My Commonplace Book

I’m constantly depressed by the worldwide challenges to real Kingdom change. I’ve wondered at times whether we can see light grow in the dark places of the world– whether we can, as Job says, break the jaw of the oppressor. JK Rowling’s words below drive me to a realized eschatology, to imagining a better future [...]

I’m feeling assaulted by the news lately. Iraq seems to be in a tailspin; a North Korean playboy has a nuclear weapon; little Amish girls are molested and then shot thru the head; the AIDS pandemic continues to rob Africa of its life . . . I want to hide in my office. [...]

Everybody grows up loving to swing. I can remember testing the limits of swing-sets with my brother Gary. We’d swing in unison, trying the get the front or back supports of the swing set to come out up out of the ground. Fortunately not many did. At other times, we’d pump [...]

“To discover God in the smallest and most ordinary things, as well as the greatest, is to possess a rare and sublime faith. To find contentment in the present moment is to relish and adore the divine will in the succession of all the things to be done and suffered which make up the [...]

It is easy to work when the soul is at play.–Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson felt the joy and contentment of finding creative work to match her God-given design. She was probably speaking of writing poetry. But it applies to almost any endeavor. I am reminded, for instance, of Eric Liddell’s explanation to his [...]

Got to spend a glorious 30 minutes, all alone, in front of Rembrandt’s The Return of the Prodigal Son–before the museum’s “older brother” chased me away and told me to go back to my “tour gruppe.” Rules are rules, he insisted. As soon as he turned his back, I snuck back–like [...]

This a tough post to write—given that I’m on a cruise in the Baltic right now enjoying the best that money can buy. It’s been great, but I can’t help but notice that the cruise line is constantly working at “crafting future consumers.” Of course, that’s their role. We shouldn’t expect [...]

I read the following excerpt from Dietrich Bonhoeffer on contentment. He contrasts the ability to love and trust God in our lives while enjoying the good things that God sends us.
To put it plainly, for a man in his wife’s arms to be hankering after the other world is, in mild terms, a piece [...]

Lisa Graham McMinn found eight characteristics of contented souls:

Finding contentment starts with recognizing that we are souls that belong rather than “consumers.”
Contented souls are willing to embrace or sit with struggle rather than be in frenzy to escape it.
Contented souls have a life-giving mellowness of heart that invites and welcomes rather [...]

I just started reading The Contented Soul by Lisa Graham McMinn. I’ve been discontented of late with my “contentment.” I seem to be often on edge, responding at times like a rattlesnake shaking its tail. I’d like to learn how to deal first with the rattle and then with the snake part [...]