Category: Reflections
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How can I love people I don’t like?
It’s hard to love everyone. It’s almost impossible to like everyone. Yet, there are ways that we can develop a more Jesus-like heart towards those we find difficult. God has been challenging me about loving my enemies. “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be…
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Identity 1 – Identity in society and culture
In this 3-part blog series on identity, I’m going to be exploring: How do we introduce ourselves? I might say something like, “My name’s Anne and I work with Living Out and the local church. I’m from Manchester originally but have lived in the North East for 23 years.” Notice how I just introduced myself…
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Intimacy with God
A visitor to my website recently contacted me to ask “What do you mean when you talk about experiencing intimacy with God? How does it feel being intimate with God / Jesus and is it enough?” I thought these were excellent questions, so here’s my attempt at an answer. I guess our culture often defines…
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Sin and the sunk cost fallacy
I like reading books about economics. One of the things that I’ve always found fascinating is the sunk cost fallacy, “the phenomenon whereby a person is reluctant to abandon a strategy or course of action because they have invested heavily in it, even when it is clear that abandonment would be more beneficial.” 1 We…
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Hiking the trail to the promised land
The Christian life is a bit like hiking the trail to the promised land. It’s something we’re called to do together and I’ve had the privilege of sharing the hike with some precious friends over the years. It can be really tough, but we know the effort is getting us to where we want to…
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Honesty with God
How honest can you be with God? Do you feel like you can tell him everything? Or do you feel the need to hide parts of your life? I sometimes think that our church culture doesn’t help foster real intimacy with God. Often at the start of a church service the leader will say something…
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We need to talk about death
There seem to be an increasing number of adverts featuring cremation companies that offer no funeral and no fuss (no tears?). There’s more of a focus on partying and going on fun bike rides than grieving (see the adverts here). Whilst it’s right and healthy to celebrate the life of our loved ones, it’s also…
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Obsessed with God
We tend to think of obsession as a bad thing. It conjures up images of creepy stalkers, or someone whose collection of ornamental pigs has got way out of hand. But what if it’s the object of obsession that’s the problem, rather than the strength of feeling itself? What if obsession with a person, hobby,…
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How much do we want God?
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.Hebrews 12: 1 – 2a I want…
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Prayer walks
I admit that I often find it difficult to pray or get stuck in a rut, so I’m always on the look out for creative ideas to mix things up a bit. I’ve blogged before about creative prayer so you might want to check out those ideas: I find that moving my body and being…
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