Pastor Tom's Journal

Songwriter, singer, pianist, actor, and protoblogger Steve Schalchlin responds to the recent news about Mother Teresa's prayer correspondence - actually her deepest, most personal prayers to a God she ultimately and effectively trusted with her life - and shared with her spiritual advisers. Steve makes the assertion at the end of his excellent reflection, Living In The Bonus Round: The Doubting Faith of Mother Teresa : "Faith is not belief. Faith is what you have when belief is out of reach." My take on the subject is at Mother Teresa and Faith Struggles in The Dream Factory. My conclusion there was: "This glimpse into the personal, deep, spiritual struggle within Mother Teresa makes me love and appreciate her more because she moved beyond the superficial religiosity of one who never asks and struggles with hard questions. She not only wrestled with the doubts and questions, but like Jacob, she wrestled with God himself." "For her, it always came back to ...

There are four keys words and three key principles. I will explore: Flee, Storm, Sleep, and Fish. The three principles are that you can choose, lose, or cruise. First, God called Jonah and Jonah fled from God. At least he attempted to FLEE. God never leaves us without choices. we can choose fight, flight, or flow with His purposes. Fight becomes less and less of an option the more we know God. Flow requires surrender of our will to His. too often, we choose to FLEE. The principle here is YOU CAN CHOOSE. F - FROM God. It is always away from Him. You can't resist His will and enjoy the same fellowship as ever. L - LUNACY - It is an absurd idea that we can run from Him. The psalmist said that even in Sheol, He was there. E - EFFECT on others. As Jonah endangered others, so do we when we disobey. E - EVIDENT - You can't really hide it. It all hangs out. There is another spelling possible that helps us understand some of what causes...