Firmly Planted: Recent Episodes
Melody Nowowiejski
As unjust as Christ's particularly hideous death, that is the extent of our injustice against God.
What does it mean for us, and what does it say about God, when the rains don't come and the grass shrivels and dies? Is He enough, always?
I wonder how many answers we miss because they look like Relationship instead of taking the shape we expected: a husband or a child, a healing or a job, or deliverance from some temptation or relationship.
Are [our kids] an inconvenience? I know we would never say that, but if they knew the word and its meaning would they recognize it in our tone, schedule, and priorities?
I felt that one hard kernel of truth: God saves an entire nation from destruction, but He doesn't rescue Esther from her situation.
Why does it feel like God's not hearing us when our prayers aren't answered the way we'd like?
While it is a great mercy to experience the consequences of our sin, it is not enough to restore us. We must also confess. There is no grace or forgiveness in the shadows, in secrecy, in denial, or in private promises to do better.
The way through the waiting is in walking side by side with Christ; and the way back to His side is through praise.
Sometimes we mourn what was and should have been, and there is nothing in the now that makes it all ok.
Instead of preserving his character with distance, the angel asks Joseph to sully his name, tarnish his reputation and shoulder those assumptions alongside Mary.
The greatest miracle of that first Christmas is not that a virgin gave birth, or even that a deity would choose to dwell with us, but that he would choose to dwell AS us.
Being full of thanks is a habit to be cultivated for every day, one which will naturally lead to expressing that thanks in giving.
I came to a point where the option of walking away from God, of living as though He did not exist, was on the table.
The more faithfully I turn my straying thoughts to Christ, the more I will look like Him.
We live as though God opened a bank account in our name when He brought us into the family and deposited a certain amount of forgiveness in it.
We are so afraid to do it, but what if we trusted God with something less important than our eternal soul?
The abundant life we were promised is finding Christ, not only sufficient in all circumstances, but infinitely more desirable than any other thing.
If you have, or had, young children, I hope you've experienced the incredible realization that they trust you completely and implicitly, they don't even stop to consider whether they should.
Do we believe in a love that leads into the valley, not just out; love that does not heal, but gives grace for enduring instead?
I've been contemplating Eve: how ardently she must have yearned for the fulfillment of the promise made to her that last terrible day in the garden, how she waited longer than any of us, and especially how she never saw it come to pass.
In our teens and twenties we tend to visualize ourselves as world changers; and then the work that is life seeps in and we look up years later to find we've settled for changing diapers, toilet paper rolls and the car's oil.
We are the fickle, denying, betraying crowd. (Judas portrayed by Bradford James Jackson. All rights reserved.)
When the world is turned upside down in chaos, you are the teacher and presence they need most.
Do not be anxious about anything. Instead, bring everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, to God; and His peace will guard your heart and mind.
Is it possible to be in a state of peaceful happiness in the middle of hardship or calamity?