Here’s Janet chatting with me about courage and hope. Find out at her website how you can get her book FREE.
Archive for grief
Ninja Interview with Janet Oberholtzer
Category: Authors, Books, Christianity, depression, disability, grief, hope, Humor, loss, ministry, Ninja Interviews, pain, Recommendations, Spiritual growth, suffering, worldviews /
Tags: accident, Because I Can, courage, healing, Janet Oberholtzer, Lisa Colón DeLay, ninja interview, running, strength, suffering, survivor
Read my Guest Post on “Confessions of a Funeral Director” blog (Caleb Wilde)
Thank you so much for stopping by today.
It’s a really big day for me, for at least 3 reasons…hold up! 5 Reasons. (I just found out it’s The Year of the Dragon starting today AND National Pie day. Eating pie like a dragon seems like the proper thing to do and Very exciting!)
Here’s 3 more reasons.
1. Author Shawn Smucker’s interview is now live, it’s awesome, and it’s the first of two parts (see the previous post).
2. Doomsday debunker and writer of a bunch of books, Jason Boyett, posted the pre-lease of his interview with me about his fun (yes I said fun) Doomsday book. For now, it’s only available at his site, here, (and it’s unlisted on youtube until that goes live, on January 30th to the general public).
Since it’s time-sensitive info…go ahead and get the word out! (We might only have 11 more months before ultimate doom and annilation, so be a darling and help some people not freak out, k?)
3. I have a guest post at Confessions of a Funeral Director. No, I’m not a funeral director, but it is a kind of confession.
Please stop by and read my deathly guest post at Caleb’s poignant site. He’s, by far, my favorite undertaker. And I mean that!
And check back for a fascinating Ninja Interview with Caleb which will be up soon.
Category: Authors, Christianity, Community, God's will, grief, loss, Ninja Interviews, pain, Recommendations, Spiritual growth, suffering, Theology, Walking with God /
Tags: caleb wilde, confessions of a funeral director, death, Father, grief, growth, loss, pain, resurrection, suffering
“Not Alone”: Autumn and Mental Illness (Part III)
In our darkest moments it’s difficult to shake the feeling of aloneness. God may seem so hidden.
In those worst times several things have helped me devotionally and/or spiritually. One of them is the power of community. I use the strength and prayers of others as my own. I may read (and pray) the lamenting scriptures (like Psalms) when I feel too spiritually dry or weary to pray. I agree with the prayers of others for me and hold those prayers in my heart. When I can’t find the words, or feel the feelings I’d like to I share in the source and inheritance of the community of Believers for strength that is beyond grasp for me alone.
Today, I am listing two resources that are very helpful for this. Maybe you know someone in the middle of a dark, weary, or dry time. Maybe you are there yourself. You may feel quite alone. Strangely, that feeling itself can teach us. Since God’s presence is everywhere, that potent sense of alienation that overtakes our heart can refine in us the faith that does not come through our senses. We can have a “knowing place” even if we feel otherwise numb.
The first resource book is a collection of stories from people who have felt alone in the throes of depression. Together, they harmonize in a chorus of hope, and in the reality of the provision of our Creator. I think you will appreciate their entires.
The second resource is one I’m reading now. I’ll include a few quotes, I’ve read recently, to give you a sense of the power of this book–both for understanding or ministering to those suffering from the pain of mental illness, or for a tether of grace sustaining your hope for a brighter day in recovery from your present darkness.
Forgetfulness deprives our consciousness of great solace…my memories give me hope. p 90
Any coherence in the midst of chaos, any sense in the midst of nonsense, in the work of God. p110
…[W]e really have to admit that all our love and all our hopes are ultimately borrowed for God anyway. p116
Please share your thoughts.
Do you have a song of lament today in your heart? You have permission to share it here.
Psalm 10
1 O Lord, why do you stand so far away?
Why do you hide when I am in trouble?
2 The wicked arrogantly hunt down the poor.
Let them be caught in the evil they plan for others.
3 For they brag about their evil desires;
they praise the greedy and curse the Lord.4 The wicked are too proud to seek God.
They seem to think that God is dead.
5 Yet they succeed in everything they do.
They do not see your punishment awaiting them.
They sneer at all their enemies.
6 They think, “Nothing bad will ever happen to us!
We will be free of trouble forever!”7 Their mouths are full of cursing, lies, and threats.[a]
Trouble and evil are on the tips of their tongues.
8 They lurk in ambush in the villages,
waiting to murder innocent people.
They are always searching for helpless victims.
9 Like lions crouched in hiding,
they wait to pounce on the helpless.
Like hunters they capture the helpless
and drag them away in nets.
10 Their helpless victims are crushed;
they fall beneath the strength of the wicked.
11 The wicked think, “God isn’t watching us!
He has closed his eyes and won’t even see what we do!”12 Arise, O Lord!
Punish the wicked, O God!
Do not ignore the helpless!
13 Why do the wicked get away with despising God?
They think, “God will never call us to account.”
14 But you see the trouble and grief they cause.
You take note of it and punish them.
The helpless put their trust in you.
You defend the orphans.
Category: Authors, Bible, Books, Christianity, church, Community, depression, grief, hope, ministry, pain, Psalms, Quotes, Recommendations, Spirituality, stress, suffering, Theology /
Tags: Alise Wright, Authors, Books, Chad Jones, Christianity, Community, dark night of the soul, darkness, depression, gloomy, grief, hope, Kathryn Greene McCreight, king david, lament, mental health, ministry, pain, psalms
On missing Steve Jobs
I knew Steve Jobs was going to die, so I’m not surprised. But, I am saddened. The departure of such a pivot human being so effecting to the way many of us live everyday is a profound event. What a creative mind. How innovative. What a gift we had.
MacIntosh, Pixar, iPod…and so on probably touched your world too.
The man had 317 patents (see a list and visuals here), and forever altered not just personal computing, but telephone communication, media, the music industry, computer animation/movies, and how we encounter the internet. There’s an App for everything, but now there is no App for missing him. iMourn was the headline on one major online news source, and worldwide Twitter Trends yesterday and today included #ThankYouSteveJobs, #iSad, #ThinkDifferent, #Pixar and more in tribute to him.
I remember using the 1984 MacIntosh, the first product to make Personal Computers truly accessible to regular people. The first Mac I could buy myself was a 7100, with money from a school loan. Graphic Designers are schooled on Macs. We enjoy Apple products. We get loyal, and admire the continual creativity and innovation of a man and a company that doesn’t settle or rely on pilfering products and ideas from other companies to keep going. One word describes Jobs, and really a large part of the American spirit: Innovation!
My prayers go to his family and friends. He leaves behind his wife of 20 years, Laurene, and their 3 children: Reed, Erin, and Eve.
He will be very missed by a great many around the globe.
Do you have a favorite Apple product? What was one of your first experiences like with an Apple product?
I thank you to share your feelings or comments about the passing of Steve Jobs.
Death of Pet (Nathan encounters mortality/separation, video)
Engaging mortality (pet dies) 47 sec video.
Here is another (short) installment in exploring the theology of disability and the spiritual growth/development of my autistic son, Nathan (age 11) who has recently claimed that he doesn’t not believe in God (see previous posts).
Part of the spiritual formation process involves engagement with mortality; and so it does for Nathan too. The two fish Nathan caught at the lake recently died in captivity yesterday. He found this very sad. His approach to their passing was very simplistic. They stopped moving, so they are dead. As expected, he wasn’t able to delve into abstract thoughts on this, or death and life, but yet he still understood something profound had happened (see video). Something sort of normal, yet broken about the world seemed real to him. This world is a place were we can be separated from things we care about, in this case, creatures/pets.
On his own, Nathan expressed that he wanted to bury them. This seemed proper to him. The “burial at sea” choice, a.k.a. flushing his two fish friends, seemed unseemly, when I mentioned that some people bury their fish this way.
He took the jar to the garden and added the remains there himself. It was his own idea. Today he said, “[It would] provide nutrients [to the garden]“. He got a bit of a chance to learn that everything dies. I refrained from singing Elton John’s The Circle of Life song from the Lion King. But, it was a “circle of life moment” for sure. Sort of strange and sad and bewildering, yet part of regular life.
A little bit after he buried them, I told him that in heaven we can be with people who have died; people that we miss, and we won’t be separated from them forever. That’s our hope and it can help us to not be as sad. He didn’t seem to be interested, and I didn’t go into it any further. This event may soon open doors for fuller dialogue about life/existence, and the ways of life and death. And I hope redemption!
His sentiment, in general, seemed properly child-like as well as very pragmatic. It will be interesting to hear how he describes the fish, and their death to his sister after we pick her up from camp soon.
Please share your comments or ideas about this.
Question for reflection or comment. How has the death of pets shaped your spiritual formation, or those of your children?
What are your suggestions for guiding others into greater spiritual maturity with this topic at hand?
OH! one more thing. Don’t miss that really interesting look at grief through the primary lens of separation anxiety, here.
Category: autism, Christianity, Christians, disability, grief, Integrating Spirituality, ministry, Spiritual Formation, Spiritual growth, Sudden Onset Juvenile Atheism, suffering, Theology, theology of disability, Walking with God, worldviews /
Tags: atheism, autism, bury, children, Christians, church, circle of life, death, Disability, fish, grief, heaven, life, ministry, Nathan, pets, separation anxiety, spiritual formation, Spiritual growth, video
Father’s Day Pancakes
Me and my Dad, 1991
Every father’s day I miss my dad terribly. I lost him was I was 20 (he was 44). I say “I lost him”, not because we had a mix up, and misplaced him in the Amazon jungle. I say “lost” because he suffered a sudden stroke and stayed comatose for over a decade. It was a bad loss. It happened in December, when I was away at college, and I hadn’t seen him since August. He was my biggest ally, and we had grown very close.
If you still have your dad, I hope you do something nice for him this Sunday.
Gwyneth Paltrow lost her father a few months before mine left for the next world after his long fight, at age 54. She has got in the habit of sending me email. Well, I admit we’re not super close, since she named her daughter Apple against my advice. Still, I get her GOOP newsletter, and it’s nice. So, in this month’s GOOP newsletter she features one of her foodie father’s recipes included in her cookbook My Father’s Daughter: Delicious, Easy Recipes Celebrating Family & Togetherness. Maybe you can make them for your dad.
Bruce Paltrow’s World Famous Pancakes
Total Preparation Time: 20 minutes + overnight resting
3 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon plus 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons fine salt
3 cups buttermilk
6 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled, plus more butter for cooking
6 organic large eggs
Up to 1 cup milk, as needed to thin batter
Real Vermont maple syrup, warmed.
Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Whisk together the buttermilk, butter and eggs together in another bowl. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones whisking just enough to combine (small lumps are okay). Let the batter sit, covered, overnight. The next morning, heat up your griddle or favorite nonstick pan and slick it with a little butter. Add enough milk to the batter to thin it to the right consistency—the thicker the batter, the thicker and heavier your pancakes; the thinner the batter, the more delicate your pancakes—neither is wrong. Cook the pancakes on the griddle, flipping them after bubbles appear on the surface of the uncooked side. Let cook 2-3 minutes more, then remove, and eat with lots of warm maple syrup.
Have you ever made your dad breakfast in bed? What is one of your dad’s favorite foods?
Tell us what you like best about your dad.
Category: Authors, Food, grief, Holidays, Humor, Recommendations, suffering /
Tags: breakfast, Bruce Paltrow, coma, cooking, daddy, dads, death, father's day, Gwyneth Paltrow, Humor, loss, stroke, suffering
Thoughtful Thursday: An Almighty, Good God Allows an Evil World?
Human Brutality, one of the World's worst evils.
Here is a response to a difficult subject: Evil and human suffering. Your comments are valuable here. Thanks for reading.
The following are comments from a former classmate Marty Schoffstall as placed within the comment section on blog site of Theology Professor Ken Miller.
From Marty:
Dr. Dorsey [professor of Old Testament Studies] says that the story of the prophets (a rather large portion of the canon) looks like this:
(1) God Is Allowing Wickedness…
For a season…. and the wicked to succeed in their opposition to Him to temporarily triumph over Him (and over those loyal to Him). He may allow them to spurn Him, mock Him, humiliate him, or persecute those who remain loyal to Him.(2) God is redirecting their evil….
to accomplish his own good purposes. The deeds of the wicked play into God’s hands and are used by God to further his own semi-secret agenda. [During this time when evil appears to prevail], God’s children are encouraged to: (a) Trust God, (b) Wait patiently for the time when God will intervene and right all wrongs, (c) Remain loyal and obedient to him.(3) Finally, God dramatically intervenes…
to defeat his enemies. God is vindicated the wicked are punished; and those loyal to God are rewarded.Now as my old friend friend Dr. Cunningham from UVA who was a very competent Roman Catholic Theologian on the side used to say:
“…mercy and justice are always in tension. We want mercy for ourselves, and justice for the other…”
Eventually we grow a little wiser and want some mercy for the other as well; however, we can never give up the concept of justice completely. Some decisions are so revolting (like genocide) that they must rigorously opposed, some people are so broken (like serial killers, serial kidnappers, etc) that we invest enormous time and money in the criminal justice system to stop them, they are horribly corrosive to society, they must be stopped.
How do you respond?
Category: Bible, Christianity, Christians, evil, God's will, grief, hope, pain, Prayer, Scriptures, Social justice, Spirituality, stress, suffering, Theology, warfare, worldviews /
Tags: atheism, atheist, Bible, Christ, Christian theology, Christianity, Criminal justice, criminals, death, evil, Existence of God, genocide, God, good God, Jesus, Religion and Spirituality, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, suffering, theodicy, wickedness
