Not everyone is confident and not everyone who seems confident actually is. In the world of sport, each athlete began with a measure of confidence but needed to overcome many failed attempts. The most talented violinist began making the sounds of a yowling cat before reaching the confidence of a virtuoso concert performer! Generally, confidence has a direct relationship with experience.
‘My Journey to Knowing Jesus’: In this, our first Guest Post, born-again Christian Merry explores her journey to Jesus and finding a deep connection with God after a life filled with struggles and hardship; finding peace and love in the arms of The Lord.
Connecting with God can be a meaningful and fulfilling journey that often starts with a desire to find peace, guidance and purpose in life. Like all relationships, your relationship with God begins with a conversation and a few simple words are very helpful openers.
What does it mean to be alive? That is a big question behind which are the bigger questions of beginnings and endings. You may think the featured picture is a panda bear – it is not! It contains three items that were living and one that never had life*. Something may look alive but it might actually be partly or completely dead. Take the shell of a whelk – it may have a living being within it or it may be just an empty shell.
Have you ever gone into a crowded room and felt lonely? Everyone seems to know someone but no one takes time out to ‘abide with you’. You can even feel lonely in a church and it’s not a heresy to admit it!
All journeys worth making require clarity of purpose, commitment and diligence. As you consider your life, can you think of areas where you are diligent and others where you give up? What do you think makes the difference?
If a person becomes obsessed with money, sex, power, ideology or ‘self’, then a pandora’s box of dangers is opened up. Indulging in these leads to destructive forces of greed, compulsive pornography, jealousies and even murderous thoughts.
We are urged to manage stress these days as a safeguard for our own mental health and wellbeing. It is ironic that so many of us are greatly stressed at a time when the standard of living and longevity are at such peaks. The industrial and technological revolutions raised expectations and now we have AI to push the limits even further on what it means to be human.
There are some paintings, writings and people in life that kick-start fresh thinking. In what they express, you can see a richness that may challenge and enhance your own understanding. Have a read of this to stimulate your thinking on how you interact with the world.
Discover life according to Jesus in 321. It’s an online course designed to help you think about God, the world and you. Here’s another useful approach to understanding and sharing the mission of Jesus Articles – Speak Life https://321.speaklife.org.uk/course/321
