If you’ve read the last two entries in this series, you know the story. I walked through a long, quiet unraveling. First came the gentle undoing—the slow loosening of structures, roles, and rhythms I had built my life around. Then came the fog—the deconstruction and disorientation that stripped away what I thought I knew about God, myself, and the faith I had long called home.
This post is part of a four-part series exploring my deeply personal (yet, community-oriented) journey of spiritual transformation—through deconstruction, disorientation, and reorientation. Each post is a window into a different season of the path: the unraveling, the wandering, the returning, and the re-forming. My hope is that, as you read, you’ll feel less alone in your questions and more aware of the God who walks with us through every chapter.
I shared some reflections a few weeks ago. Although I've been a Bible learner and disciple of Christ for many years, I do not yet have this walk figured out. It's filled with missteps and mistakes, and even when I re-read some of my prior posts, I can see how I could have represented the truth more fully and adequately. It is humbling to know that God still brings truth even in our tiny bit of understanding.
Today, we start a Bible study I've refused to write for months. It is a chapter out of my dark soul and a testament to the bright communion God showed me over a long, swarthy night. I know I need to sit still and get some of the messy, messy work God has graciously done down on paper. I dread it and welcome it all in one.
The self-improvement market was worth $9.9 billion in 2016 (thanks to a little research data). Did you know you can think and grow rich and only work 4 hours each week? Since you’ve freed up so much time because you’re highly effective, you can have your cheese moved, be an untethered soul, learn the 48 laws of power, understand big magic, and wash your face! Or, you can figure out the sacred secret now…
This chapter is a word for the discouraged. The broken. The weak.
John 9 was orchestrated from the beginning for the ones who have been told they’re not enough. That they’ll never make it. For people who’ve been talked down to, pushed aside, and told to leave. This study is for the believers who believe they made one choice, and it cost them an irredeemable life…
In some of the ancient manuscripts, John 7:53-8:11 is not found. Where it is found, it is not always in this location in John’s gospel. Even if you believe it’s a misfit passage, I’m thankful that God has continually shown Himself to misfits of society (i.e., me). May that be an encouragement to you as you consider your own caste system.
Last year, I wrote an open letter to my four boys on being men. This year, I write to a special young woman who’s been a divine interruption in the life of our family—especially those four boys I mentioned. You know who you are. And, while you are infinitely inimitable and beloved, there are other women who will understand or need to hear this unsolicited wisdom [my opinions are also free of charge] I’m going to speak into your life on International Women’s Day.
I left you with a cliffhanger from the first half of John 4 about the unnamed Samaritan woman. We eavesdropped as a conversation progressed between an unrighteous woman and a sinless Savior. This week, let’s see what that broken Samaritan did with what she learned from Jesus. I pray you’ll find healing for your own heart along the way and pass the good news along to others so they might believe.
“If we were asked to read to a dying man who did not know the gospel, we should probably select this chapter as the most suitable one for such an occasion; and what is good for dying men is good for us all, for that which we are; and how soon we may be actually at the gates of death, none of us can tell.” ~Charles Spurgeon
The Lord is speaking to you. He’s speaking to you about the state of your temple (your heart). He’s speaking to you about your belief v. your commitment. He’s speaking to you about not becoming calloused and hardened as you travel the road to Calvary…the narrow path where your will comes to die. Listen up.
The fourth gospel is essential. John gives us a direct look into the heart of Jesus—into who Jesus is. It was a book that was written for one purpose: that we might believe. What a blessing to have a book written primarily to help us understand the character of Christ and the meaning behind the events the Son of God performed so we would believe that Jesus saves.
