With nimble, practiced fingers she raced to capture the living parable before her eyes in the fleeting moments of sunset — a clutch of white desert lilies she happened upon while walking to the Algerian slum she called home. Lilias Trotter was no longer a starry-eyed missionary who was struggling to learn the Arabic language. Over these 20 years the desert had become home. She had grown accustomed to what had, at one time, appeared strange and foreign alongside her wealthy London upbringing.
This past year has been the hardest season of my life. Circumstances beyond my control have caused me to feel, as Paul said, “…burdened beyond measure, above strength…” (2 Cor. 1:8). And through it all, the word that keeps coming into my heart and mind is “overcoming.”
With a gentle ding from the bell above the door and a soft thud of footsteps coming down the stairs, another shopper had entered the basement consignment store to browse the latest inventory. As the woman began sliding hangers from right to left, the warm and familiar voice of the shop manager greeted her, “Hi, Megan! What are you looking for today?”
Spiritual fire can feel very elusive in our modern, apathetic Christian world. Just as a dwindling campfire can be reignited into a roaring flame by being stoked, there are specific action steps that can do the same in our spiritual lives. I would like to explore three principles for the Christian life that naturally lead to spiritual passion.
I wearily sat down on the cold hotel bed, feeling completely overwhelmed as I watched my two toddlers toss restlessly in their portable cribs, coughing every few seconds. For the past two weeks our lives had felt like absolute chaos. Our four children, all under the age of six, had been hit with a serious respiratory infection that required us to give them nebulizer treatments several times a day.
Darlene felt the room sway as her hand groped for the barracks ladder. Her husband’s last words to her before he was carted away to his eventual death rang in her ears. Darlene’s surroundings screamed a different reality. The Japanese prison camp had every appearance of being Godforsaken. And now this — Russell was gone.