if they don’t buy into the belief system. Faking it can lead to three different results:

  1. Internal angst from a sense of dishonesty
  2. Outright hypocrisy
  3. Slowly assimilating to the beliefs around you

None of those seem terribly honest or helpful.

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Why do most stories of “successful people” seem full of struggle, despair and burnout?

The myth of the successful person is that they made stunning sacrifices for their dream. They did a staggering amount of work. Eventually, they were rewarded with a modicum of success and become a minor celebrity.

Then the reckoning. Divorce. Despair. Addiction. Depression. They spiral into breakdown.

Eventually, they discover some sensational principle, achieve bliss and write a New York Times best-seller about it.

These stories are real. Sometimes the books are helpful. But is this nightmare necessary to live the life you want?

These books will teach you great principles like “get into therapy,” “watch your diet” or “practice Sabbath.” Read them. Do what they say.

But there is one surprisingly simple method to avoid burnout and save you from disaster.

It works just like Archimedes dropping the crown into the bathtub. It’s so simple that you may run naked through the streets shouting “Eureka!”

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