A work in progress

Last weekend, I was part of a panel at a singles retreat held for college students. Students submitted questions which served as a guide for the panel discussion. The entire experience was terrifyingly wonderful - honest and real vulnerability meets attempting to effectively communicate my unique journey. Some of the student questions really struck me and they've been on my mind all week. I'd like to share a few, along with my current thoughts. "What is the best way to remind yourself that there isn't something wrong with you just because you are single?" "If God has told me to wait, how do I do that?" "I avoid relationship in fear of being vulnerable. How can I get over this?" "I've heard 'be content with God' or 'only God can make you complete' so much. I know the Bible says that but don't think I've experienced it. Can that legitimately be achieved?"   "How has your view of singleness changed...

I've been reading Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God  by Tim Keller. (Thank you, Mitch!) There is so much in the book to unpack, discuss, think about, and apply. Since I don't think anyone would appreciate reading pages and pages of direct quotes from the book on this blog, I'll just recommend it to any and all. Prayer is a topic that I always said I was going to work on but it always seemed too big to tackle. So, I continued with my norm and by ignoring prayer in my life, it became an even bigger idea that was just too difficult for me to wrestle. Thankfully, this book and the Scripture it has pointed me to, has revealed that prayer - rich, powerful, life-changing prayer - is very possible. I just want to share one of my biggest take-aways. By having a skewed view of the Gospel, I've created a skewed view of God, myself and our relationship with each other. My take on the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Christ keeps me from experiencing the fulln...