So Much To Think About

Genuine Worship
Genuine worship leads to awareness, awareness leads to the lament of repentance, lament and repentance lead to a reordering of one’s perception of oneself, others, and the world . . . and that leads to laughter and freedom.

Do you know why unbelievers don’t pray? They don’t pray because they’re afraid that God might be there. Do you know why many Christians don’t pray? Some don’t pray because they’re afraid that God might not be there, and, those who know that he is, also know that God is scary. Many of us would rather do religious stuff, do our best to be obedient, and stay under the radar with our silent trying, than to go before a holy, sovereign, and righteous God. It’s safer that way.
No, it’s not.

Confession, lament, and repentance are hard if you do it to someone who is angry and condemning, and who doesn’t give a rip about you. It is one thing to go before an executioner and quite another to go before a loving father. The prayer Jesus taught his disciples has an incredibly radical beginning—Jesus said we were to start our prayer with “Our Father.” When you start there, the “forgive us our debts” is a whole lot easier.

Do you know the source of true joy and freedom? It’s repentance before a God who should discipline you, but instead hugs you. It’s walking into a dark room and then someone turns on the lights of a Christmas tree. It’s expecting to be condemned, but finding that you’re loved. It’s lamenting who you are, and then realizing who you really are, the child of your Father the King. It’s no longer having anything to prove or protect. It’s no longer having to be right or to pretend to be good.
Steve Brown

aspirational goal.
An aspirational goal is like a good intention without any real attention. It is a slogan without a strategy. It’s right up there with, “I need to lose some weight,” while reaching for another donut.
J D Walt

“the end is where we start”
“Nineteen seventy-four took my mother away from me, but it gave me so much in return…”
“My mother collapsed as her own father was being lowered into the ground, and I never spoke with her again,” he adds. “I saw her a few days later in her hospital bed as she took her last breaths. It was … I mean, people have gone through a lot worse,” he says, describing a few of the horrors he’s witnessed in his work with some of the poorest and most vulnerable people on earth.
“But yeah, death is ice-cold water on a boy entering puberty. T. S. Eliot is right, the end is where we start. You begin your meditation on life often in that kind of moment. I mean, we’re all really in denial most of our life.”
Bono

Conversation
After 18th-century literary icon Samuel Johnson had dinner at a friend’s house, his biographer, James Boswell, asked if the conversation had been any good. “No, Sir,” he said. “We had talk enough, but no conversation; there was nothing discussed.”
Johnson’s friend had offered one kind of hospitality at that dinner party, but not another kind: discussion. Conversation, whether remote or in person, is an exercise in hospitality, or welcoming the other. When we engage someone in conversation, we invite them into our thinking.

Jesus set an example of this, from his first encounters with the disciples to his theological discussion with the woman of Samaria to his many confrontations with the religious leaders who opposed him. Conversation was a primary tool in Jesus’ and the apostles’ ministries.

We live in a world where words abound but conversation is scarce. And it’s easy to think of a place where the ratio of words to conversation seems worst: social media, which 72 percent of Americans use, Pew Research Center says.

One can only wonder what Johnson would have to say about the culture of discourse today, especially in the realm of social media.

But more important is what the Bible says. With Jesus’ and the apostles’ word-based approach to evangelism and discipleship, it is unsurprising that Paul repeatedly warned Christians to demonstrate their faith not only by living well but also by good conversation (Col. 4:6; 1 Tim. 4:12).
Christianity Today

Human flourishing
 “Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.” Human life is restless and unfulfilled, less than what it was created to be, until it comes to rest in union with God.
Can an atheist be happy, well-adjusted, fulfilled, and self-actualized? If you say yes, or are tempted to say yes, then you’re assenting to the idea of “pure nature.” You’re assenting to the view that human nature possesses a natural logic of happiness that is open and available to all human persons, simply because they are human persons. Just as the logic of gardening is available to all people, Christian and non-Christian alike, the logic of human flourishing, the science of happiness, is also available to all. An atheist, for example, can make an excellent therapist, possessing access to the science of flourishing, just as they can be an excellent gardener. 
So, have you felt that big switcharoo in your head? At the start of the post we said, “Of course humans have a natural desire for God! Who would be crazy enough to deny it?” But now, after I’ve described the idea of “pure nature,” some of you may be changing your answers: “Wait a minute. I do think atheists can be happy and well-adjusted. I know some.” So which is it? Are those atheists secretly ailing, less fulfilled and actualized in their development because they lack God in their lives? Or are they truly happy without God, all on their own, because God has given human nature the gift of joy simply because we are a human person?  Richard Beck
http://experimentaltheology.blogspot.com/2022/11/the-natural-desire-for-god-part-1-does.html

STILL ON THE JOURNEY