Category Archives: Embracing Losses and Limits

Daily Riches: Failure is Normal and Essential (John Ortberg)

Posted on by under Embracing Losses and Limits, God's Grace, Patience with Yourself, Spiritual Formation

“Experts in the learning field sometimes talk about the J-curve, a graph measuring performance, in which someone initially does worse before they start improving….

J-curve

The J-curve is normal: We do worse for a season before we do better. If you have been hitting tennis backhands the wrong way, when someone teaches you the correct grip, proper form, and right footwork, when you begin to try to hit them the right way — you will actually hit them worse than when you were trying the wrong way! If you stick with it, however, eventually your backhand will be far better than before. But you have to accept that at first it will be worse. When the disciple Peter first exercised enough faith to get out of the boat, he sank and looked worse than any of the other disciples. When he tried to defend Jesus, he cut off a man’s ear. When he promised to be loyal, he fell flat on his faith. When he tried to advise Jesus, he was a devil’s advocate. Eventually, though, Peter’s faith and boldness and loyalty and wisdom enabled him to become a leader of the church. But he got worse before he got better. Notice that this did not surprise or discourage Jesus. In fact, Jesus was so patient with his disciples that we might think of the J-curve as the Jesus-curve. He will never stop helping a follower of his who is sincerely seeking to grow. Jesus will always lead us toward growth, and growth always requires risk, and risk always means failure. So Jesus is always leading us into failure. But he never gives up on a student just because he or she fails. …Go ahead and stumble. Failure isn’t falling down; failure is refusing to try. We ought to celebrate failure. We are living on the J-curve.” John Ortberg

“My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart….”
Psalm 73:26

Moving From the Head to the Heart

Even the J-curve is misleading. There’s no steady uphill line. Think about the zig-zag that would represent Peter’s life!

  • Are you afraid of risking? of failing?
  • Can you be as patient with yourself as Jesus is?
  • Are you determined to keep getting back up when you fail?

Abba, use my failures to make me wiser, strong, better.

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For More: The Me I Want to Be by John Ortberg

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These “Daily Riches” are for your encouragement as you seek after God and he seeks after you. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it. My goal is to share something of unique value with you daily in 400 words or less. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

“I practice daily what I believe; everything else is religious talk.”

Daily Riches: The Knowledge That Transcends Learning (Donald McCullough, Thomas Aquinas and G. K. Chesterton) *

Posted on by under Embracing Losses and Limits, Humility

“Some things–perhaps the most important–cannot be grasped, regardless of the reach of one’s intellectual prowess. They can only be received. There is a knowledge that cannot be gained by thinking or reasoning or deducing or inducing or experimenting or theorizing; it comes to us, not from us, and it can only be acknowledged, with gratitude and surprise, when it appears in an open heart. We can prepare for this knowledge, paradoxical as it sounds, by encountering the limitations of knowledge. These limitations, by reminding us of our humanity and our relative ignorance, help create the awe and wonder necessary for encountering the deepest, most soul-shaping truths.” Donald McCullough

Thomas Aquinas (c 1225-74) was the greatest of the medieval Doctors of the Church. His life was devoted to prayer, teaching, writing and travel. Although Aquinas had little knowledge of Greek or Hebrew, as a theologian he was unrivalled in intellectual power, capable of dictating to four secretaries at the same time. Yet he showed absolute single-mindedness in pursuing his fundamental aim: to use Aristotelian methods of scientific rationalism to support the doctrines of Christian faith. His Summa Theologica on the person of God was twenty volumes. Near the end of his life Aquinas had a divine revelation in the Chapel of St. Nicholas in Naples. Afterwards he said, “I can no longer write, for God has given me such glorious knowledge that all contained in my works are as straw – barely fit to absorb the holy wonders that fall in a stable.” …In 1274 Aquinas died at Fossa Nuova, south of Rome. “He confessed his sins and he received his God; and we may be sure that the great philosopher had entirely forgotten philosophy. The confessor ran forth as if in fear, and whispered that [Thomas’] confession had been that of a child of five.” G. K. Chesterton

“the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom” 1 Corinthians 1:24

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • Have you experienced the limits of knowledge?
  • If so, has it led to greater humility before God and others? If not, can you open your heart to what God might want to give you?
  • Can you stand before God in faith like “a child of five?” Do you?

Abba, in the end I know so little, but you have shown me this, that you love me and that you alone suffice.

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For More: Saint Thomas Aquinas: The Dumb Ox by G. K. Chesterton

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These “Daily Riches” are for your encouragement as you seek after God and he seeks after you. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it. My goal is to share something of unique value with you daily in 400 words or less. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

“I practice daily what I believe; everything else is religious talk.”

Daily Riches: Vulnerability and Love (Jean Vanier, Pamela Cushing and Ernest Becker) *

Posted on by under Embracing Losses and Limits, Humility, Loving Well, The Poor and Disenfranchised

“The gem of inspiration at the heart of L’Arche [a model community for people with developmental disabilities] is that mutual relationships with those who are vulnerable open us up to the discovery of our common humanity. In this way, [Jean Vanier] names human imperfection as a gift, and an opportunity. Imperfection and weakness can draw people closer together, for instance in solidarity around someone who has been hurt and needs help.

Vulnerability can move others to give more of themselves, or to open up and reveal their own shortcomings. Strength and mastery can be impressive, yet they tend to divide people in competition and the regular disappointment of not measuring up. “I am struck by how sharing our weakness and difficulties is more nourishing to others than sharing our qualities and successes. …The weak teach the strong to accept and integrate the weakness and brokenness of their own lives.” Pamela Cushing quoting Jean Vanier

“Sharing life with marginalized people galvanized Vanier’s understanding that to serve others well requires us to move beyond charity and tolerance. He recognized the hubris that grows when a helper imagines himself as somehow superior or separate from those he serves. He learned how much better help feels to the person in need when animated by a sense of solidarity and common humanity than help driven merely by a sense of duty.” Cushing

 “In everything I did, I showed you
that by this kind of hard work
we must help the weak,
 remembering the words
the Lord Jesus himself said:
 ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”
the Apostle Paul in Acts 20:35

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • Imagine, “human weakness and imperfection” as a gift – an opportunity. Can you welcome your own weaknesses and imperfections as gifts or opportunities?
  • Can you see how loving solidarity with, and care for, the poor can help you avoid the pitfall of hubris? to remind you that you are just a “homo sapien, standard vintage?” (Ernest Becker)
  • Out of your shared weakness, you can “nourish” others. Will you do that?

Abba, help me move beyond charity and tolerance in my love for Others who seem more needy than me.

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For More:  Community and Growth by Jean Vanier

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These “Daily Riches” are for your encouragement as you seek after God and he seeks after you. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it. My goal is to share something of unique value with you daily in 400 words or less. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: Expectations Dashed (Larry Crabb, Donald McCullough and Larry Hein) *

Posted on by under Desolation's Gift, Embracing Losses and Limits, Suffering and Grace

“When the fact is faced that life is profoundly disappointing, the only way to make it is to learn to love. And only those who are no longer consumed with finding satisfaction now are able to love. Only when we commit our yearnings for perfect joy to a Father we have learned to deeply trust are we free to live for others despite the reality of a perpetual ache.” Larry Crabb

“… the limitations of time render valuable service. They lift our eyes toward something beyond time; they make us look beyond the horizon of the temporal into the vastness of eternity. …We have learned to distrust the promises of time; the future never really delivers, never really satisfies our longings. So we must cast the anchor of hope much farther, all the way into eternity.”  Donald McCullough

“May all your expectations be frustrated, may all your plans be thwarted, may all your desires be withered into nothingness, that you may experience the powerlessness and poverty of a child and sing and dance in the love of God who is Father, Son, and Spirit.”  Larry Hein

“We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters,
about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia.
We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure,
so that we despaired of life itself.
Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death.
But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves
but on God, who raises the dead.”
2 Corinthians 1:8-9

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • I always hoped to “leave my mark” on my world. As it turns out, it looks like it may be more of a smudge. Have you realized that many of your hopes and aspirations will never be fulfilled? Have you made peace with that?
  • Have you learned that “dashed expectations”, “thwarted plans” and even a “perpetual ache” are not only unavoidable in this life, but useful?
  • How might disappointment and the limits of time teach you to learn to love and experience the “powerlessness and poverty of a child?”

Abba, I will rely, not on myself, but only on you. I will anchor my hope in eternity – in you, the God who raises the dead.

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For More: Inside Out by Larry Crabb

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The “Daily Riches” from RicherByFar are for your encouragement as you seek after God, and as he seeks after you. My goal is to give you something of uncommon value each day in 400 words or less. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it with others. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: Putting Painful Longings in Perspective (Larry Crabb and Frederick Buechner) *

Posted on by under Embracing Losses and Limits, Emotions and Spirituality, Spiritual Formation, Suffering and Grace, Uncategorized

“First, our desires … are related not only to our fallenness but also, and more profoundly, to our humanness. In other words, it’s okay to desire. Second, when we look carefully at what we deeply desire, we come to realize that what we want is simply not available, not until Heaven. …Both errors in responding to our longings–hiding them in a flurry of Christian activity and focusing on them to find satisfaction–deny the simple truth that we legitimately want what we cannot have in this world. We were designed to live in a perfect world uncorrupted by the weeds of disharmony and distance. Until we take up residence in that world, however, we will hurt. It is, therefore, not only okay to desire, it is also okay to hurt.”  Larry Crabb

“… to grit your teeth and clench your fists in order to survive the world at its harshest and worse–is by that very act, to be unable to let something be done for you and in you that is more wonderful still. The trouble with steeling yourself against the harshness of reality is that the same steel that secures your life against being destroyed secures your life also against being opened up and transformed.” Frederick Buechner

“Scorn has broken my heart
    and has left me helpless;
I looked for sympathy, but there was none,
    for comforters, but I found none.
They put gall in my food
    and gave me vinegar for my thirst.”
Psalm 69:19-21 

Moving From Head to Heart

  • Are Christians allowed to have emotions like loneliness, sadness, and disappointment? Do you allow yourself to feel these kinds of emotions?
  • Do you try to bury your emotions “in a flurry of Christian activity?”
  • Do you “steel yourself” against feeling “the harshness of reality” by sheer force of the will?
  • Imagine the loneliness, disappointment and heartbreak that filled the life of Jesus. He didn’t let these emotions rule him, but he also didn’t deny or bury them. He offered them to his Father and “let something be done for him” that was “more wonderful” than being strong. He experienced life from above while in this world corrupted “by the weeds of disharmony.” Can you let God do that for you?

Abba, help me learn to embrace my emotions – even the most painful ones. Help me not to fear them, but to allow you to work in me through them. Help me to discover something more wonderful than being strong. Help me to be transformed.

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For More: Inside Out by Larry Crabb

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Thanks for your interest in Daily Riches! –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: Suffering’s Unwelcomed Gift (David Benner, Richard Rohr and Henri Nouwen) *

Posted on by under Desolation's Gift, Detachment and Attachment, Embracing Losses and Limits, Suffering and Grace

“Suffering can be a path to awakening when we engage it with receptivity to the gifts it holds rather than simply attempt to endure it. One of those gifts is that suffering has unique capacity to help us soften and release attachments and move toward a life of non-attachment. Simone Weil said that suffering that does not detach us is wasted suffering. Don’t waste suffering. It’s always a shame to have to repeat lessons because we don’t get their point but suffering is a particularly bad lesson to be slow to get.” David Benner

“Real holiness doesn’t feel like holiness; it just feels like you’re dying. It feels like you’re losing it. And you are! Every time you love someone, you have agreed for a part of you to die. You will soon be asked to let go of some part of your false self, which you foolishly thought was permanent, important, and essential! You know God is doing this in you and with you when you can somehow smile and trust that what you lost was something you did not need anyway. In fact, it got in the way of what was real.”  Richard Rohr

“… in the middle of the pain there is some hidden gift. I, more and more in my life, have discovered that the gifts of life are often hidden in the places that hurt most.” Henri Nouwen

“Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered.” Hebrews 5:8

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • Can you imagine embracing suffering that comes your way as a giver of “gifts?” Can you remember to look for such a gift when you’re in those “places that hurt most?”
  • Has suffering in your life caused you to loosen your grip on things? Has it changed your perspective about what is “permanent, important, and essential?”
  • When it “feels like you’re dying” or “losing it”, can you trust God to be at work for your good in the very thing that is “killing” you?

Abba, your Son suffered that he might know me. Help me to embrace the gifts of suffering that I might know him. I know I’m going to want to run from it like the disciples ran from the garden.  Strengthen me.

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For More: Spirituality and the Awakening Self by David G. Benner

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These “Daily Riches” from RicherByFar are for your encouragement. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it with others. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: The Embarrassment of Being Ourselves (Henri Nouwen, Harold Fickett and Philip Yancey) *

Posted on by under Embracing Losses and Limits, Humility, Patience with Yourself, Spiritual Formation

“The internationally renowned priest and author, respected professor and beloved pastor Henri Nouwen wrote over 40 books on the spiritual life. He corresponded regularly in English, Dutch, German, French and Spanish with hundreds of friends and reached out to thousands…. Since his death in 1996, ever-increasing numbers of readers, writers, teachers and seekers have been guided by his literary legacy … in over 22 languages.”

“In his review of Nouwen’s book The Road to Daybreak, Harold Fickett wrote that he found it disappointing to read that the same problems described a decade earlier in [Nouwen’s] The Genesee Diary–deficient friendships, unrequited love, hurt feelings at perceived slights–continued to plague Nouwen. Fickett went on to explain, ‘It’s disappointing in exactly the same way it’s disappointing to be ourselves–the same person with the same problems who learns and then must relearn again and again the basic lessons of religious faith. Nouwen does not spare himself or us the embarrassment of this perennial truth.’” Philip Yancey

“My eyes are ever on the Lord,
for only he will release my feet from the snare.
Turn to me and be gracious to me,
for I am lonely and afflicted.
Relieve the troubles of my heart
and free me from my anguish.
Look on my affliction and my distress
and take away all my sins. …
do not let me be put to shame,
for I take refuge in you.”
Psalm 25:15-20

Moving from Head to Heart

  • Like Nouwen, Fickett and Yancey, are you “the same person with the same problems” you had ten years ago? Welcome to the human race!
  • It’s “disappointing to be ourselves”, but what can we do? We can give up and live in shame, or be one “who learns and then must relearn again and again the basic lessons of religious faith.” Can you accept your bad track record and refuse to give up?
  • Can you be honest with others about the need for God’s grace in your life, not “sparing” them your embarrassment, to encourage them?

Abba, today I will take refuge in you.

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For More:  Soul Survivor by Philip Yancey

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The “Daily Riches” from RicherByFar are for your encouragement as you seek after God, and as he seeks after you. My goal is to give you something of uncommon value each day in less than 400 words. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it with others. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: What God Must Do to Live In Us (Dietrich Bonhoeffer and John Donne) *

Posted on by under Death Daily, Desolation's Gift, Embracing Losses and Limits, Spiritual Formation

“In life with Jesus Christ, death as a general fate approaching us from without is confronted by death from within, one’s own death, the free death of daily dying with Jesus Christ. Those who live with Christ die daily to their own will. Christ in us gives us over to death so that he can live within us. Thus our inner dying grows to meet that death from without. Christians receive their own death in this way and in this way our physical death very truly becomes not the end but rather the fulfillment of our life with Jesus Christ. Here we enter into community with the One who at his own death was able to say, ‘It is finished.’” Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“Here I never saw myself but in disguises; there, then, I shall see myself, but I shall see God too…. Here I have one faculty enlightened, and another left in darkness; mine understanding sometimes cleared, my will at the same time perverted. There I shall be all light, no shadow upon me; my soul invested in the light of joy, and my body in the light of glory.” John Donne

“We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus,
so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.”
2 Corinthians 2:10

Moving From Head to Heart

  • “Christ in us gives us over to death (crucifixion) so that he can live (resurrection) within us.” What has this meant in your life?
  • These mini-deaths are “free” in that we choose them or submit to them. Have you been able choose to receive these kinds of difficult losses and trials as Christ’s “gift?”
  • “Our inner dying grows to meet that death from without.” How do these words affect your feelings about your own death?
  • Take a few moments to think about your physical death becoming “not the end but rather the fulfillment of [your] life with Jesus Christ.” Sit with that in quietness. What emotions arise from that?

Abba, the experience of death from within is both painful and frightening. Even so, I want to embrace the “deaths” you send my way so that Jesus will live more fully in me. Please help me “die to my own will” as I submit to your will for me when it comes to this “daily dying with Jesus Christ.”

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For More: Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas

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“Let us, on both sides, lay aside all arrogance. Let us not, on either side, claim that we have already discovered the truth. Let us seek it together as something which is known to neither of us. For then only may we seek it, lovingly and tranquilly, if there be no bold presumption that it is already discovered and possessed.” Augustine   My prayer is that these Daily Riches will always be offered and received in this irenic, unpresumptous spirit. Thank you for reading and sharing my daily posts. Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: Praised, Blamed – and Loved by God (Donald McCullough) *

Posted on by under applause, approval addiction, Being the Beloved, Desolation's Gift, Embracing Losses and Limits

“One of the most important gifts that came my way in those days of misery [removal from ministry], I now realize, was the loss of public approval. … It forcibly separated me–the essential me– from the public’s perception of me. … To learn, not just in my head but in the depths of my being, that I was someone different from and always more than the perception of others was like being in a hot, stuffy room and having the windows thrown open. … [Now] I’m not much impressed with the cheering or overly worried about the jeering. I am who I am thank God. And yes, thank God, because who I am is a child of God, a beloved of God, a man in whom God takes delight. I had known this before, to be sure, but I didn’t know how much I still needed to learn it until I came to the limitations of public approval. Enduring these limitations was something I wouldn’t have wished on my worst enemy; now it’s something that, if not for the dishonor of it, I would covet for my dearest friends.”  Donald McCullough

“Everyone said I was doing really well, but something inside me was telling me my success was putting my soul in danger.”  Henri Nouwen

“I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court;
indeed, I do not even judge myself.  …
It is the Lord who judges me. …
He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness
and will expose the motives of the heart.
At that time each will receive their praise from God.”
the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 4:3-5

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • Do you know in the depths of your being that you’re “someone different from and always more than the perception of others?”
  • Have you come to the place where you can “care very little” about the cheering or jeering (or judgment) of others?
  • The next time someone cheers you or jeers you, can you return to your “essential” status as “beloved of God” instead of letting cheering or jeering define you?

Abba, I need to sense your love for, acceptance of,  and approval of me in the depths of my being. Please keep me from being distracted from this by what others think of me – by either their blame or their praise.

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For More: The Consolations of Imperfection by Donald McCullough

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“Then suddenly it happened, I lost every dime, but I’m richer by far, with a satisfied mind.” (“Satisfied Mind”, lyrics by Red Hayes and Jack Rhodes) Often it’s in our most painful losses that we find what really matters, and the satisfaction found in God alone. I hope that Daily Riches will help you to be “richer by far” as you grow in such satisfaction. Thanks for reading and sharing Daily Riches!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: Desolation’s Gift (Ruth Barrows and Kathleen Norris) *

Posted on by under Death Daily, Desolation's Gift, Embracing Losses and Limits, Faith and Doubt, Suffering and Grace

“‘God is trying to get us to accept a state where we have no assurance within that all is well … where no clear path lies before us, where there is no way; a state of spiritual inadequacy experienced in it’s raw, humiliating bitterness.’ Only when we admit that we have “no way” do we have any hope of finding one. Out of what seems desolate a newly vigorous faith can arise, a certainty that is not subject to changes in moods or feelings, or the vicissitudes of life.” Kathleen Norris, quoting Carmelite Ruth Burrows

“Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way,
consider it an opportunity for great joy.
… for when your endurance is fully developed,
you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”
James 1:2,4

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • Our first response is not usually to look at “desolation” and “troubles” as gifts or an “opportunity for great joy.” Burrows, Norris and James team up to convince us otherwise.
  • Being “complete” (James) sounds a lot like Norris’s “vigorous faith” … not subject to changes in moods or feelings, or the vicissitudes of life.” Have you experienced the kind of faith that transcends feelings and circumstances? If so, did you learn it in times of ease, or in times of trouble?
  • Have you ever thought of desolation as God’s gift to you as his child – “giving” trouble into your life so you enter a state where “there is no way?”  where you experience “spiritual inadequacy” and “humiliating bitterness?” I imagine for many who follow Jesus, that would be a new, and perhaps disturbing thought. It sounds pretty brutal. Might it be true?
  • Can you embrace desolation in your life in order to receive its gift? Perhaps if we can remember the ministry of desolation in our lives, we won’t refuse it. Is there desolation at work right now in your life? Will you embrace it?

Abba, thank you for working in me to make me whole. Help me to embrace your sometimes painful love.

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For More: Acedia & Me by Kathleen Norris

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“There grows in me an immense dissatisfaction with all that is merely passively accepted as truth, without struggle and without examination. Faith, surely, is not passive, and not an evasion. And today, more than ever, the things we believe, I mean especially the things we accept on human faith—reported matters of ‘fact,’ questions of history, of policy, of interpretation, of wants—they should be very few.” Thomas Merton   These Daily Riches are designed to encourage examination of convictions, of faith, so that we increasingly trust in the God who is really there, and less in our ideas of Him. Thanks for reading and sharing my daily blog. –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: The Limitations of Love (Henri Nouwen) *

Posted on by under Embracing Losses and Limits, Forgiveness, Loving Well

“Forgiveness is to allow the other person not to be God. Forgiveness says, ‘I know you love me, but you don’t have to love me unconditionally, because no human being can do that…’ To forgive other people for being able to give us only a little love–that is a hard discipline. To keep asking others for forgiveness because we can only give a little love–that is a hard discipline…. If we can forgive that another person cannot give us what only God can give, then we can celebrate that person’s gift. Then we can see the love that person is giving us as a reflection of God’s great, unconditional love.” Henri Nouwen

“A new command I give you: Love one another.
As I have loved you,
so you must love one another.”
John 13:34

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • The love of Jesus for us was and is unconditional. He isn’t deterred in his love for me “however undeserving I am” (Teresa of Avila). We’re called to love that way, but “it’s a hard discipline.”
  • Can you forgive others for “not being God” – for failing to give you “what only God can give?” Can you do this with your spouse? family members? people at church? your pastor?
  • Can you forgive yourself for “not being God” to others – for failing to give them “what only God can give?”
  • What can you do to keep these limits before you, so you remember them when you or others fall short in loving well?

Abba, forgiving and loving well is a hard discipline. May my often feeble attempts to forgive and love point beyond themselves, even in their limitations, to your perfect forgiveness and love.

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For More: A Spirituality of Living by Henri Nouwen

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The “Daily Riches” from RicherByFar are for your encouragement as you seek after God, and as he seeks after you. My goal is to give you something of uncommon value each day in about 400 words or less. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it with others. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: Patience with Yourself (Shirley Carter Hughson) *

Posted on by under Embracing Losses and Limits, Hurry Sickness, Patience with Yourself, Spiritual Formation

“I am sure than when St. Paul spoke of ‘the fruit of the Spirit,’ he had in mind such processes that as we find in nature. A tree which brings forth good fruit is able to do so because over many years it has been brought under the influence of cultivation, fertilization, sunshine, rain, caressing winds, [and] cleaning from blight, and so it acquires the power to bear good fruit. A farmer cannot get his result by suddenly becoming very busy for a season and doing these things.”  Shirley Carter Hughson


“He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season…”
Psalm 1:3

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • Most living things grow “over many years.” We like to be “very busy for a season” trying to achieve quick progress, but nature (and God) refuse to be rushed. Imagine the possible difference between your timetable and expectations for your spiritual progress, and what God is thinking. (There are good reasons why the Christian life has often been called a “journey.”)
  • Fruit comes “in it’s season”, and as a result of years “under the influence of cultivation, fertilization, sunshine, rain, caressing winds, [and] cleaning from blight….” Healthy growth takes both time and work, but is definitely does take time.
  • With this in mind, think about people on the journey of faith. What should be your attitude towards fellow pilgrims? What should be your attitude toward yourself? Can you relax and trust God’s timing? What would be the lessons for where you are now? that you may need to learn before you can move on?

Abba, help me to walk rather than to race, to receive rather than to grasp, and to relax rather than to strive. Help me to step into the flow of your divine life rather than living a frenzied version of my very human life. Help me focus on being with you and trust you for the timetable.

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For More: The Spiritual Letters of Shirley Carter by Shirley Carter Hughson

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The “Daily Riches” from RicherByFar are for your encouragement as you seek after God, and as he seeks after you. My goal is to provide you with something of uncommon value each day in less than 400 words. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it with others. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: Depression As a “Trapdoor” to God (Jim Palmer and Gerald May) *

Posted on by under Desolation's Gift, Embracing Losses and Limits, Suffering and Grace

“I used to be ashamed of my depression, but now I see it’s a secret trapdoor to God. When it hits, I sink down into that black hole and often find Jesus there. … now when I am asked [who Jesus is], I am most inclined to say, ‘Jesus is the one who sits down close to me in my black hole of despair, offering himself until it passes.’” Jim Palmer

“Grace is only truly appreciated and expressed in the actual, immediate experience of real life situations. Finally, it can only be ‘lived into.'” Gerald May

“Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it [Paul’s “thorn in the flesh”] away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:8-10

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • Do you have some weakness, hardship, persecution, addiction or other difficulty that causes you to sink down into a “black hole of despair?”
  • Can you imagine Jesus “sitting down close to you” in that dark, painful place and “offering himself until it passes?” Do that now.
  • We often despise our weaknesses, and ourselves for being weak, but the apostle Paul says he is glad for his weaknesses and delights in his difficulties. The next time you visit your own painful “black hole” of trouble, can you wait there for God to make himself known to you in a new and saving way? offering you, not necessarily healing, but the gift of himself? a new sense of his presence? that he is enough?

Abba, thank you for desiring to make yourself known to me in the midst of my most painful experiences. Help me to notice, to listen and learn, to submit, to give thanks, to be comforted, to be changed.

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For More: Divine Nobodies: Shedding Religion to Find God by Jim Palmer

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These “Daily Riches” are for your encouragement as you seek God, and as he seeks you. My goal is to provide you with something of uncommon value daily. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it with others!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: Embracing Our Limits (Pete Scazzero) *

Posted on by under Ego Issues, Embracing Losses and Limits, Learning Your Proper Place, Obscurity and Secrecy

“Getting off our thrones and joining the rest of humanity

is a must for spiritual maturity.
We are not the center of the universe.
The universe does not revolve around us.
Yet a part of us hates limits. We won’t accept them.
This is one of the primary reasons grieving our losses Biblically
is such an indispensable part of spiritual maturity.
Embracing our limits humbles us like little else.”
Peter Scazzero

“So John’s disciples came to him and said, ‘Rabbi, the man you met on the other side of the Jordan River, the one you identified as the Messiah, is also baptizing people. And everybody is going to him instead of coming to us.’ John replied, ‘No one can receive anything unless God gives it from heaven.  …It is the bridegroom who marries the bride, and the best man is simply glad to stand with him and hear his vows. Therefore, I am filled with joy at his success. He must become greater and greater,
and I must become less and less.’” John 3:26-30

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • Of one pastor it was said, “He wanted to be the bride at every wedding, and the corpse at every funeral.” It’s both funny and sad. Do you ever struggle to “get off your throne and join the rest of humanity?”
  • Think about some of the limits in your life. Do you hate them? Are you refusing to accept them, or are you “embracing” them?
  • What would it mean for you to “grieve your losses Biblically?” Can you see that there would be benefit in doing that? How so?

Abba, forgive me for constantly trying to do more than you intend with my life. Forgive me for my exalted sense of my own importance – for my constant chafing at the limits you give. Help me to submit to the work of “limits” in my life.

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For More: Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Peter Scazzero

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The “Daily Riches” from RicherByFar are for your encouragement as you seek after God, and as he seeks after you. My goal is to provide you with something of uncommon value each day in 400 words or less. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it with others. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: Unfulfilled Longings (Larry Crabb, John Climacus, Teresa of Avila) *

Posted on by under Desolation's Gift, Embracing Losses and Limits, Humility, thirsting and longing for God

“Nothing is more humbling than the recognition of (1) a deep thirst that makes us entirely dependent on someone else for satisfaction and (2) a depth of corruption that stains everything we do–even our efforts to reform–with selfishness. To realistically face what is true within us puts us in touch with a level of helplessness we don’t care to experience.” Larry Crabb

“Like the sun which shines on all alike, vainglory beams on every occupation. What I mean is this. I fast and I turn vainglorious. I stop fasting so that I will draw no attention to myself, and I become vainglorious over my prudence. I dress well or badly, and am vainglorious in either case. I talk or I hold my peace, and each time I am defeated. No mater how I shed this prickly thing, a spike remains to stand up against me.” John Climacus

“We do not know what is good for us, what we should ask for on any given day, at any given moment. Whether we are fervent or disquieted, at peace or thrown about by temptation, caught up in prayer or speechless, matters not at all. What matters is … however I find myself as darkness comes, that I should without ceasing hope in you and fear not. For if I have you, God, I will want for nothing. You alone suffice.” Teresa of Avila

“O God, you are my God;
I earnestly search for you.
My soul thirsts for you;
my whole body longs for you
in this parched and weary land
where there is no water.
Psalm 63:1

Moving From Head to Heart

  • Have you concluded that you are “entirely dependent upon someone else [God] for satisfaction?”  Are you aware of “a depth of corruption in you that stains everything you do … with selfishness?”
  • Are you able to “sit with” the longings that accompany these admissions and then bring them to God as the Psalmist does?
  • Facing these truths “puts us in touch with a level of helplessness we don’t care to experience.” Are you willing to go with God to this place of pain? What would be the point?

Abba, like the psalmist, help me to honestly admit my longings to myself and to you, and may I find satisfaction in you alone, regardless of what happens with my longings.

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For More: Inside Out by Larry Crabb

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Thanks for reading!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)