The prayer model that Jesus teaches His disciples in the gospels is not simply a guide to prayer but an invitation to deeper relational intimacy with God His Father. When Jesus refers to daily bread, He is speaking of prayer being like one of the most basic human needs, the need for sustenance. And He does so with the most humble of meals… bread.

The question is often asked: Is it possible to thrive and flourish in challenging environments? And, if so, how is it that some people find a way in seemingly difficult circumstances to do well, while others find themselves struggling to move ahead?

The longer that unforgiveness is left unchecked and undealt with, it will begin to breed bitterness, anger and resentment among other things. All of these are toxic to your soul. It may feel as though holding onto these things means that you are holding toxin for another to drink, but in actuality it is slowly affecting and harming you.

One of the most important things to do when you are wanting to deal with your fears is to figure out why they are there in the first place. Most people who are struggling with fear are not aware of the why of their fears, but they certainly are aware of the what and the who, and in many cases the when.  

Love everyone: this does not mean that you trust everyone, or even like everyone, however, God asks us to love others as a response to his love that we have received. He loved first, and we love because of his love. It is impossible on our own to purely love everyone. We literally cannot do it all the time, for everyone, in every circumstance. We can try our best to love, but that is all that we can do on our own. This is where we need to go one step further and invite God to fill out and fill up wherever we feel a poverty in the area of love with the abundance and fullness of His love.

We were created for perfect love, by the God of love, so that we may know and experience His love. God is the source of pure, unadulterated, unaffected love that is not corrupted or tainted in any way. This perfect love flows from His presence like an unending river that He calls and invites us to enter into, so that we may experience the fullness of love that He created us as humanity to know, experience and embrace.  

One of the “spiritual practices” that we have chosen to lean into in our lives as a family is the practice of camping. I can already hear some of you thinking that camping is not a spiritual practice. Really though, anything that we choose to do to honour God, in order to seek His presence for the renewal of our souls whether in community or individually can be a spiritual practice. For us, it has become a part of the rhythm of our lives and has an impact on how we live spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and physically.

This is a call to do things differently, to choose the way of love and to honour each other regardless of our personal opinions, choices and agendas. Our primary call must be to love and honour one another and to do what we can to build each other up in the faith. There are too many needless casualties in these days.

Years ago, my Mom, knowing my predisposition as a young man towards procrastination gave me a gift. The gift was a hamster wheel. At the time it was super random and one of those gifts that you say thanks for and then look waiting for the “and then,” or “so what,” or “okay you got me, please explain.” My Mom said something simple and direct that has stuck with me. She said, “I am giving you this to remind you not to get stuck spinning your wheels.” This is a great metaphor for where some people are finding themselves right now. Feeling like you are running all the time, getting no where and totally exhausted by your life, but not able to get off the wheel to rest and recover.

When we get that dried out, weary shell that sometimes happens in life, it can be hard to see past the exterior that has formed. Another problem is that the shell also creates a barrier to good things getting in, and to others seeing what is still hidden underneath. If you were to peel back the layer and rip off the hard, dried out exterior you would find that underneath is a supple, healthy, appealing onion. 

I believe that this is a pivotal moment that God has chosen to shine a light on this atrocity and also on the wrongs that were committed in His name. I believe that God is wanting to see this historical wrong made right, and each person, family and nation is to be given the opportunity to be heard, to be embraced and known, and to receive the healing that has been held back by the secrets, the lies and lack of admission of guilt.

Jesus did for us what we could not on our own, so that we could in and through Him come and experience eternity with God not separated by sin but drawn in by His love. We are, in Jesus, able to be freed from sin and death, resurrected with Him into life.

What if God is bringing all of this stuff to the surface in us in 2020 so that 2021 can be a year of VICTORY, a year where we break through the surface of that which has trapped us and all that has held us back? What if we have all been given an opportunity, to not just keep moving forward from one year that beat many of us up into another of the same, but rather, to take stock of what is ready to be dealt with now on the surface and right there in our faces?