Faith Remains

22 | believer | lifelong learner | art admirer | occasional writer. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1 For every not enough, Jesus is there saying He is enough. Your brokeness is welcome here.

[faithoverfeelings]

This world is not my home.

[relentless-for-jesus]

God is calling you higher, it's up to you to answer that call. God is going to pursue you, but at the end of the day, it is up to you to answer.

Just know, that if you walk away from God, you're walking away from life. You're walking away from living in eternity. You're walking away from true goodness.

Saying "no" to God is no small thing. Saying "yes" to God is no small thing. Choose wisely, because your choice will have a HUGE impact not only on your life, but on the lives of others as well.

God says in Jeremiah 29:13,

"You will seek Me and find me when you seek Me with all your heart."

[jspark3000]

“If you really had faith, you wouldn’t be so depressed!” No—it’s actually faith that was the very last rock that kept me going right on through depression.

[jspark3000]

I can’t say this often enough: Your pastor is not your doctor and the church is not a clinic. The church has been generally unequipped to deal with mental health. It’s definitely getting better, but I still get messages like, “My pastor told me depression is a sin. My pastor said if I really believed, I wouldn’t be depressed. My pastor said I only need to pray and that therapists are worldly frauds and only the church can help me and that medicine is not normal.”

I can see why this is said: If the church has the best news in the world, that we’re loved and welcomed by the one who made us, then it seems unthinkable for any Christian to express dismay. I’ve been told I’m a “bad witness“ if I’m not happy all the time.

But I don’t see this sort of thing in Scripture. I think David was a bad witness because, you know, of all the murder and genocide and killing his friend to steal his wife. But when David yells “How long O Lord” and runs the full range of emotions from despair to guilt to euphoria, that was left in Scripture. That was a witness to our humanity. A good witness speaks to both our joys and sorrows, our bliss and blisters, our heaven and heartache.

I’ve never liked this whole guilt trip: “How will people know you’re saved if you’re not joyful?” That’s the thing. I’m loved regardless of how joyful or happy I am. I’m loved despite my broken brain. I’m loved when I least know it, when I’m in the fog, when depression has strangled all significance, when it’s numbed me into a joyless shell: I’m still loved.

I trust that medicine and therapy and safe people are an extension of love for us too. We need them as much as our broken world needs justice, clean water, antibiotics, heart medication, vaccines, and homeless shelters. We need the help. Any help is good help, and all good help is God’s help.

— J.S.

[jspark3000]

In Heaven, there will only be one person with scars. You’ll have none because he will have taken yours.  — J.S.

[godlywoman]

Since intimacy with God is His highest priority for our lives, it is a grave sin to turn someone's heart away from the one true God.

Charles Stanley

[jspark3000]

How do you bring people to God without telling them that they are going to hell? Or "shoving my religion down their throat?" And how do you deal with people that tried Jesus and still don't believe? I have issues with the way my church discuss these topics so I was wondering if you could bring some clarity. Thank you so much for your help!

Hey dear friend, I speak all this with absolute grace and love for you, and I’d like to go one further.

Hell is not a motivation for faith—but neither is heaven. If a punishment or a prize are the motivations for someone’s journey, then my assumption is that person hasn’t thought very far about why they’re on this journey at all. I’m reminded of that quote from True Detective: “If the only thing keeping a person decent is the expectation of divine reward, then brother, that person is a piece of s__.”

If my goal is to “bring people to God,” that actually won’t work either, because we shouldn’t be trying to make it work. I don’t mean to assume your motives, but evangelism isn’t a score-card where we win people by attendance. No one is a project or a charity case. Christians might not think we do this, but it happens in all kinds of unseen ways: we attract people until they’re baptized, and then the pastor stops talking to them. I’ve seen it hundreds of times. God can only naturally flow out of who we are and how we interact with others. God flows from my art, my expression, my patience, my generosity, and what I do with my free time. It’s not primarily a conscious goal to say, “See, this is God!” It was C.S. Lewis who said we can’t try to make good art, but that we make art and it might turn out good. It’s the same way with expressing God to others: it happens or it doesn’t. 

I’m not sure there’s a way to “deal with” people who “tried Jesus and still don’t believe.” That was their choice. There’s no magical formula for this. My guess is that they don’t have ears to hear right now, or that they didn’t get the whole picture, and we each can only be faithful to an accurate picture of who God is (again, without forcing it or keeping score). And what if they did hear everything and still don’t believe? Would even more information suddenly wake them up? No. Only God can do that. I believe God can, and does. I must be faithful in how God is working through me, just as I believe God is faithful in how He is working through them.

People have their personal objections to God and Christianity, and they should be taken seriously. No lecture or lesson is going to break through that, and if it did, then it only takes another lecture or lesson to “un-persuade” someone out of their so-called faith. 

I don’t mean to sound abrasive and I’m sorry that this comes off rather abrupt. I think it’s been way too indoctrinated in us to make “Christian evangelism” into some kind of program, so that we use really strange language to talk about “dealing with people” or “bringing them to God.” These paradigms are hurtful and presume Western methods of transferring information, rather than a holistic, natural, relational interaction between the uniqueness of real, living people. Yes, I do tell people very plainly about Jesus, and at the same time, there are all the things I’m not saying which are just as important, if not more, and simply being available and asking questions and letting others know that I’m ready to talk, any time, and more crucially, ready to listen. 

— J.S.

[jspark3000]

Let’s talk about loneliness.

I’m not a therapist or doctor, but as a hospital chaplain, I’ve seen the terrible and awful effects of loneliness on mental health. The problem is that it’s tough to admit, almost embarrassing to say, “I’m hurting from loneliness.”

Loneliness is a double-bind in that in order to find comfort, it requires reaching out to people or for people to be near. But some of us have been alone so long, it’s unthinkable that we can connect with another human without risking rejection—which fuels more loneliness.

The unhelpful reply I hear to “I’m lonely” is “Why don’t you just make friends?” But that’s like saying, “Why don’t you just get rich?” or “Why can’t you just go to the gym?” We’re already in deficit, a lap behind, because we fear connection in proportion to how alone we feel.

It’s difficult to make friends and keep them. It’s hard to have real friendships that are not just functional transactions. Even when someone is surrounded by crowds or well connected, they may be the loneliest people on earth, because all their “friends” are transactional.

I don’t know the answer to loneliness. But I know what the answer is not: We can’t just snap out of it. We can’t just cure it with a party, a bar, a church, a dating app. It requires intentional investment and yes, the risk of rejection. The opposite of loneliness is courage.

Friends, this week may be lonely. This season can be brutal. They can remind you of all that’s missing. As trite as it sounds: You may feel lonely, but you are not alone. May you find the courage to reach out, to enter the possibilities of love in all its heaven and heartache.

— J.S.

[infpisme]

[hattriccmagick]

I have .

[fleurum]

— stars in your heart.

[onlinecounsellingcollege]

“You must love in such a way that the person you love feels free.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

[deadmugen]

ppl like the idea of you, but chances are they’re not ready to handle the reality of you

[bnmxfld]

“Always be kinder than you feel.”

— Unknown

[adjustive-deactivated20171021]

2017 the year of

less crying

[adjustive-deactivated20171021]

i can officially say that 2017 is in fact NOT the year of less crying

[faithoverfeelings]

2019 wasn't either

[onlinecounsellingcollege]

How to Overcome Emotional Numbness

Emotional numbness is where we experience mild to severe feelings of detachment – so it’s hard for us to access normal feelings any more. This includes both negative and positive emotions as you can’t decide to shut just one feeling off. Common causes of emotional numbness include different stresses or traumas … from receiving bad news … to being in an accident … to recovering from the death of someone close … to a relationship breakup … to feeling deeply humiliated or ashamed. So how do you overcome emotional numbness and live with emotional integrity again?

1. The first thing to do is to choose to respect and allow all emotions – no matter what they are. Also, try and grasp the fact that suppressing your emotions will likely lead to heartache and problems later on (as they’ll possibly resurface at inappropriate times.)

2. Try to understand that feelings and actions are two very different, and unrelated, things. That is, you can still feel angry without becoming violent – so don’t assume your feelings will affect your actions, too.

3. Try to figure out the message behind intense emotions. Are you angry because you’ve been hurt, used or abused? Are you sad because deep down you feel that you’ll never find true love - as you can’t believe that anyone will love you for yourself?

4. Take that risk – and find the courage to ask someone for help. If you’re honest with yourself, you’ll know that there are those who genuinely love you like – like a true and caring friend. The important thing is not to try and isolate yourself, and to make the extra effort to prioritise self-care. You need other people to help you work through this.

5. Seek professional help if the symptoms persist. There are excellent counsellors and therapists out there who have the training and skills to help you to get free – so you can live a more fulfilling and normal, healthy life.

6. Be patient within yourself. It’s likely to take time – as you will need to learn to trust, and take some barriers down, so you can be yourself again (and that is often hard to do when you’ve experience hurt and pain).

[relentless-for-jesus]

If you're struggling, it is so so important that you spend time with God. So important. God is The One who has gotten me through SO much in my life. Without Him, I wouldn't have made it in this life and to eternity with Him.

If you are struggling, seek God. Trust me, doing that WORKS.

God Bless you!

[worshipgifs]