Bread For The Journey
And the angel of the LORD came again a second time and touched Elijah and said, “Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.” And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God. (1 Kings 19:7–8)
For He knows our frame, He remembers that we are dust. (Psalm 103:14)
The Lord, who knows our frame and our fragility, knows exactly what we need to keep going. Sometimes it is a snack, or manna just enough for the day. Other times he knows we need something that will fuel us through a longer ordeal.
Of course, God doesn’t need to use more words to carry us through a longer ordeal. In fact I vividly remember His promise, “I will be with you,” sustaining me through a season of dark months that turned into years…and that was just five words.
But in our framework here, we’re using “bread for the journey” as a place to wrestle with ideas in longer form. Think essays, more than blog posts. (Shorter pieces will go under “bread for the day.”) We hope some of this work is helpful to you in your own journey.
What I Want My Kids to Know About Christmas: Day 5 – Christmas is a Rescue Operation
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father… Galatians 1:3-4 There are a few verses you could pick out as the best one-sentence...
What I Want My Kids to Know About Christmas: Day 4 – We Live On a Battlefield with Three Actors
We live on an apocalyptic battlefield with three actors. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 1 John 3:8 Have you ever heard...
What I Want My Kids to Know About Christmas: Day 3 – The Darkness Around Us is Deep
The darkness around us is deep. (Read Matthew 2:7-18) Once you start reading it for yourself, you’ll discover the Bible is not a G-rated book. It’s not even PG or PG13. There are stories in the Bible that our best Directors and most advanced CGI special effects...
What I Want My Kids to Know About Christmas: Day 2
God works through flawed, broken people to accomplish his purposes. (Read Matthew 1:1-17) The New Testament opens with a genealogy, of all things. Jesus’ family tree. Doesn’t seem all that exciting. And it includes women – which you need to know ancient...
What I Want My Kids to Know About Christmas: Day 1 – Keep Christmas Weird
Christmas, as we celebrate it today on December 25th, began sometime in the 4th century. And it wasn’t a day. It was celebrated over 12 days – yep, that’s where the song comes from. It culminated in a day called Epiphany, which marked the revelation of Christ to the...
How to Care for People Navigating Hard Times – Part 2
We’re thinking about caring for people who are walking through pain and suffering, acknowledging that it may be awkward, and that sometimes helping hurts. In Part 1, we talked about the healing power of presence, that there is an almost mystical power in...
How to Care for People Navigating Hard Times – Part 1
Listening is Caring Our family recently received a tough diagnosis. Our kids’ grandmother, my wife’s mom, my mother-in-law (who finally asked me a few years ago “Why don’t you call me Mom?”), one of the kindest, most conscientious, loyal, good-natured,...
Becoming a Non-Anxious Presence with Edwin Friedman – Part 3 of 3
It Takes Navigating Pain Wisely to Become A Non-Anxious Presence You may remember the story of The Velveteen Rabbit. It’s a children’s book with a very grown-up theme – that we become real through suffering. I think of that story as we turn to the question that...
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