Founded on the Sea
You have been waiting for the water to recede. Psalm 24 says the earth is founded on the seas. God does not wait for the chaos to evaporate before he builds. The ground was always meant to be built on the deep.
The Impossible Command
Sing to the Lord a new song. The instruction feels cruel when you are drowning. The old songs no longer fit the voice you have now. The new song is not the old song faked — it is something else entirely. Part one of Singing in the Flood.
The Holiness of Feeling Nothing
You used to feel things. Now you feel nothing. You have not lost your faith. You have lost your feelings. These are not the same thing — and the church has, for a long time, taught us they were.
When the Community Steps Back (Ps 88, Part 4)
You have taken from me friend and neighbour — darkness is my closest friend. Heman was not only in the dark. He was in the dark alone. The wound of being left is its own wound. Part four of A Slow Walk Through Psalm 88.
The Psalm That Does Not Resolve (Ps 88, Part 2)
Most lament psalms turn at some point — yet I will trust, but you, O Lord. Psalm 88 has no pivot. It ends in the dark. The editors knew, and they left it. Part two of A Slow Walk Through Psalm 88.
Darkness Is My Closest Friend (Ps 88, Part 1)
Heman was a chief musician of the temple. He led worship for the king. By every external measure, his life was working — and he wrote one of the bleakest sentences in the Bible. Darkness is my closest friend. Part one of A Slow Walk Through Psalm 88.
Cure and Healing Are Not the Same
A cure is the removal of the problem. Healing is the slow restoration of the whole person. The church has used these words as if they meant the same thing. They do not, and the confusion is doing real damage.
When You Are Angry at God
You probably will not say it out loud. You may not have said it to yourself yet. You have only felt it. Anger. At God. And you were raised, somewhere along the way, to believe this is the one emotion Christians are not allowed to have.
