What do you think of when you read the word ‘celibacy’? Do you think of monks, nuns, robes and rosary beads? Do you consider it the forced lifestyle of the ‘dateless’, or a relic of yesteryear morality? According to Wheaton College professor Christine Colon, all of our understandings of celibacy need a makeover:

Celibacy isn’t just about sex.

And singleness isn’t a life stage to be endured until the real thing (marriage) comes along.

With Bonnie Field, Christine is the author of Singled Out: Why Celibacy Must Be Reinvented in Today’s Church. In this Open House interview, Christine and I discuss how both the world and the Church have misunderstood what celabacy is all about:

Society Gets it Wrong

When it comes to sexuality, mainstream culture tells the single person that:

• They’re incomplete without a partner
• Sex outside of marriage is normative, as sex is a biological imperative and restraining from it is damaging and repressive

And the consequence of these messages? Christian singles (and other singles) can feel like cultural oddities if they’re not sexually active.

Church Gets it Wrong

However, the Church can send confusing messages on sexuality too, telling the single person that:

• Sexual temptation can’t be resisted so flee from it or get married
• They need to be married to be happy
• If they are called to be single God will remove their romantic desires

And the consequence? Christian singles can feel like failures since they don’t have a spouse or the ‘gift’ of celibacy (as their continuing romantic desires obviously prove).

Throughout the interview Christine re-frames celibacy as an attitude of total dedication to God and offers some wonderful tips on how the single life can be lived well and how the Church can support Christian singles in this season of life.
 

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Question: What have you found hardest about the single life? How have you learned to live it well? Share your comment now.

Listen to the interview below, or right click here and ‘save target’ to download

The Single Life Series

This interview was one of a 7-part series we ran on Open House called The Single Life. You might find the full series helpful too, so here it is. Click on each link to play the interview or right-click and choose ‘save target’ to download.

Part 1: Being A Contented Single

Sandra Cavallo, a 30-something single pastor and magazine columnist, gives insights on how to thrive as a single person.

Part 2: Being Single Again

Anne Hollonds, CEO of Relationships Australia, talks about the challenges of being single again. Some great advice for those who have experienced separation, divorce or the death of a spouse.

Part 3: Rethinking Celibacy

Why celibacy is not about missing out or waiting around for marriage, but a chance to embrace God more fully.

Part 4: Single Parenting

Tips and advice for the single parent, with Deb Sorenson from Focus on the Family Australia. 

Life 5: Sexual Purity

Dr Allan Meyer from Careforce Lifekeys lays the Biblical foundations of why sex should be reserved for marriage.

Part 6: Unrequited Love

You love someone and they don’t love you back. Laura Smit, author of Loves Me, Loves Me Not: The Ethics of Unrequited Love, talks about why it happens, what to do about it and where God fits into it all.

Part 7: Marrying Well

Advice from authors Steve and Candice Watters on what you can do if you hope to one day be married. (Notice that this interview comes last!)

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Question: What have you found hardest about the single life? How have you learned to live it well? Share your comment now.

Cameron has just released a new book with a quirky edge. Called The Zoo in You: Faith Lessons on the Wildness Within, the book combines Cameron’s poems about animals (of all things) with some lovely illustration by Melbourne artist Hamish McWilliam and reflections from ’leading Christian voices’ like Tim Costello, Brian McLaren, Roma Waterman, Naomi Reed, Michael Frost, Mark Sayers, Matt Jacoby (from Sons of Korah), Jarrod McKenna, and yours truly. The result is delightful.

Cameron approached each of us with a specific theme in mind. He asked me to write on submission. As it turned out, the topic was timely for me. He chose to base the chapter’s accompanying poem on a donkey. In a moment you’ll find out why.

Cameron has allowed me to post the Submission chapter in full.

Enjoy.

TD Jakes‘ first church had 10 members and met in a storefront. Today his Potter’s House Church in Dallas, Texas, sees over 30,000 attend its services each week, with hundreds of thousands more watching via television. He even preaches via satellite into American prisons.

Jakes’ church has been praised for its service to the poor, the imprisoned, the drug addicted and abused, but critics worry about his mansions, tailored suits and, most importantly, whether his beliefs put him at odds with historic Christianity.

These concerns surfaced again recently after TD Jakes’ invitation to discuss his beliefs on James McDonald’s forum The Elelphant Room (transcript here). The event caused considerable trouble for McDonald and continues to cause ignificant discussion and debate.

I had an opportunity to interview TD Jakes in July 2010 during which I asked him about these areas of controversy. In this 30-minute Open House conversation we cover:

The Man and His Message

• Jakes’ formative experiences and the role his father’s death played in bringing him to faith and shaping his ministry today
• His call to be a pastor at 17 and the lessons learned ‘in obscurity’
• His move to Dallas to start Potter’s House Church and the role of ‘positioning’ and ‘timing’ in life
• The event that confirmed his core message of overcoming life’s obstacles

The Criticisms

• How he can justify the jet, the clothes and the multimillion-dollar mansions
• His background in Oneness Pentecostalism and whether or not he now believes in the historic orthodox understanding of God as a Trinity
• Why he doesn’t speak up more on issues of justice for African Americans

TD Jakes was a gracious, humble and stimulating guest, full of quotable lines and aphorisms. He says he no longer feels the need to either prove himself or ‘feed the wolves’ who criticise him. But is he orthodox in his beliefs? Take a listen and let me know what you think.

It is worth noting that after the interview aired, a number of Oneness Pentecostals called in during talkback stating that this had been the clearest inidciation to date that TD Jakes no longer held to their beliefs.

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Listen to the full interview below, or right click here and ‘save target’ to download

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Question: Is love for God enough? How important is it to believe the right things in order to be a Christian? Share your comment now.

Part 7 of an article and podcast series based on the book Unseen Footprints: Encountering the Divine Along the Journey of Life. You can find out more about the book here or order it here.

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Each year thousands of people legally change their names. In fact, 2011 was a record year for the practice in the UK with 58,000 Britons adopting a new moniker. Many of these changes are not unusual: a new wife relinquishes her maiden name, a couple combine and hyphenate their surnames, an immigrant anglicises his first name, a ‘Robin Hood’ or ’Sarah Lee’ wants respite from the jokes. But other changes reflect a deep desire for a new start.

Change Your Name and Change Your Life

‘I changed my name and it changed me,’ writes singer Alina Simone regarding her own change of identity. ‘When I think back to my old self, I think of an entirely different person, not altogether likable,’ she reflects. That old person, Alina Vilenkin, was put aside following a visit to a Deed Poll office. ‘I had no reputation, no history of unmet expectations, nothing to lose,’ she says of her new identity. Alina Simone started singing. She formed a band. She got on with her life. ‘I poured my best self into my new name.’

A visitor to one of Alina’s gigs liked Alina’s name so much she decided to take it too! For this woman, a failed marriage had left her wondering who she was. Changing her name gave her a ‘new birthday’ – a new start, an opportunity to be reborn.

For thousands of people life is clearly not working. They don’t like the person they’ve become. They want to be released from their past. A name change offers salvation.

One wonders, however, how much the past can truly be erased by such a strategy. We walk out of the Deed Poll office with the same DNA, the same medical history, the same resume, the same relatives. The ex-husband will still be part of the story, especially if children are involved. ‘[W]henever someone changes her name, a body gets stuffed in the closet,’ Alina admits. And dead bodies can fester.

A New Earth. A New You

Still, Alina Simone and others are onto something. A change of name can mark a significant change in one’s life. I think of Jesus giving his friend Simon a new name – Peter. Or the pharisee Saul becoming the apostle Paul. In both cases a change of life mission was involved. They were on a new life path.

But there is one fundamental difference in these scenarios to a Deed Poll identity change. Both Peter and Paul – irrespective of their name change – experienced a personal transformation so deep it could only be called a rebirth of the highest order. Saul had been a murderer. Simon had been a coward. Paul became history’s finest missionary, waxing lyrical about divine love. Peter ended up being crucified for his brave following of the Christ.

It wasn’t just their names that had changed, but their souls. And this came not from their own self-reinvention efforts, but through a divine encounter.

This is the exciting promise of the New Testament. God is creating a new earth. God will create a new you. Beginning now. I try to sketch this out in a poetic way in Unseen Footprints.

God has a dream for a new earth, typically called heaven (which I call the ‘Kingdom of Light’ in the book), which once complete will be grand indeed:

In the Kingdom of Light the seeking heart finds its home. The unseen footprints have led to its city steps and not even death has stopped our entering in… 

The Kingdom of Light is a place of plenty. None hoard and none go without. None shiver and all have homes. There is ownership of possessions but no materialism, enjoyment of goods but no consumerism, individuality without narcissism…

Work is meaningful in the Kingdom of Light. Each job has significance, each task its special place. Effort is satisfying, exertion rewarding, sleep is deep. Each member contributes according to their God-given design… 

The Kingdom is whole. Its environment is whole. The people are whole. Their relationships are whole. Scars of mind are healed, wounds of body are made right…

And the King… well, words fail to describe him. He shines brighter than the sun. His radiance lights the entire land… [T]hey finally see his face. It is a strong face. Kind. He smiles. And the King’s first words to them are never forgotten…

And God has a dream for a new you:

God dreams that we become all he designed us to be, with all our individual flair and talent realised. But he wants even more for us. He dreams of us embodying the luminous character of Christ, “our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.”

This is why that last exercise in this series was so important. Not only does an investigation of Jesus’ life and character show us what God is like, it shows us what we can be like – what God wants us to become. Indeed, what God will start shaping us into upon our inviting him into our lives. He will make us like Jesus.

And in a nice twist to the story, we’re told that when the new earth is complete – when God brings heaven about – we will be given a little white stone with a new name on it, personalised for each of us.

A new earth. A new you. A new name. A new start.

The old you transformed, rather than stuffed in the closet.

To hear how God transformed Stephen Lungu from terrorist to peace activist, listen to this 14 minute podcast below, or right-click here and ‘save target’ to download. The Unseen Footprints podcast is also available on iTunes.

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Question: Have you ever wanted to start again? What did you do? Share your comment now.

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Part 6 of an article and podcast series based on the book Unseen Footprints: Encountering the Divine Along the Journey of Life. You can find out more about the book here or order it here.

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As any psychologist can tell you, our understanding of God is vitally important. Many are held captive by an imaginary deity shaped by the fear and pain of their past – like the ‘angry father’ god or the ‘you-must-be-perfect’ god. Others bow to a spirit fashioned from personal wishes and desires – perhaps a ‘success and riches’ god or a ‘do-as-you-please’ god. These humanly-inspired gods will always break our hearts, either failing to meet our expectations or forever holding us in torment. For our soul’s sake, we need to get God right.

So, who is God? What is God like? How can we spot the authentic article from culture’s counterfeits, or even our own?

What Nature Tells us About God

Earlier in this series we looked at the way God whispers to us through things like nature, play, laughter and people. If our speech reveals our heart, what might these whispers reveal about God? Here are some suggestions I make in Unseen Footprints:

If God has whispered through our world and cosmos, then we see a God of power, intelligence and creativity. Only a deity of such qualities could envision both the beauty of a Saturn and the intricacy of a DNA string.

If God has whispered through the assortment of animal breeds, plant life, skin colours and human personalities in this world, then we see a God of variety and diversity. Only such a Being would shape each life form to a basic pattern, but add an infinite array of subtle difference to each.

If God has whispered through beauty and pleasure, we see a joyful God. Only such a God would create the tonal differences of musical notes, the textures and colours of sand and the enjoyment experienced in laughter.

And if this Being cares enough to inspire a black preacher to love a Ku Klux Klan Imperial Wizard, if he speaks to the leaders of tribes and to searching suburban housewives, if he would extend an invitation to an empty-hearted DJ to find life, we are dealing with a God who is personal. This God is more than energy or a life force. This God loves.

The Vague God Becomes Clear

But as pleasant as these notions are, they only take us so far. What about nature’s crueler aspects – like animals mauling their prey? Do these reflect God’s character too? Or just a good creation gone wrong? We need another reference point to decide.

And qualities like intelligence, creativity and love remain abstract to us until they are embodied. We can’t see, touch or experience ‘intelligence’, but we can see, touch and experience an intelligent person. We can’t see ‘beauty’, but a rose in bloom gives beauty a face. Likewise, for the vague God to become clear to us such a God would need to be embodied somehow.

And would the great God of the universe ever do that?

Yes, say the saints of old. Yes, says TS Elliot, CS Lewis and Tolkien. Yes, says Martin Luther King Jnr, Johnny Cash and Bono. Yes, say millions around the world today from every walk of life. And Yes, I say. The profound claim of the New Testament is that the vague God drew close, visited us in person, and embodied himself in Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

If you want to see what God looks like, the Christian faith claims, look at Jesus – the face of God.

A Self-Discovery Exercise

Of course, not all accept this claim. But it does surprise me how many people refuse to believe it on so little investigation. Second-hand endorsement for the idea (from, say, people like me) or against it (from, say, the new atheist crowd) won’t do. ‘Who do you say I am,’ comes the invitation. This exercise will give you a chance to test the claim by reading the same book that touched Lewis, Tolkien and Luther King—the Gospel of Mark.

Mark is a brief biography of Jesus of Nazareth. It contains deep themes of love, loss, betrayal and redemption and is easily read in about an hour. The following suggestions may help you get the most out of the experience:

• Choose a modern translation: The old English language of your grandmother’s King James Version of the Bible may be beautiful but you may struggle to actually follow the story. Try a translation in modern English—the Living Bible, the Good News Bible, the popular New International Version or The Message are all easy to read. 
• Read Slowly: Rushing is never conducive to insightful spiritual reading. Read each paragraph of Mark slowly, aloud if you like, and let each sentence linger in your mind. Note any words or phrases that catch your attention. Pause for a while on any images used in the story (like farmers, seeds and fig trees) or recurring themes (like Jesus’ repeated wish for his followers to ‘see’) and ponder what the intended meaning might be.
• Read Imaginatively: As you read Mark, imagine yourself as a character within the unfolding story. Imagine standing by the Jordan River as John the Baptist is baptising Jesus. Imagine you are one of those first characters Jesus calls to follow him. Imagine being present when Jesus heals the woman with a hemorrhage or confronts the religious hypocrites. Notice how you feel as you witness these things.
• Read Personally: John Mark, the author, wrote this biography with a specific purpose: that we might see the life of Jesus and decide what we believe about him. As you read, ask yourself: Which characters do I most identify with and how does Jesus treat them? Can I believe what Jesus says about himself and if so/not, why? Could Jesus really be God in human form and if so, what characteristics does God, as seen in Jesus, have?

It will be beneficial to compare your responses to those last questions to the characteristics of God you listed in our previous exercise. Where do they agree or contradict? How is your understanding of God growing? Could Jesus really be God in human form?

In the Podcast

Listen to the audio version of this article below (9 minutes), or right-click here and ‘save target’ to download. The Unseen Footprints podcast is also available on iTunes.

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Question: Who is God to you? How did you spot the authentic God from the counterfeits? Share your comment now.

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Part 5 of an article and podcast series based on the book Unseen Footprints: Encountering the Divine Along the Journey of Life. You can find out more about the book here or order it here.

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Who is God? What is God like? Or, more to the point, What is your God like?

I remember once, as a 6 or 7-year-old, lying in my bed feeling hopeless. At the time my parents were involved in one of the world’s more zealous religious sects, and I was being raised according to its tenets.

As best as this primary schooler could, I contemplated what the God associated with this faith wanted from me. To have any chance of gaining his favour I’d have to knock on stranger’s doors every weekend, trying to convert them. I didn’t want to do that – I felt too shy. But then again, if I understood things correctly, I could visit every home in my town and there was still no promise that I’d make it to heaven.

Suddenly I felt trapped.

And life began to look like a sick joke.

I share a little more of that story in the podcast below. Basically put, all of us have an image or concept of God. It may be explicitly known or held in our subconscious, but we have one – pieced together from a variety of books, movies, conversations and experiences. The ideas we have about God affect not just our spirituality but our self-image, our view of others and even our view of the world. It’s therefore worth giving them some serious thought.

Uncovering Your Images of God

So, who do you worship? Who is God to you? Here’s an exercise I include in the new edition of Unseen Footprints to help uncover the images of God you hold. Take a journal or notepad and reflect on the following:

• Images: What pictures come to your mind when you think about God? Do you think of God as a strong father, a consoling mother, an indulgent grandfather or a bully? Is God a companion, policeman, friend or warrior to you? Do you imagine God as an artist, builder, king, judge, or something more impersonal like light, energy, wind, thunder, lightning or something else? Try writing, sketching or even photographing the images you associate with God. 
• Characteristics: What words would you use to describe God’s character? Is God stern or merciful? Forgiving or punishing? Arbitrary or fair? Is God serious, compassionate, patient, angry, generous, vindictive or humorous to you? Use as many words as you need.
• Origins: Now consider how your ideas about God have been shaped over the years. What was your very first experience of being aware of God? How old were you, who was present, what was happening and what image of God did you develop as a result? How did this change in your teenage years? What about today? What books, films, courses, crises, conversations, paintings or other stimuli have shaped the way you presently imagine God? To the degree that you can, trace each image and characteristic of God that you wrote down back to its origin.

My initial understanding of God was shaped by my early religious experience. How many of us have thought of God at one stage or another as an old man with a beard, thanks to Michelangelo and other medieval artists? The point: our ideas about God come from somewhere. 

So, who is God? What is God like? How different are our images and beliefs to God’s real nature? That’s where we’ll venture in the next post in this series. But not before your feedback below!

In the Podcast

Listen to the rest of Sheridan’s story in this 8 minute podcast below, or right-click here and ‘save target’ to download. The Unseen Footprints podcast is also available on iTunes.

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Question: How has your understanding of God changed over the years? Share your comment now.

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A year ago today, on January 10, 2011, floods ripped through Queensland, Australia, devastating small country towns and big cities alike. But the altruistic acts that emerged during that crisis will never be forgotten. Where does such altruism come from?

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‘Look at these people,’ the 84-year-old widow says, a tear in her eye, as 50 strangers set about cleaning her mud-clogged Rosalie home.

‘I just couldn’t let a 90-year-old lady return to her house and have it look like this,’ says the stranger helping another elderly victim. ‘It would break her heart.’

‘Others have lost more than I have,’ says a single mother of newborn twins, who has donated the clothes salvaged from her North Ipswich home to the local refuge centre.

‘Save me brother,’ says a 13-year-old boy to his rescuer, as he clings terrified to a tree during Toowoomba’s tsunami. He is swept away while his 10-year-old sibling is saved.

The catastrophic floods that brought Queensland to its knees in January 2010 were enough to break the hardest heart. Toddlers washed away from exhausted mothers, drivers trapped in sinking cars, businesses gone, homes destroyed, memory-filled lounge rooms reduced to sodden Gyprock and broken glass. As a nation our heads were slumped in our hands. The impact of those floods will last for years, its story told for decades to come, the losses of so many families felt forever.

But amidst the devastation of the nation’s worst flood crisis, one thing helped bring a tear to the eye—a tear born not of grief but of joy:

The selfless acts of a thousand Samaritans.

The stories rolled in day after day. Water-braving individuals who saved lives in Grantham; quick-thinking neighbours who sped children away from Toowoomba; homes in West End opened to strangers seeking refuge; some, like that 13-year-old, paying the ultimate price for their selflessness.

Donations poured in from around the country. Fundraisers were held by car clubs and rock stars. One purpose-made charity aimed to provide 10,000 fridges to flood victims. A toy drive even sprung up for kids who lost all their Christmas presents.

And who will forget the scenes of the post-deluge clean up in those devastated areas? As the flood waters receded waves of volunteers flowed in—hundreds in Toowoomba, 4000 in Ipswich, 12,000 in Brisbane, more than the buses could carry. They came from across Queensland and the country, taking broom, shovel and bucket to the rotten food, broken furniture, mud-stained walls and sewage-reeking homes of victims. They shovelled sludge, scrubbed walls, removed debris and took refreshments door to door.

‘I don’t even know these people,’ that Rosalie widow said, awe-struck.

It all brought a lift to the spirit and a tear to the eye.

A question comes to my mind when I muse over such deeds. Why? Why risk one’s life for a stranger? Why give up time, energy, holidays and business profits to show kindness to another? What motivates such compassion, generosity and gritty, gutsy, sleeves-rolled-up love?

Many have pondered humanity’s altruistic potential. Atheist biologist Richard Dawkins has even sought to account for it. In The God Delusion he says altruism can be explained by one of four reasons, each motivated by our own selfish drive to survive:

1. The first reason refers to what Dawkins calls ‘kin altruism’, or why we care for family members. We look after our children or siblings, he says, because they share our genetic makeup. In doing good to them we are looking after our own genes and living on in our young.
2. The second reason is reciprocity. We do good to others to get something in return, whether straight away or through an IOU. We give to others to get back.
3. Dawkins’ third reason is reputation. If we do good to others we develop a reputation of kindness and generosity which, in Darwinian terms, is believed to benefit our own survival.
4. Fourthly, Dawkins says altruism can be motivated by a desire for social dominance. By doing good to others we show our superiority over those we help by the display of our wealth or resources. Helping those in need shows that we are winners, and winners survive.

And what of doing good to those who aren’t family members, those who can never possibly repay us, and those we’ll never see again to have our social dominance or reputation remembered?

Dawkins offers a solution: doing good to such people is the result of a short-circuit in our genetic wiring. It’s not the way we’re meant to behave. Such deeds are the result of misfirings in our brain—pleasant ‘Darwinian mistakes’, as he calls them.

No doubt, our good deeds in life can be motivated by selfish concerns. We can play games of goodness to improve our reputations, seek indebtedness and display superiority at the office, home or sports field.

But do Dawkins’ four reasons really resonate with the generosity displayed in the Queensland floods, 2009’s Black Saturday fires in Victoria, our response to the Haiti earthquake and the Asian Tsunami, or any number of crises?

In all honesty, to view the sacrifice of that 13-year-old in Toowoomba for his brother as the result of genetic programming strikes me as robbing that child of dignity. And to see those who heroically aided their struggling neighbours as somehow secretly looking for reward is a judgement only the most cynical could make. And to declare compassionate acts to strangers as a defect, rather than the glory, of a human being is to slight the sacredness of humanity and announce the death of love.

Could there be another reason for altruism? A reason that makes sense of the sacrifice, selflessness and goodness that we’ve seen of late?

‘Within us the dust of earth and the breath of heaven are joined in a mysterious union only death can separate.’ Ken Gire’s poetic phrase holds a profound notion: that we are more than matter. We are more than flesh, tendons, cell structures and electrical impulses. We are more than the dust of the earth. There is something within us that is beyond science’s scope. The breath of heaven. The image of the divine.

This is the Christian vision of humanity. ‘So God created man in his own image… male and female he created them,’ Genesis records. Humanity has been designed to a blueprint. We are bearers of the Imago Dei—the image of God. God is the original, we are the portraits, and divine features have been drawn onto every person you see. That image may be scarred through neglect, distorted by greed and smeared by selfishness, but it is still there—in the souls of all races, all colours and all tribes.

And the nature of this image-giver is good. This is a God who is compassionate, gracious and abounding in love; who is a father to the fatherless and a defender of the weak; who gets angry at injustice and who delights in kindness; who provides food for our bodies, puts joy in our hearts, and forever remains faithful to the end.*

And when this God took on the dust of earth and visited our world as a Galilean man, he showed what perfect image-bearing looked like: dropping his plans to help someone in need, weeping with those in their mourning, feeding those who needed food and ultimately giving his life so that others might live. It was said of Jesus that he ‘went around doing good’. He was the goodness of God embodied.†

So when compassionate acts spring forth from the human soul—when strangers mop up widow’s homes and 13-year-olds point rescuers to others—could we not in fact be glimpsing a trace, a hint, a reflection of the One in whose image we are made?

Tracing the stream up the mountain to its origin, could it not be God who is the source of our altruism?

To be sure, humanity is hardly a pure reflector of divinity. While a thousand Samaritans leant flood victims a hand, others were seeking a handful. Some were caught looting, scammers went door to door seeking ‘donations’, text messages promised financial aid in return for bank details, and fake Facebook pages tried diverting financial gifts. Our vision of humanity must broaden here—once divinely designed, we are now clearly fallen.‡

But we judge such acts as evil for a reason: they fail the standard of goodness. Intuitively we know they’re out of step with the way things should be. Perhaps that’s why doing good has its own joy—as we give we are in a small way living in sync with the personality of God.

My conviction is that compassionate, generous, sacrificial acts by humans reflect the compassionate, generous, sacrificial God in whose image we are made.

A God whose love brings a lift to the spirit and a tear to the eye.

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This article originally appeared on ABC Religion and Ethics Online

* Exodus 34:6, 7; Psalm 68:5; James 5:4-6; Micah 6:8; Acts 14:15-17; 2 Timothy 2:13
† Mark 5:21-43; John 11:33-36; Mark 6:30-44; Mark 10:45; Acts 10:38
‡ Genesis 3

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Q: What’s your take? Where does goodness, compassion and love come from? Share your comment now.

Part 4 of an article and podcast series based on the book Unseen Footprints: Encountering the Divine Along the Journey of Life. You can find out more about the book here or order it here.

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In Unseen Footprints I suggest that God is trying to get our attention. In varied means and ways he is drawing us towards himself, beckoning us to find him. But he rarely shouts to make himself heard. Instead, he whispers to us. Before we’ve even opened a Bible he has been drawing, beckoning, whispering. Will we stop to hear him? Will we even attempt to hear his voice? His whisper is his invitation.

This post is about some of the ways God whispers to us and how we can hear those whispers. I flesh out these ideas a little more in the podcast below and, of course, in much greater detail in the book.

Here are four ways God whispers to us. They range from the general to the personal.

1. Through the Grandeur of the World

Ours is a most incredible universe – a cosmos of 50 billion known galaxies (the better the telescopes get, the more galaxies come into focus); a universe containing a revolving ball with conditions inexplicably hospitable to human life; a system of precise planetary motions producing consistent seasons on earth like clockwork.

As scientists and philosophers like Martin Rees and Alister McGrath have noted, this universe seems ’fine-tuned’ for our existence. Take gravity for example. If gravity were only slightly stronger, stars would flame so fiercely they would burn out in a year leaving us with a universe of cinders. But if gravity were slightly weaker, stars couldn’t form and the universe would be a thin undifferentiated blur. 

Beauty is another example. There is no real reason to expect beauty to ‘evolve’ – it does not enhance our ability to survive and doesn’t really abide by the rules of natural selection. The human ability to appreciate beauty raises similar arguments – aesthetic enjoyment is not essential for our existence.

Could the grandeur of the world be a whisper of God to us, inviting us to discover the one who made it?

2. Through Laughter and Play

In his fascinating book A Rumour of Angels sociologist Peter L. Berger describes human behaviours that he believes are ‘signals of transcendence’ – natural experiences that point to a super-natural world beyond them.

Take humour, for instance. Most of our humour highlights a discrepancy between the way life is and the way it ought to be. What do we laugh at most? Our failures! The satire of the political cartoonist and the bumbling adventures of a stand up comic both describe a world of imperfection. As we laugh at them we affirm the possibility (even the reality) of a perfect world. ‘The comic reflects the imprisonment of the human spirit in the world,’ says Berger. ‘By laughing at the imprisonment of the human spirit, humour implies that this imprisonment is not final but will be overcome.’

Play is another heavenly experience. Ever been ‘lost’ in a game of sport, a hobby, or creative endeavour and felt like time has stood still? Joyful play sets up an alternative universe from the serious world of work and responsibility. In this universe time seems to fly by without our awareness, and pain and death seem far away from us. As we play we experience for a moment what an eternal state of joy might be like. As we play it’s as if God opens our eyes to catch a glimpse of heaven.

3. Through the Love of Others

In Unseen Footprints I tell the story of Johnny Lee Clary, the former Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. When his father committed suicide and his mother showed little interest in looking after him, Johnny found himself in the first group that offered him a sense of belonging and identity – the Klan. Johnny rose through the KKK ranks, abusing African Americans, burning down their churches and recruiting others to do the same.

But then Johnny met a black Baptist preacher named Wade Watts. Reverend Watts prayed for Johnny and refused to retaliate, even though Johnny burnt down his churches and harassed his family. Through Reverend Watts Johnny heard the whisper of a good and loving God calling him to another way.

4. Through Direct Address

Then there are times when God’s whispers get louder and he speaks to us directly and clearly. I’ve already mentioned the examples of Mother Teresa, David Wilkerson and Florence Nightingale in an earlier post. Each heard a voice that led them on to their significant life ventures. Some have heard God speak to them clearly through a dream. I recount two instances of such an experience here. Well-known American church leader Mark Driscoll told me in an Open House Volume 3 interview that he heard a distinct and audible voice direct him to start his church.

Most of us know of well-meaning but ultimately misguided folks who claimed to hear God’s voice but were in fact hearing nothing more than the wishes of their own subconscious minds. But the counterfeit shouldn’t discount the authentic, especially when such messages are objectively confirmed, in line with God’s nature and ways, and when they lead to the benefit of others.

Hearing God

Readers familiar with this blog will know that I believe in prayer and Holy Scripture as the ultimate means of hearing from God. For those not yet on the Christian path (or for people of faith who want to explore how God might’ve been quietly working in their lives without their realising it), I suggest the following exercise.

Download this FREE Word doc worksheet (or the PDF version), or create something similar in your journal or notebook. Find a quiet place where you won’t be interrupted or distracted. Then, spend some time recalling the loving people, memorable places and significant events during each phase of your life – childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, etc – and list them in each column.

• People: Who has profoundly touched your life in a positive way? Who took a special interest in you, cared for you, or understood you when others didn’t? Who taught you an important lesson, gave you an important skill, or provided you with guidance when you needed it most? How did their lives ‘speak’ to you? 
• Places: Recall the homes, rooms, porches, backyards, parks, holidays and other locations you have felt ‘blessed’ to be in throughout your life. These are places of warmth, safety, excitement or discovery. Where were they? What happened there?
• Experiences: What have been the most significant events in each decade of your life? Think of accomplishments and successes; experiences of beauty, pleasure, play, hope, joy or laughter; moments of elation or clarity; times when you needed food, money or help and it came; prayers prayed and answers given. What were those experiences and how did you feel at the time?

Now, over the next few days, reflect on the following question: If there is a divine, benevolent being who has my best interests at heart, could it have been God who was touching my life through these people, places and events?  

In the Podcast

Hear more examples of God’s whispers in this 11 minute podcast below, or right-click here and ‘save target’ to download. The Unseen Footprints podcast is also available on iTunes.

***

Question: How has God ‘whispered’ to you in the past? How does God get your attention today? Share your comment now.

***

For me, one of the great tragedies of modern life is that one can visit a cathedral and not be moved. We visit these grand places of worship while on the tourist trail, marvel at the architecture, admire the artworks, shuffle round the various altars and look at the pretty flickering candles before exiting via the gift shop and taking a photo for posterity. We may feel curiosity or admiration within these ‘holy’ places, but little more. I have experienced this visiting Paris’s Notre Dame Cathedral (Catholic), Geneva’s Saint Peter’s Cathedral (Protestant) and many others.

But not at the Sacre-Coeur Basilica in Montmartre, Paris. From the moment I walked in I was moved. Moved to worship.

From the moment you enter the church through the big, creaky door only one sight catches your eye. Jesus. There he stands, arms stretched wide, towering above the altar in mosaic form. His eyes pierce you. You can’t avoid him. His face is visible from almost every corner of the church, filling this ‘holy’ space. ‘Wow,’ said a girl sliding into a pew behind us, ‘look at Jesus.’

Exactly.

A Holy Hill

Montmartre has a rich religious history.

The Romans worshipped Mars and Mercury on this hill, and before them Druids most likely held ceremonies here. Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Francois-Xavier and a few others gathered on this hill to consecrate themselves to God, take voluntary vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, and found the Jesuit order. Saints Germain, Bernard, Vincent de Paul, Francis de Sales, Thomas Aquinas and Joan of Arc have all worshipped here, plus numerous kings and queens. Saint Denis, the first Bishop of Paris, was decapitated on this hill in 250AD – hence the name montmartre, the ‘mountain of the martyr’. An Abbey was founded here in 1147. Built between 1876 and 1912, the Sacre-Coeur Basilica is relatively new. After a series of military defeats it was constructed as an act of penitence.

As this larger image of the dome’s mosaic shows, the very atmosphere of the Basilica reflects this spirit of humble worship.

• Look at Mary on the left. So often the dominant figure in Catholic cathedrals, here she has taken her place as a worshipper, standing beside and below Jesus, her adoring face pointing us to him.
• Beside Mary is a tiny Pope Leo XIII offering Jesus a globe of the world, a symbol of the entire human family. Directly behind him are representatives of the world’s five continents (France has traditionally counted five continents), all in cultural dress. And behind them are various Catholic popes and cardinals – all in a state of reverence.
• To the right of Jesus stands the Archangel Michael and, beside him, Joan of Arc, representing France, who offers her crown back to Jesus. Members of French royalty and government, and some cardinals particularly connected with the Basilica’s creation, stand or kneel behind her. 
• In the heavens on our left, biblical saints Peter, John and Paul are joined by saints ‘of the world’: Augustine, Dominique, Francis of Assisi, Ignatius of Loyola, Ignatius of Antioch, Agnes, Gertrude, Catherine of Sienna, Rose of Lima and Theresa of Avila.
• On the right in the heavens are saints ‘of France’: Lazarus of Marseille, Mary-Madeleine, Martha, Denis, Martin, Genevieve, Bernard, Louis, Francis de Sales, Vincent de Paul, Margaret-Mary, John Eudes, Sofia Barat.
• And don’t miss the ornate red and gold line connecting Jesus with a dove, representing the Holy Spirit, and a crowned figure, representing the Father.

Here is the One God - Father, Son and Spirit - being worshipped by France and all of creation.

A Sacred Heart

On first entering the church, Merryn and I sat in a pew, mesmerised by the mosaic. A little while later we joined the procession of visitors wandering the outer rim of the Basilica, looking at its altars and artworks. But afterward I made my way back into the centre region of the church, the area roped-off for worshippers. I couldn’t resist. I had to sit at the feet of Jesus again. I returned a couple of mornings later to do the same thing. I’ve never done that before.

A closer inspection of that giant mosaic reveals an interesting character hidden amongst the worshipping throng. On the right-hand side a solitary individual defies the bowing crowd. He is leaning casually against a pillar, facing away from Jesus - unmoved by either the glorified Christ or the piety of those around him. Similarly, Sacre-Coeur still has its tourists and passersby. They slip into the roped-off area to natter to a friend, not pray; to review their Lonely Planet guides, not their prayer books; to sneak a forbidden photo of the mosaic rather than worship the God of the universe. Ushers soon attend to them.

But what surprised me was not this but the amount of people truly in awe of the One before them. Some read their Bibles. Others knelt on the prayer rails. Many sat in silent adoration. One young guy was busy mouthing silent prayers, his eyes fixed heavenward, as gentle murmurs echoed softly around the cathedral.

Sacre-Coeur means ‘sacred heart’. This Basilica takes the sacred heart of Jesus as its theme. As you may know, the Sacred Heart is a Catholic devotion that centres on the compassionate love Jesus has for humanity. The accompanying artwork for this devotion features Jesus’ exposed physical heart in sometimes (to me at least) ghoulish ways. But make no mistake about its meaning: here is a heart that is both divine and human, full of love and pain (notice the crown of thorns it wears in the Sacre-Coeur mosaic), full of mercy and compassion.

The Sacre-Coeur Basilica claims to have been a place of 24-hour prayer for over 125 years.

Such is the attraction of Jesus’ sacred heart.

Every Knee Bows

After one of my visits to Sacre-Coeur I scribbled the following in my journal:

Bring your accusations – every accusation that could be leveled at a man – and throw them at him. Selfish, brutish, arrogant, ignorant, proud, racist, sexist, rude, imprudent, indulgent, negligent, lustful, disruptor of the peace for change’s sake or acquiescent to the status quo…

None of them will stick.

Persian princes bowed before him (Matthew 2:1-12). Grit-covered shepherds bent the knee (Luke 2:8-20). In Montmartre, a nation bows to him, plus cardinals and royals and people from every corner.

Try and find another worthy of the honor.

Try and find one.

Just try.

The sacred heart devotion apparently came about after the french saint Margaret-Mary had a vision of Jesus. She said of him, ‘Here is the heart that so loved man and is so little loved’. Sadly, France today pursues an ever-quickening race to secularism, ignoring the Heart that has changed so many lives throughout its history and wrought so many saints from its land.

Thankfully, however, many others are discovering this sacred heart. Some even in Montmartre.

Bowing in worshipful reverence to the Sacred Heart of Sacre-Coeur.

***

Question: If you’ve visited Sacre-Coeur Basilica before, what was your impression? When were you last moved to worshipful reverence? Share your comment now.

Part 3 of an article and podcast series based on the book Unseen Footprints: Encountering the Divine Along the Journey of Life. You can find out more about the book here or order it here.

***

It was late and the nightclub was packed. I was one of the four featured DJ’s for the event—a dance party showcasing some of the hottest club music around, played by some of my city’s (supposedly) best disc jockey talent. Of the four of us headlining that evening, one would go on to international success as a DJ and record producer, another would become a member of one of Australia’s most successful urban music outfits, and the third was a smooth turntablist with extensive acclaim amongst the city’s clubbing fraternity.

And then there was me.

I had been awakened to the creative possibilities of record mixing from the age of 12 when I first saw the film Beat Street. A poorly scripted flick with little plot but a heaping helping of New York street culture, Beat Street displayed what a DJ could do with two turntables—mixing records with similar tempos into a seamless party soundtrack. Somehow I wanted to learn how to be so clever and creative with music. When I grew up, I decided, I was going to be a nightclub DJ.

As a teenager I experimented with all manner of dilapidated equipment, hooking multiple tape decks and barely-usable record players together, trying to hone my skills with songs taped off the radio and the occasional twelve-inch record bought with pocket money. By the time I was 16 I felt my time had come. All I needed to succeed as a DJ was a chance.

So, I called a city nightclub (the brazenness scares me now) and arranged a face-to-face chat with its manager. The manager overlooked my naivety and arranged for me to meet their house DJ by returning that evening. Return I did and before long I was looking after the decks most Saturday nights while the employed jock enjoyed free drinks at the bar. (Oh, they never knew about my underage status.)

A few years later I had achieved runner-up in a state-wide DJ mixing competition. And that win was why I was now standing in this nightclub, facing hundreds of people ready to hear me do my stuff.

But that evening I was mildly aware that something wasn’t adding up. I was starting to realise my dreams, achieving in competitions and getting my name printed on posters and hand bills. Sure, in the grand scheme of things my success was minor—I wasn’t even well known in my city’s clubbing scene yet, let alone near achieving the international stardom of DJs like Carl Cox or Pete Tong. But shouldn’t I be feeling better than this?

The higher I climbed the ladder of my dreams the more restless I seemed to feel. The more success I achieved the more meaningless life seemed to be.

It didn’t make sense.

Something within me yearned for something more.

What Do You Really Want?

I describe how that evening ended in today’s podcast (you can listen below). Basically put, sometimes you get to see a dream realised and discover the dream wasn’t that great to begin with. As the party ends and the streamers are swept up, you realise you yearn for something greater, deeper, more lasting. That was my experience.

Within us all lie longings that simple success, affirmation and wealth fail to meet. In Unseen Footprints I describe these longings as a yearning for:

1. Purpose: A deep desire to know the reason for our existence.
2. Guidance: Wisdom to know which path to take, as our lives are short.
3. Liberation: Freedom from the pain we live with, abuse we’ve encountered or consequences of our poor choices.
4. Belonging: A deep yearning to love, be loved and feel a sense of ‘home’.

An Exercise for You

As previously mentioned, the new edition of Unseen Footprints includes exercises on writing a spiritual memoir. After beginning with your inciting incident, this theme of yearning is an important one to include in your story. Here are some prompts to help you explore it:

1. Purpose: How have you tried to find a sense of meaning and purpose to your life? Describe the books read, conversations had, any seminars taken, places of worship visited or experiences sought. My story would go something like this: “I longed for a sense of purpose to my life and started looking for it in the nightclub scene…”
2. Guidance: Describe your attempts to find direction for your life or for a significant decision, particularly as it relates to your spiritual journey. An example from my story would be: “I once read Norman Vincent Peale’s The Power of Positive Thinking, hoping it would give me some tips on how to make my life work.”
3. Liberation: How have you sought freedom from your pain, past or any sense of inner emptiness experienced? Relate how you have so far sought a remedy to your ‘inciting incident’ outlined in the previous post.
4. Belonging: This might be the ‘messy’ part of your story. A longing to belong can have us wind up in the arms of many, or in groups that are less than healthy. This exercise is for your eyes only; describe your attempts to find love and acceptance.

Now, here’s my hunch: I believe these yearnings are placed within us by God. And while we may find a degree of purpose, guidance, liberation and belonging without God, my deep belief is that they will only be fulfilled in a deep connection with him. They are echoing spaces awaiting to be filled by God. As Charles Colson has said:

“In every human being is a deep, ongoing search for meaning and transcendence—part of the image of God in our very nature. Even if we flee God, the religious imprint remains…”

In the Podcast

Listen to the rest of the story in this 10 minute podcast below, or right-click here and ‘save target’ to download. The Unseen Footprints podcast is also available on iTunes.

*** 

Question: Have you ever had a dream came true but found it was less than you had hoped? What did you learn? Share your comment now.

***

Part 2 of an article and podcast series based on my book Unseen Footprints: Encountering the Divine Along the Journey of Life. You can find out more about the book here or order it here.

***

I don’t think there’s one person who has ever lived who didn’t say, ‘This isn’t working. I need something else’.
Douglas Coupland

For a number of years the West Australian newspaper ran an interesting column called Alternatives Today. It recounted the stories of people who had ditched their materialistically-dominated life and set out for a more spiritual path. When I lived in Perth, Western Australia, I started collecting these columns for research. What did they say about today’s spiritual ‘seeker’?

Aching Hearts

I clipped almost all of those Alternatives Today columns, collecting the stories of people like:

• Maureen, a grandmother, who was diagnosed with cancer and given two years to live. She had begun attending psychic development classes to try and make sense of it all.
• Paul, 31, who had a drug addiction and a failing business when he began searching for answers by consulting spirit guides.
• Martin, who couldn’t cope after his relationship breakdown and was now spending hundreds of dollars each month for the advice of his ’life coach’.

The stories piled up – person after person whose interest in the spiritual had been catalysed by an experience of physical or emotional pain.

Dissatisfied Souls

Still, I knew of others who had experienced no such trauma yet had still gotten ‘spiritual’:

• The author of a globally popular book who wondered why his success didn’t satisfy his longing for significance.
• A twenty-something man who had joined a psychic tour of the United Kingdom hoping to find some answers to life and the nature of the unseen world.
• A mid-forties woman wandering around the Mind-Body-Spirit festival in her city, yet was still searching for the book, seminar or experience that ‘clicked’ for her.

Physical or emotion pain wasn’t part of the story for these folks. But they still felt a ‘pain’ of sorts - the ache of an empty soul. Like Douglas Coupland, they had come to the point of recognising something was missing – something they needed – despite the good health and prosperity in their lives.

There is an irony to this, of course. For many, the existence of pain is the very reason why they can’t believe in God or spiritual things. (As the phrase goes: ’If there is a good and loving God, why is there so much pain in the world?’) This is a significant issue and one not to be dismissed. Yet, for others, pain is the very thing that gets them searching for spiritual reality in the first place.

Searching for ‘something more’.

Searching for God.

Pain has a purpose. It alerts us to the fact that all is not as it should be. As I say in the book, ‘Pain grips us by the shoulders, looks us straight in the eye and screams, “You cannot ignore me! You must deal with the questions I am raising.”’ Or to put it in the more eloquent words of CS Lewis: ‘God whispers to us in our pleasure, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts to us in our pain; it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.’

And perhaps God uses pain to rouse a deaf world to start contemplating another world – a world where aching hearts and dissatisfied souls will be fully healed and fulfilled.

Perhaps God uses pain to draw us to him – the healer and fulfiller.

Exercise: Your ‘Inciting Incident’

One of the projects I have in the new edition of Unseen Footprints is a series of exercises to help you write a spiritual memoir. One of the components of this is describing the event that brought you to want ‘something more’ out of life. In script-writing terms this is called the ‘inciting incident’ – the event that propels the lead character into their quest.

What has been your spiritual inciting incident?

• When did you first get interested in spiritual things? Like Maureen, Paul and Martin, was an experience of physical or emotional pain involved?
• Or was your ‘pain’ the ache of an empty soul? Did you have ‘everything’ but still feel unfulfilled?
• Perhaps you’ve believed in God, gone to church and prayed since your youth. Was there an experience, though, that forced you to own this faith personally? What was it?

There are three good reasons for recalling your spiritual ‘inciting incident’: a) it may reveal a moment when you encountered God (his ’whisper’ calling you to him), b) it may help you understand subsequent spiritual experiences, and c) it may help you see if you’re avoiding the issue. As Douglas Coupland says, almost no one gets through life without realising they need something more. But that doesn’t stop us seeking diversions and distractions for a while. Often to our detriment.

In the Podcast

In this 11 minute podcast you’ll hear more stories from Unseen Footprints about pain as the catalyst for spiritual searching.

Listen below, or right-click here and ‘save target’ to download. The Unseen Footprints podcast is also available on iTunes.

***

Q: What was the event or experience that prompted your search for God? I’d love to know. Share your comment now.

***

This article and podcast is Part 1 of a series based on my book Unseen Footprints: Encountering the Divine Along the Journey of Life. You can find out more about the book here or order it here.

*** 

Could we have had encounters with God without realising it? Could God be written into the drama of our lives as if played by a secondary character that we haven’t paid much attention to? Those are the questions that lie behind this book, Unseen Footprints. It will come as no surprise that I believe the answer to these questions is a resounding Yes.

Why do I believe this? Well, as I share in the podcast, unseen realities lie all around us. Some Western Australian geologists discovered this quite dramatically a few years ago. (Hear the story below).

Secondly, I believe in God’s unseen presence because of the amount of people throughout history who have attested to it. Salvation Army founder William Booth, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Florence Nightingale, David Wilkinson and many other leading figures have claimed to have heard God ‘whisper’ to them. Each of them have profoundly changed the world by obeying this voice. In Unseen Footprints I also recount the stories of various tribal groups, and a suburban housewife, who have had similar experiences, plus share my own story of discovering God’s presence in my life.

Thirdly, I draw inspiration for this theme of God’s presence in our lives from one of the great events in religious history – the Jewish Exodus. In the Old Testament scriptures we find a beautiful, ancient Hebrew song called Psalm 77. In it the author recounts God leading the Israelite’s out of Egyptian slavery in the 15th century BC. He then adds:

Your path led through the sea,
your way through the mighty waters,
though your footprints were not seen.

The Jews of the day had experienced God leading them powerfully out of their raging sea of troubles, even though his ‘footprints’ had remained unseen to eyes of flesh. If this is true of yesteryear, why not so now?

Exercise: Becoming Attentive to God

Our world distracts us in many ways. Yet attentiveness, as I have come to see, is most critical for us to find the way to clarity of heart, and clarity is the path to seeing God, who is the source and end of all our longing.
Leighton Ford, The Attentive Life

If God’s unseen footprints walk in and out of our lives, how do we begin to discern them? In many ways the whole of Unseen Footprints is an answer to this question, but here’s an exercise from the new edition book to get you started. This guided reflection will help you become more attentive to life and, following this, to God.

The exercise can be explained in three words: 

• Walk: Set aside a couple of hours sometime this week for an unhurried walk in a quiet and beautiful park. Try a time when you won’t feel rushed by other appointments. Jotting any concerns or yet-to-be completed tasks in a notebook beforehand may help you mentally relax. Set out on your walk and consciously slow your walking pace. Feel each footstep calmly meet the pathway. Tense and then relax your hands, arms, shoulders and legs. Consciously slow your breathing.

• Attend: Start paying attention to your surroundings. Notice the warmth of the sun on your skin and the strength of the breeze on your face, the sounds of different birds in the trees and the swaying of branches and leaves. Notice sky and clouds, grass and bark, the sounds of other park-goers and the scents around you.

• Linger: Then, after sitting down on the grass or on a park bench if you wish, pick one sight, sound, smell or sensation to focus on. Notice it, savour it, contemplate it, ponder it. Linger your attention on that flower, bird call, blade of grass or giggling child. At first you may need to gently count to thirty to avoid being distracted by other things. The goal is to be present in the moment, receiving its gifts, being ready to see, listen, feel and learn.

As you grow attentive to nature, beauty, your environment and your experience of it, you are on the way to becoming attentive to the creator who made these things. If you are comfortable doing so, try praying the following as you sit and listen:

Creator God, reveal something about yourself to me through what I’m seeing and experiencing.

In the Podcast

Listen to Sheridan explain the ideas behind Unseen Footprints and the ‘unseen realities’ theme further.

Listen below, or right-click here and ‘save target’ to download. The Unseen Footprints podcast is also available on iTunes.

***

Q: When do you most feel close to or aware of God? How do you try and become attentive to God when you feel distant? Share your comment now.

***

And today, a new edition of Unseen Footprints is released!

This new Australian edition includes all new material:

• Reflection questions for individual and group study
• A ‘Going Deeper’ section with guided spiritual exercises for each chapter
• A new Foreword by Lily Bragge
• A beautiful new cover design

In addition, Unseen Footprints will be released in ebook and audiobook form. It’s all very exciting.

The Premise

There’s plenty of information about the book at the Unseen Footprints book page, but here’s the basic idea: Could we have had encounters with the divine that we haven’t yet recognised as such? Could God be written into the drama of our lives as if played by a secondary character or an extra that we haven’t paid much attention to? And if so, how do we spot these unseen footprints and follow them?

Tim Costello has said, ‘Reading Unseen Footprints will open your eyes to the God who is already present in your life and in this amazing world of ours.’

Alan Hirsch has called it ‘a charming book brimming with evocative stories and subversive parables that coax us into the complex search for meaning.’

And for Michael Frost, Unseen Footprints is ‘a thoroughly enjoyable meander through the varieties of ways that God touches us and draws us closer to himself.’

Take a look at what readers are saying about Unseen Footprints too. It has changed a few lives.

FREE Stuff for You!

To give you a taste of Unseen Footprints, please enjoy the following free resources drawn from the book. 

FREE Chapters: Read or download the Introduction and Chapter 1 of Unseen Footprints for free.

FREE Podcast: Exploring the story behind and the themes within Unseen Footprints. (Subscribe to my newsletter to make sure you don’t miss each episode.) 

FREE Audio Chapter: Download the Introduction of the Unseen Footprints Audiobook for free. Includes a reflection exercise on becoming attentive to God. (Click the image to play, or right-click and ‘save target’ to download.)

FREE Book: When you order 4 copies of Unseen Footprints the 5th comes free! Great for small groups or for giving Unseen Footprints as a gift.

Related Talks and Articles: Delve further into the message and meaning of Unseen Footprints with these related talks and articles.

Wouldn’t This (hint, hint) Make a Wonderful Christmas Gift?

This new edition of Unseen Footprints has been designed as:

• A gift book
• A resource for study groups and reading groups
• A guide for the spiritually curious

One of the most consistent pieces of feedback I’ve received about Unseen Footprints over the years has been that it’s a book people can confidently give to those interested in faith.

The new edition of Unseen Footprints is available now. It would make a wonderful gift for a family member or friend. If you order before December 16 you’ll get it easily before Christmas.

With Gratitude…

As I’ll share in a subsequent post, Unseen Footprints came about by a serendipitous turn of events. I am forever grateful to Sally Smith, then Commissioning Editor at Scripture Union Publishers, for being the catalyst for the original book in 2005.

At the eleventh hour, this new edition of Unseen Footprints moved to another publisher – Strand Books – but not before Leanne Hald and Alison Maloney at Scripture Union spent many hours working on the project, trialling the reflection exercises, and pulling all the loose ends together. I didn’t get to thank them in the book. Leanne and Alison, I thank you both now. The new edition wouldn’t have happened without you.

More to Come

I’ll be blogging about Unseen Footprints in the weeks to come, providing more content from the book and audiobook. I hope you enjoy learning to spot the unseen footprints that walk ‘before you, behind you and beside you’. 

***

Q: How have you spotted God’s ‘unseen footprints’ in your own life?

Through stories, vivid metaphors and compelling graphic design, Unseen Footprints walks through pain, yearning and doubt, highlighting the ways God whispers to us through creation, beauty and people.

Enjoy the Introduction and Chapter 1 of Unseen Footprints, then be sure to get your copy.

• Reflection questions for individual and group study
• A ‘Going Deeper’ section with guided spiritual exercises for each chapter
• A new Foreword by Lily Bragge
• A beautiful new cover design

Perfect as a gift, for reading groups  or small group use.

About the Book

Learn more by visiting the Unseen Footprints book page!

Unseen Footprints is more than an award-winning book—it’s a journey about opening our spiritual eyes to see the activities of God around us.

Incorporating classic and contemporary stories, vivid metaphors and compelling graphic design, Unseen Footprints is a reflective walk through pain, yearning and doubt; a journey that highlights the way God whispers to us through creation, beauty and people; a journey that leads to an encounter with an unseen but present God who shares his dream of a new world and calls us to participate in its creation.

Purchase Options

By purchasing through the SheridanVoysey.com button to the left you support the author and help to offset the costs of this site. (Thank you!) Quantity discounts are available upon request.

Unseen Footprints is also available at these online retailers, or through your local bookshop.

Australia & New Zeland

Buy from Koorong Books

Buy from Word Bookstore 

Buy from Borders (Coming soon)

UK, US and Europe

Please see the Unseen Footprints UK/US Edition page.

Trade Details

Title: Unseen Footprints
Subtitle: Encountering the Divine Along the Journey of Life
Second Edition: December 2011
Format: Paperback. 224 pages
Author: Sheridan Voysey
Publisher: Strand Publishing Co
ISBN: 978 1 921202 92 6

Related Resources

Unseen Footprints E-Book: The new edition book in Kindle, Kobo and ePub formats. (Coming soon)

 
Unseen Footprints Audio Book: An unabridged reading of Unseen Footprints by the author, Sheridan Voysey. MP3 download. (Coming soon)

 
5-Copy Saver Pack: Buy 4 copies and the 5th comes FREE! Ideal for reading groups, small group study use, or for giving Unseen Footprints as a gift to family and friends.

UK/US Edition: For customers in the UK, Europe, US and Canada.

• Reading groups
• Small group Bible study use
• Giving Unseen Footprints as a gift to family and friends

About the Book

Learn more by visiting the Unseen Footprints book page!

Unseen Footprints is more than an award-winning book—it’s a journey about opening our spiritual eyes to see the activities of God around us.

Incorporating classic and contemporary stories, vivid metaphors and compelling graphic design, Unseen Footprints is a reflective walk through pain, yearning and doubt; a journey that highlights the way God whispers to us through creation, beauty and people; a journey that leads to an encounter with an unseen but present God who shares his dream of a new world and calls us to participate in its creation.

UK and US customers, please see the Unseen Footprints UK/US edition page.

Related Resources

Unseen Footprints New Edition: Buy individual copies here.

Unseen Footprints E-Book: The new edition book in Kindle, Kobo and ePub formats.

Unseen Footprints Audio Book: An unabridged reading of Unseen Footprints by the author, Sheridan Voysey. MP3 download. (Coming soon)

Unseen Footprints UK/US Edition: For customers outside of Australia.

• Kindle
• iPad
• iPhone
• Kobo
• Mobile device
• or other e-reader!

Learn about the book at the Unseen Footprints page!

Winning the Christian Book of the Year award on its first Australian release, this second edition of Unseen Footprints includes all new features:

• Reflection questions for individual and group study
• A ‘Going Deeper’ section with guided spiritual exercises for each chapter
• A new Foreword by Lily Bragge
• A beautiful new cover design

Perfect as a gift, for reading groups or small group use, the new edition of this highly popular book is available now!

Download Now!

The Unseen Footprints eBook is available for immediate download from through these online retailers:

Buy from Amazon US (Kindle/Mobipocket format)

Buy from Amazon UK (Kindle/Mobipocket format)

Buy from Koorong Books (ePub format)

About eBook Formats

The ePub format is for:

• iPad (Apple)
• Nook (Barnes & Noble)
• eReader (Kobo)
• Reader (Sony)
• and many other ebook readers

This is the most widely used ebook format. Mobile devices can read ePub files using apps, but ePubs must be converted to be read on the Kindle.

The Mobipocket format is for:

• Kindle (Amazon)
• Several other ereaders
• iPads and many other mobile devices can read Mobipocket files using apps.

The PDF format is for:

• Any computer or mobile device equipped with the free Adobe Reader.

PDF files use the original typefaces, retaining more of the character of the print book design. Adobe Reader can also reflow and resize the text although the results can be mixed.

Related Resources

Unseen Footprints: The new edition book in paperback.

5-Copy Saver Pack: Buy 4 copies and the 5th comes FREE! Ideal for reading groups, small group study use, or for giving Unseen Footprints as a gift to family and friends.

Unseen Footprints Audio Book: An unabridged reading of Unseen Footprints by the author, Sheridan Voysey. MP3 download. (Coming soon)

UK/US Edition: For customers in the UK, Europe, US and Canada.

• iPad
• iPhone
• Mobile device
• or other e-reader!

Learn about the book at the Open House Volume 3 page!

Journey’s taken, lessons learnt, trials, joys, questions and discoveries. In this third volume of conversations drawn from Sheridan Voysey’s national Open House radio program, we read the stories of some of his most thought-provoking guests.

From internationally-renown authors to Playschool hosts and TV preachers, from music stars and film producers to actors, activists and former Mob members, the tales told on Open House Volume 3 will at times break your heart and prick your conscience, but will always move and inspire.

Purchase Options

The Open House Volume 3 eBook is available in ePub format through these online retailers:

Buy from Koorong Books

Buy from Word Bookstore

About eBook Formats

The ePub format is for:

• iPad (Apple)
• Nook (Barnes & Noble)
• eReader (Kobo)
• Reader (Sony)
• and many other ebook readers

This is the most widely used ebook format. Mobile devices can read ePub files using apps, but ePubs must be converted to be read on the Kindle.

The Mobipocket format is for:

• Kindle (Amazon)
• Several other ereaders
• iPads and many other mobile devices can read Mobipocket files using apps.

The PDF format is for:

• Any computer or mobile device equipped with the free Adobe Reader.

PDF files use the original typefaces, retaining more of the character of the print book design. Adobe Reader can also reflow and resize the text although the results can be mixed.

From Open House Volume 3

I think staying there in the suffering is the greatest test of love. It’s so easy to be with someone you love when things are smooth. But when things really go wrong there are moments when you feel you can’t bear it and want to run away.
Caroline Jones

I had always wanted to be a successful writer, I achieved that and life just went on as normal… I began to take a second look at life and ask myself what was meaningful and discovered that becoming a best-selling author isn’t necessarily a meaningful story.
Donald Miller

He looked up at me and he said, ‘Dad, thank you for a wonderful life. But please, please write the book.’ And then he died in my arms.
Bryce Courtenay

Related Resources

Open House Volume 3 : In paperback.

• iPad
• iPhone
• Mobile device
• or other e-reader!

Learn about the book at the Open House Volume 2 page!

In this second book of conversations drawn from Sheridan Voysey’s national Open House radio program, we peer through the lives of national and international personalities to glimpse aspects of the world left previously unseen.

What does riding a violently-shaking rocket into orbit then landing and walking on the moon feel like? What is life really like behind the scenes of the adult entertainment industry? Are there answers to some of the most perplexing questions levelled at belief in a creator? Where do you turn when you have all that life could seemingly offer yet still feel profoundly empty? Come, converse and find out.

Purchase Options

The Open House Volume 2 eBook is available in ePub format through these online retailers:

Buy from Koorong Books

Buy from Word Bookstore

About eBook Formats

The ePub format is for:

• iPad (Apple)
• Nook (Barnes & Noble)
• eReader (Kobo)
• Reader (Sony)
• and many other ebook readers

This is the most widely used ebook format. Mobile devices can read ePub files using apps, but ePubs must be converted to be read on the Kindle.

The Mobipocket format is for:

• Kindle (Amazon)
• Several other ereaders
• iPads and many other mobile devices can read Mobipocket files using apps.

The PDF format is for:

• Any computer or mobile device equipped with the free Adobe Reader.

PDF files use the original typefaces, retaining more of the character of the print book design. Adobe Reader can also reflow and resize the text although the results can be mixed.

From Open House Volume 2

I think meeting Mother Teresa had a big impact on me—the way she gave to the poorest of the poor her whole life without regard to material possessions… it was incredible what she did.
STEVE WAUGH

I think beauty is [God’s] way of telling us on a most basic level that he is here, that he made this world and this universe. Why else would we cry at the sight of a beautiful tree caught in the wind with all of its limbs dancing?
ANNE RICE

I’m still working on [the faith question]. It’s something that is there but I haven’t got an answer to it and I’m just worrying at it all the time.
DR KARL KRUSZELNICKI

Related Resources

Open House Volume 2 : In paperback.

• iPad
• iPhone
• Mobile device
• or other e-reader!

Learn about the book at the Open House Volume 1 page!

If the Chinese proverb is true, and a single conversation with a wise person is worth a month’s study of books, then this first collection of the ‘best’ interviews from Sheridan Voysey’s Open House show could be the equivalent of a Masters course in life, with topics ranging from God, pain, success and poverty, to masculinity, materialism, politics and art.

Max Lucado will help you find your calling in life, and Philip Yancey will let you into his writing secrets. You’ll smile at Adrian Plass’s description of church life, cry with John Smith as he fears never seeing his children again, ponder the emptiness that once plagued Marina Prior’s soul, and throughout the book, hear how people with faith and tenacity are leaving an indelible mark on this world.

Laugh, cry and marvel as you read the tales, tragedies and beliefs of some of the world’s most intriguing personalities.

Purchase Options

The Open House Volume 1 eBook is available in ePub format through these online retailers:

Buy from Koorong Books

Buy from Word Bookstore

About eBook Formats

The ePub format is for:

• iPad (Apple)
• Nook (Barnes & Noble)
• eReader (Kobo)
• Reader (Sony)
• and many other ebook readers

This is the most widely used ebook format. Mobile devices can read ePub files using apps, but ePubs must be converted to be read on the Kindle.

The Mobipocket format is for: 

• Kindle (Amazon) 
• Several other ereaders 
• iPads and many other mobile devices can read Mobipocket files using apps.

The PDF format is for:

• Any computer or mobile device equipped with the free Adobe Reader.

PDF files use the original typefaces, retaining more of the character of the print book design. Adobe Reader can also reflow and resize the text although the results can be mixed.

From Open House Volume 1

I will have to be honest with you, Sheridan, and say one reason [why I’m still a Christian] is that I haven’t found a better alternative. And I’ve looked, I really have.
Philip Yancey

I had all the worldly things, the trappings of status and success, but I used to lie awake at 3 o’clock in the morning just feeling empty.
Marina Prior

Meaning is everything and humans will never cease pursuing the question of meaning. Nor should they. Indeed, nor can they.
Thomas Keneally

Related Resources

Open House Volume 1 : In paperback.