Sky Links, 12-30-13

Photo: Spacebridge by longobord CC 2.0
The journey is harder and more rewarding than you thought it would be

Alison Brown, writes:

“10 Steps to Freedom” or “5 Ways to Instant Maturity” are popular paths dependent on someone else’s revelation and my self-help prowess.  Wide at the beginning, they quickly become dead ends.

The Road Less Traveled is where we can settle for nothing less than our personal encounter with God when we are challenged or pressed.  We want to know God in this place for ourselves and discover who He is passionate about being for us now.
It’s a toll road, but pay the price gladly.

.No Neon Signs Along The Road Less Traveled, by Allison Brown.


Calling


Have you been called?  Are you called?  What is calling, anyways?  I have been asking this question and pondering it for a very long time.  Mathew Schuler wrote:
For me, the concept of “calling” can quickly warp relationships by imposing a power structure that diminishes one party and exonerates the other...
...So am I “called?” I would say I am being called. Someone or something from somewhere is calling to me, and I am trying my best to make my way toward whatever that is.
Though that was shorter, by Matthew Schuler


Wounded healers with an education in empathy

Don Miller wrote about bitterness and forgiveness, citing Desmund Tutu searching for people to help him serve people who had been devastated by apartheid.  They had to be people who had learned forgiveness. Having been through unjust suffering and processed that experience with forgiveness, we have empathy that is a costly and valuable tool for healing others.

The Greatest Impact You Have May Come Out of Your Pain by Don Miller.


Stop saying, "It's a God thing"

I could make my own list of things Christians say that are odd.  I knew a man who was a fairly new believer and he soon discovered that Christians speak "Christianese", a language all our own.  Jason Johnson posted his brief list.  There is a very good discussion about these in the comments section.  I have been perplexed with, "it's a God thing".  What?

5 Things Christians Should Stop Saying by Jason Johnson.


Church without building

77% of Americans claim to be Christian, but only 20% go to church (builings).  4000 churches close every year.  What is going on?  There is a movie coming out next spring called When God Left the Building.  Watch the preview here.


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