five things we can’t control

Here’s some of the good blogging found this week:

How Jesus Helps My Unbelief, HT to Challies. “If I’m honest, I have felt a bit like I need to be brought back to life. My spirit has been heavy, weighed down by depression that has returned after a long hiatus, and it has left me sad and discouraged and so very defeated. I must remind myself daily (sometimes hourly) that my life is a good life, that I am loved, that it will not always feel this way.”

Have You Considered? (10 Things to Think About), HT to Challies. Ten things the Bible tells us to “consider.”

I Know God’s a Writer, HT to Challies. “God is far more than any one description. We just tend to see more of his beauty down the avenues we love—the ones we know. My years spent writing has tuned my ear to catch the way the Lord demonstrates his own writing chops—how his poetry and beauty spill out of his world. In turn, my husband, who spends time problem solving, building, and dealing with the particulars of spreadsheets and numbers, notices the way the Lord orders every minute detail to perfect harmony.”

The Digital Allure of Being Attended To, HT to Challies. “I’ve been wrestling with the implications of people turning to AI Chatbots for friendship or, even more distressingly, romantic relationships, and what that means about our social fabric. I can’t help but feel that this is a bigger concern than we realize, or at least a more significant sign of the state of our society.” The last paragraph is especially good.

Small Injustices. “If we aren’t careful, we can allow the small injustices to make us spiritually blind. It’s like staring at the sun. If we focus on the small injustices, that’s all we’ll be able to see, and then pretty soon, we won’t see anything at all. We’ll live in the darkness of woe-is-me, and we will be completely incapable of thinking of others, being grateful, seeing God’s goodness in all that comes our way. We will forget the value in suffering, and we will quit our reliance on God.”

Five Things You Can Control, HT to Challies. “I had confided to my wise mother-in-law, who is now in her ninth decade of life, that I have felt at a loss some days over not having control over things that used to feel very controllable. This precious saint understands all too well the challenges of losing control over some of life’s circumstances.”

The Ministry of Small Things, HT to Challies. “Wanting to rise above the comfortable and predictable is far better than making an idol of our personal comfort and ease. But we don’t have to be notable or do notable things. In the pursuit of meaningful service for Christ, oftentimes the little things are the big things.”

How to Make Yourself at Home At (Almost) Any Church. HT to Challies. “The church is the gathering where the Word is preached, God is worshiped, the people serve one another and the community through their gifts, and the light of God’s salvation shines to the world. But how do you make the church home? Here are some recommendations:”

Parenting Is Hard, HT to Challies. “Yes, parenting is hard. I think parenting is supposed to be. Being an excellent parent, the kind we always thought we would be, is just…beyond…reach. Just…past…our outstretched finger tips. Oh, how this impossible task shows us our need for a Savior like nothing else we are called to do!”

Rubbing Shoulders Throughout Eternity, HT to Challies. This is a nice article about the people we’ll rub shoulders with in eternity. “Life is full of such encounters. You rub shoulders with a soul, perhaps only for a moment, and then your paths never again cross. And yet, just sometimes, there exists within these brief encounters a touch of some unknown and mysterious quality; a mingling between souls that cannot be put into words, though it is felt deeply.”