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Rules to live by
Posted: 2013-05-20 13:41:57 UTC+10:00
There is a boy. He sits in a room, surrounded by adults, in a circle of adults. He speaks calm words about himself, about the last three years of his life, about this thing they call chronic daily headaches, about the pain and its beats and measures. He is not calm, but you wouldn't know it. She knows, because later he tells her.
There is a woman, his mother. She is silent, allowing him to speak. She shifts in her chair, and her jeans make an embarrassing noise on the vinyl. She hopes no one heard. She knows they probably did, this room full of attentive adults. She crosses her legs. She crosses them the other way. She listens. She waits her turn.
There are six other adults in the room, four women, two men, members of the chronic pain management team. Twelve eyes to look at the boy and his mother, twelve eyes and three hours of questions. Six different breeds of medical professional: male, female, old, young, serious, kind. They are all kind, so kind. She feels pinned by their gaze.
They ask the boy questions about the pain, how often, since when, what sets it off, what helps, where it is, how it feels. Mostly he can answer them (he's heard them before). Sometimes he can't. The questions have beaten him into silence, too many questions. How can he quantify the pain? How can he put a number to it? What if he is wrong? He has started to ask himself, what if he is a coward, when others experience far worse pain than this?
The boy wears soft grey pants and a grey jumper with a fur-lined hood. The soft edges protect him from the hard edges of their questions. As they walk to the meeting, he pulls the hood up, but his mother pulls it down. He runs his hand through his hair, and she smooths it down.
They notice this. They notice everything. They ask if he likes soft clothes. He does. His mother listens, fascinated, but she wonders what this has to do with anything. She wonders what anything has to do with anything. What are they observing about him, about her? What connections are they drawing? What are they thinking? Why won't they tell her?
They take him from the room. Two adults gone, four left plus her. They question her. They ask about his developmental milestones, relationships, intelligence, family history. Some answers she knows (she's familiar with this line of questioning). Some answers she can't remember (she should have brought his baby book). She asks herself, Why can't I remember? Why don't I know? Does it matter that I don't know?
More questions. What are his thought processes like? Positive or negative? You say positive? But what about these times? What about those? She knows, she doesn't know. She says to ask him.
He returns to the room. They ask him. He answers, or tries to answer. She marvels at the delicate balance of mind and body, so finely tuned, so easily knocked awry. Has she done this? Did they do something wrong, or not do something right? This beautiful, strong, loving boy. What have they done?
The boy and his mother are sent away for fifteen minutes, fifteen minutes of buying him a sausage roll, sitting in the sun, exclaiming at the spinning doors, wondering what conversations are happening in their absence. They return.
And they are told that they are doing okay. They are doing the right things. The doctors they are already seeing - those doctors with all their questions - are doing the right things. Maybe they could change his medication. They should probably bring him back for some physiotherapy. Oh, and there's a pain clinic he could attend. And some more questionnaires to fill in. And the occupational therapist would like to see him. The boy's mother adds the appointments to a diary full of doctors' visits. But, they say, you are doing well. We approve.
She feels relieved. The boy smiles, shifts in his chair. And it's all okay. And none of it is okay.
There is an art to this, an art she has not yet learned. To allow their lives to be examined, probed, dissected, cut open like a rat on the table. To remain undefensive, receptive. To be grateful, to listen and absorb. To know this matters immensely, could mean the difference between health and sickness. To know this doesn't always matter, the doctors don't always know, don't always agree, aren't always right.
To try things, all the time not knowing. To work away at the pain, increment by imperceptible increment, week by week. To make mistakes and pay the price of days of illness and, next week, try something new and lose more days and try again, each time one step closer. To watch her son suffer, watch him make progress, so much progress, but still so slow, so far to go.
To follow the rules, all the times ignoring the rules. To answer the questions but not allow them to strip her bare. To hear conflicting advice and know when to listen and when to ignore. To be full of needs, but not to be needy. To ask for help, yet go home and cope on their own. To do all this and not be swallowed up by it.
To get on with life. To love her son. To find the energy, somehow, to love her other three children. To be tired but not to lose her temper. To lose her temper, ask forgiveness, and not wallow but go on. To turn from tears to laughter, to learn the art of turning from tears to laughter. To be worn out, to be worn down, but to go on.
She has always been a rule-follower. She feels secure when she obeys. She needs to get it right, to get everything right. She needs to please. She is learning that this is not possible, that she can't do everything they say. That she can't do everything. That sometimes - often! - she won't know the best thing to do. That all she can do is what is best for her son, for her family, and love, and serve, and try, and love. She is learning that there is only One she lives to please, and she is already whole and loved in him.
She doesn't have the strength for this, but she knows Someone who does.
I wrote this in response to Meredith's writing challenge.
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what I'm listening to: nothing can harm me
Posted: 2013-05-20 10:28:33 UTC+10:00
Last night I listened to an encouraging sermon about why we don't need to fear so-called random events.
Our pastor told us this story:
John Chrysostom was a church father in the fourth century known for his preaching.
When he was a young Christian he was brought before the emperor, who told him that if he didn't give up being a Christian he would be exiled from the country.
Chysostom replied, "You cannot banish me because the whole world belongs to my father."
Then the emperor said, "I will take away your property."
"You cannot", replied Chysostom, "because my treasures are in heaven."
So the emperor warned him that he would place him in solitary confinement.
Chrysostom responded, "You cannot, because I have a friend who is closer than a brother, I have Jesus Christ forever."
Finally the emperor threatened him, "We will execute you."
To which Chrysostum said, "You cannot, because my life is hidden with God.
There is nothing you can do to harm me!"
It was a wonderful reminder that nothing can ever really harm us, because nothing - not even death - can separate us from the love of Christ (Romans 8:28-29).
You can find John's ongoing sermon series here.
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online meanderings
Posted: 2013-05-18 14:09:51 UTC+10:00
Lessons learned from the dark valley of depression - These lessons learned through suffering sound very familiar.
How to work in a job that you don't love - For young men unsure of the future, but relevant to us all.
How far is too far? - Well, would you passionately kiss your neighbour? A helpful article. (And a book review - Sex, dating and relationships - with yet another alternative to "dating" and "courtship" - a dating friendship!)
Is it okay for Christians to be bemoan an unexpected pregnancy? - There's lot to like about this post.
Is your complementarian culture bordering on crazy? - Some ways that culture can take over from theology when it comes to men and women.
Christians should pray long enough and honestly enough, at a single session, to get past the feeling of formalism and unreality that attend not a little praying. To enter the spirit of prayer, we must stick at it for a little while. Eventually we will come to delight in God’s presence, to rest in his love, to cherish his will. Don Cason
Embrace the vulnerability of partial knowledge. If we “know in part”—in our parenting, in our counselling, in our decision-making—we must move toward our God for his wisdom. Mike Emlet (on Zack Eswine)
To see more links and quotes, click here (Facebook) or here (Twitter).
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God’s gifts in suffering (3) suffering tests and refines our faith
Posted: 2013-05-17 09:15:00 UTC+10:00
I’m no Job. The words I used to sing so blithely, with such theoretical appreciation of their beauty, such bland conviction that I’d sing them whatever came – “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21)1 – don’t, apparently, spring to my lips when suffering comes. My lips are sealed, silent.
In this [living hope] you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed. (1 Peter 1:6-7)
And that’s the first thing suffering teaches me about myself: my faith is weaker than I knew. I am riddled with doubt. I am shot through with unbelief. My trust in God is fragile.
When I was young, I thought of myself as strong. I would never lose my faith! I would never stumble! My obedience was sure, my faith certain. Life, at times, has felt like a successive stripping away of self-delusion. Tempt me, and I am prone to habitual sin. Test me, and I am prone to anger. Try me, and I am prone to unbelief.
Suffering brings me low, which is exactly where I need to be:The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. (Psalm 51:17)
Suffering undoes me. It unravels the pride and self-reliance that were woven together with my faith. What’s left is alarmingly slender, so it’s just as well that it’s God, not me, who holds me here. Faith hangs by a thread; yet it holds, tested and true, stronger than spider silk, for the One to whom it clings is faithful. When I am weak, God proves to be strong; and, seeing this, my faith grows stronger.
Suffering refines my faith. It becomes more resilient, less dependent on circumstances. I come one step closer to believing in God as he really is, not as I want him to be. I long for heaven, and the ties that bind me to this earth are loosened.
It’s true: suffering both tests and refines my faith. I’ll write more about the second of these in the weeks to come.
1. The song being Matt Redman’s Blessed be the name of the Lord.
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online meanderings
Posted: 2013-05-17 10:01:50 UTC+10:00
What do you do when the word leaves you cold? - Great suggestions for times of spiritual dryness.
When I heard God's voice - How God spoke to Challies. How he speaks to us.
For perfectionists in imperfect marriages - Helpful reading for perfectionists, married or not.
12 ways to support parents of babies and young children - "Offer advice only when invited", "Encourage", and more.
Fight spiritual ADD, "in which we bounce from blog to book to sermon in ways that don’t promote deep engagement and growth". A constant temptation for me.
If I'm failing to demonstrate the same fruit of the Spirit in "real life" as I do online, it's probably plastic fruit. Lindsay Carlson
People like to say life is a marathon, not a sprint, but it’s actually more like a track workout. We run hard and then rest hard. Kevin DeYoung
To see more links and quotes, click here (Facebook) or here (Twitter).
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in the middle of a story
Posted: 2013-05-15 09:54:23 UTC+10:00
Love this quote. So true. (And it's one reason I can rarely write about anything until after it's over, or at least until my thoughts about it have settled into some kind of order - and that rarely happens in the middle of it.)
When you are in the middle of a story it isn’t a story at all, but only a confusion; a dark roaring, a blindness, a wreckage of shattered glass and splintered wood; like a house in a whirlwind, or else a boat crushed by the icebergs or swept over the rapids, and all aboard powerless to stop it. It’s only afterwards that it becomes anything like a story at all. When you are telling it, to yourself or to someone else.
~Margaret Atwood, Alias Grace HT Ali
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Couch to 5K: week 6, day 1
Posted: 2013-05-15 09:55:30 UTC+10:00
Week 6 day 1.
A brisk 5-minute walk, then 5 minutes of running, 3 minutes of walking, 8 minutes of running, 3 minutes of walking, 5 minutes of running.
Day 1: that's all I've done of week 6 so far. I'm e-a-s-i-n-g my way through a combination of weeks 5 and 6, nursing my knees (so far so good), working up gradually to my first 25 minute run.I ran on Sunday afternoon (I'll do my next run today if I can). The first 5 minutes were sluggish and slow; the 8 minutes, a test of stamina; the last 5 minutes, joyous. It reminded me, again, why I'm doing this whole Couch to 5K thing.I've been feeling worn out, flattened by life. After my run, I felt happy, energised, ready to face the week. Exercise isn't the key to life, but it's a good cure for blah-ness. It's a great gift of God, isn't it?And I ran with my daughter! It was her first run for months. Despite that, she powered ahead of me through the first 5 minutes, long legs taking in big gulps of ground. "You go ahead, darling!", I panted. "I'll catch up!". The difference between 44 and 14 years.Ah, but then she chose to sit out the 8 minute run. Okay, so she wasn't super-well, but it still made feel a bit better. Ageing legs and all, I've developed some stamina over the last few months.We ran the last 5 minutes together, and she hit the sweet spot, where your mind gives up and your body takes over, lungs and legs doing their thing. It's a glorious feeling, best of all the first time you feel it.She enjoyed it so much that she declared, "Mum, I want to go jogging again!" Sweet words to a mother's ears. Seems I have a new jogging companion, on weekends at least.
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when life feels oh, so ordinary
Posted: 2013-05-14 17:05:41 UTC+10:00
My life feels ordinary. I guess yours does to. And so often we long for more. Or we wonder if we're missing out on something. Or if we could be serving God in bigger ways.
Challies tackles this feeling in Ordinary: Christian living for the rest of us.
Ordinary is a book I have lived. I live it every day. I live an ordinary life, pastor an ordinary church full of ordinary people, and head home each night to my ordinary little home in an oh-so-ordinary suburb. I preach very ordinary sermons—John Piper or Steve Lawson I am not and never will be—and as I sit with the people I love I am sure I give them very ordinary counsel. A friend recently confessed his initial disappointment the first time he visited my home and got a glimpse of my life. “Your house is so small and your life is so boring.” Indeed. It’s barely 1,100 square feet of house and forty hours every week sitting at a desk...
I want to explore this desire to be more than ordinary and this low-grade guilt that compels us to try to do more and be more and act more. I am convinced that we do not need to make ordinary synonymous with apathetic and radical synonymous with godly. I want to explore some of these themes because I encounter them in my own life, I see them in the pages of bestselling books, I hear them at conferences, I counsel against them in the people I pastor, and I often battle to convince my own wife that ordinary is good. It is all God asks of us. It is all God asks of her.
And here’s the thing. I am thrilled to live this ordinary life. Nine days out of ten I wake up in the morning overwhelmed with gratitude that I get to live a life like this. I live it without guilt and regret. I live without the desire to be extra-ordinary and without feeling the need to do radical things. But then there is that other day, that one out of ten, where I feel guilt and discontentment, where I want life to be so much more than it is, where I am convinced that I am missing out on a better life and missing out on God’s expectations for me.
Ordinary is Christian living for the rest of us. It is for people like me and, in all likelihood, people like you. It is for Christians who have tried to be more than ordinary and who just have not found what they have been looking for. It is for Christians who have never tried to be more than ordinary and who are content that way. It validates our sheer normalcy and refutes our desire to be anything greater than that.
It is about being ordinarily excellent, ordinarily passionate, ordinarily godly. It is about trusting that such ordinary saints are saints indeed, fully acceptable, fully accepted, fully pleasing to the One who created and called us.
I think we may just find that this desire to be more than ordinary and to live a life so much more than ordinary exposes as much sin as sanctification. Perhaps we will find it is one thing to pursue godliness and end up with extraordinary challenges, extraordinary responsibilities or extraordinary opportunities, but another thing altogether to pursue the more-than-ordinary as a goal. We may well find that the Christians who really get it are the most unremarkable of all.
You can read the rest here.
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online meanderings
Posted: 2013-05-14 14:19:40 UTC+10:00
Just as I am - "She was kept wakeful by distressing thoughts of her apparent uselessness..." For those with chronic illness.
What do you do when the word leaves you cold? - 8 helpful thoughts about times of spiritual dryness.
Mums, control and worry - "I’ve been bitten by a serpent-shaped lie that says I can orchestrate all the details of my life...Worry is an acceptable sin that joins many conversations, play dates, and texts."
Leading on empty - Burnout, its signs and symptoms, and how to prevent it. Really excellent.
Your church is too small - Just finished Sam's article on Hillsong. I thought it was clear and fair.
Patience is not an emotion that we feel, it's the control of an emotion. It's not felt, it's exercised. Lisa Thompson
Gluttony is the soul’s addiction to excess. It occurs when taste overrules hunger, when want outweighs need...Feasting on God is as foreign to most of us as an empty stomach. Jason Todd
To see more links, click here (Facebook) or here (Twitter).
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the 5 tasks of friendship in marriage
Posted: 2013-05-13 21:09:34 UTC+10:00
What a great list: the 5 key tasks of friendship in marriage.
Know each other’s worlds intimately – knowing what are the other persons stresses and worries, feeling like the other person is interested in knowing you, asking open-ended questions and remembering the answers.
Admire the positive qualities in your spouse – what do you like about them and do you regularly tell them. Are you scanning for your partners mistakes or for things to admire. It has a significant impact to say something you appreciate.
Respond to your spouse’s attempts to connect with you – people make bids for connection, empathy etc, which form an emotional bank account, and you can increase your mindfulness of how your partner (friend) makes bids to connect. You can turn away, against or towards a person in response to their bid for connection. This behaviour is apparently the basis of romance, passion and sex. For example, one person looks out the window and says “isn’t it a beautiful sunset tonight” – you can ignore them, say you don’t have time to look at sunsets, just say “yeah”, of you can say “how about we go outside and take a look together” etc.
Time – hang out with each other to catch up. They talked about the importance of making time for this. And that if during this time you can communicate how you feel, that leads to a greater emotional connection.
Enjoy – have fun together. No laughter or fun is a bad sign. It takes five positives to make up for each negative in an emotional bank account, so fun times are important and will help you survive the lean times.
From Keith and Sarah Condie via Ali.
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prepare yourself for suffering
Posted: 2013-05-13 12:05:54 UTC+10:00
Brace yourself for suffering:
Every trial we go through is “Father-filtered,” meaning that nothing takes God by surprise. Every tribulation that comes our way is permitted by the God who holds our future in His hand....
Preachers like to say that people are in one of three stages:About to encounter suffering
Going through suffering
Coming out of sufferingIf this is true, then we should prepare people for all three stages. Why? Because suffering well is one of the best ways we witness to our faith and joy in the Lord....
No one wants to take the Suffering Class. We steer clear of studying about this subject. We don’t want that course checked off our list. We start thinking, If I’m prepared for suffering, God is going to send a portion my way! Better to ignore it and deal with it when it comes, right?
Wrong.
Take the suffering class. Study what the Bible says about suffering. Don’t neglect Job, the psalms, or the words of the Apostle Peter.
Let’s prepare for suffering so we can be a powerful testimony to the grace and goodness of God in the midst of pain.
Do yourself a favour. Read the whole thing.
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what I'm reading: suffering brings me to the cross
Posted: 2013-05-13 10:11:26 UTC+10:00
How easily I become self-sufficient! How easily I worship comfort and money and ease! How easily I forget Jesus' demand to give up everything to follow him! How easily I lay down the cross he asks me to bear!Then suffering steps in. It takes away the idols I refused to give up. It exposes the lie of my self-sufficiency. It brings me to my knees at the foot of the cross. It teaches me, once again, to bear my cross for the One who died for me.I've seen this dynamic in my own life. Joni talks about in When God weeps*:The cross is where we die. We got there daily. But it isn't easy ... The cross? We dig in our heels. The invitation is so frighteningly individual. It's an invitation to go alone...
We know it as a place of death. "Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature..." (Colossians 3:5). Who wants to do that? Crucify his own pride? Kill his own daydreams and fantasies? Dig a grave for his pet worries?
We simply cannot bring ourselves to go to the cross. Nothing attracts us to it.
Thus we live independently of the cross. Or try to. As time passes, the memory of our desperate state when we first believed fades. The cross was something that happened to us "back then." We forget how hungry for God we once were. We grow self-sufficient ... We would hardly admit it, but we know full well how autonomous of God we operate.This is where God steps in.
He permits suffering ... Suffering reduces us to nothing ... To be reduced to nothing is to be dragged to the foot of the cross. It's a severe mercy ... Suffering forces us to our knees at the foot of Calvary.
Joni Eareckson Tada When God weeps 135-136, 142.
* I don't love everything about what Joni writes on these pages, or perhaps I haven't quite got my head around it. What I loved and agreed with, I have shared with you here.
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online meanderings
Posted: 2013-05-09 19:22:46 UTC+10:00
How a writer of words recognized the Author of the Word - As a writer, the more I read the Bible, the more I'm convinced only God could have written it. So wonderful. So true.
Unwashed hands and the internet - Reflections after a year without the internet: it's not the problem. Your heart is.
The Puritans and mental illness - Yes, they did believe in it. An excellent post that brought back memories of my PhD.
For mums of bubs, Mother daughter time and Baby sitting swaps - Three great posts for mums (and dads).
Your church is too small - Just finished Sam's article on Hillsong. I thought it was clear and fair.
The Big Picture Story Bible and The Jesus Storybook Bible - An excellent review of two popular kids' bibles with some surprising conclusions (I second his recommendation of the excellent Read with Me Bible).
7mouths2feed - Good to see my friend Susie back blogging beautiful stuff and interesting thoughts.
The things you pray about are the things you trust God to handle. The things you neglect to pray about are the things you trust you can handle on your own. HB Charles Jr
There are times to speak and there are times when people don’t need our advice. Sometimes we just need to shut up and keep our well-meaning platitudes to ourselves. Murray Campbell
To see more links, click here (Facebook) or here (Twitter).
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Couch to 5K: *pause* for sore knees
Posted: 2013-05-08 10:07:01 UTC+10:00
So far, I've done 5-weeks-plus-a-day of Couch to 5K twice!
The first time was last summer. That's what you've been reading about. It ended with a sore left knee and a month-long break from running.
The second time - well, you've been reading about that too, because I've been running at the same time as I've been posting.
This time I got through the 20 minute run with no localised knee soreness.
Here's what I'm doing differently this time around:
- I do a set of stretching exercises, based on these, at the end of every run. They are necessary for every jogger, apparently - running creates injury without them - and I love doing them! I'm more flexible than I've been in years.
- I bought a new pair of runners, designed particularly for the way my feet pronate (or is that supernate? I don't know). But they make a huge difference - much more padding than my old cross-trainers!
- I started wearing a patella band just under my left knee. Not a cure-all, apparently. But it really does help my knee to feel more stable.
- I slowed down once I got near the 20 minute run, and repeated the 2 x 8 minute run a few times. No point rushing things!
- I changed where I run, keeping to a place with more even surfaces and less slants and hills.
I'm still getting a little general knee achiness, but much less than the first time around (and I suspect due to some extra over-doing it during the last week).
I've pulled back a bit this week, and will e-a-s-e back into jogging over the next week or so - and keep you updated.
Not sure I'll ever make a long-term jogger, much as I'd hate to give it up! I love running. But if I keep getting sore, I might have to try a different form of exercise.
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online meanderings
Posted: 2013-05-07 14:57:20 UTC+10:00
The inevitability of holiness - "It is never a question of if, it is always a question of when." When change feels all too slow.
Why the ascension matters - "At least for the past 2,000 years, Jesus doesn’t make footprints in the sand."
A year away from the Internet - Avoiding stuff is not the solution to problems of the heart.
What is the difference between affections and emotions? - Very Puritan, very helpful.
Slowing down and I'm too busy - Two very different, very helpful posts about busyness.
Top 60 online resources for battling porn - David Murray with another useful list.
Book review: Treasuring the gospel in your home - Gloria Furman is excellent, and this book promises more of the same.
God has given me a child who requires more than I was trained to handle so that I would depend on him and not my own strength. Christina Fox
Let me put this very clearly: if, however unwittingly and unintentionally, I ever give my little girl the impression that her worth is found in her looks, beauty, and hotness, tie a millstone around my neck. Owen Strachan
To see more links, click here (Facebook) or here (Twitter).
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the delight and wonder of a scientist
Posted: 2013-05-07 14:56:07 UTC+10:00
Does science destroy, or enhance, delight and wonder?
I'm a bit of a science geek, so I'd go with the following, from What I wish my pastor knew about the life of a scientist:
If there is one personality characteristic of the vast majority of scientists I have met, it is delight. There is something about science that attracts people who are fascinated and thrilled by the world.
To be sure, any given scientist is delighted by things that you and I may find odd or indeed incomprehensible — the intricacies of protein folding, the strata of Antarctic ice cores, or the properties of Lebesgue spaces (and no, I have no idea what that last phrase really means). But the specificity of their delights is one of delight’s secrets: like love, delight is always most potent when it is particular. ...
In many scientists, delight is matched by wonder — a sense of astonishment at the beautiful, ingenious complexity to be found in the world. This is not the “wonder” that comes from ignorance — “I wonder how a light bulb really works?” — but a wonder that comes from understanding.Indeed, as we progress further into humanity’s scientific era we have been able to disabuse ourselves of a mistaken early-modern notion: that the more the world became comprehensible, the less it would be wonderful. That turns out not to be true at all — ask a scientist. Wonder grows as understanding grows. Indeed, wonder only grows if understanding grows.
If we replace our childhood awe of lightning with an explanation like, “It’s nothing but a transfer of voltage across a highly resistive material” (an example of what G. K. Chesterton wittily called “nothing-buttery”) perhaps the world will seem like a less wonderful place. But those who actually pursue knowledge of lightning — of electromagnetism or cloud formation or weather systems or climate — end up being more in awe of the world than they were as children.
This is surely one of the remarkable features of our cosmos: the more we understand about it, the more we are in awe of its beautiful elegance and simplicity, and at the same time its humbling complexity.
You can read the rest here.
To be sure, many if not most scientists do not see this wonderful world in the way that most Christians would hope for. For us, wonder is a stepping-stone to worship — ascribing our awe for the world to a Creator whose worth it reveals. For many scientists, wonder is less a stepping-stone than a substitute for worship. Yet they stop and wonder all the same.
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what I'm reading: the answer to suffering is not a some thing, but a Someone
Posted: 2013-05-06 12:44:17 UTC+10:00
I like answers. I like to know the "why". This is no less true in suffering than in anything else.
But when there are no answers - when the answers have said all they can and I am still hurting - when I've given up on the answers, and I'm just crying out to God - what I need is not a some thing, but a Someone.
In her book When God weeps, Joni tells the story of a friend who is suffering deeply. She's with a group of friends. One of them offers a list of reasons why this might have happened. But that's not what she needs - she already knows all this - and silence falls on the group. Then someone starts singing, and the whole group starts singing to God, their Father. In him alone is comfort.
Because, ultimately, this is our answer to suffering:
When your heart is being wrung out like a sponge, an orderly list of “sixteen good biblical reasons as to why this is happening” can sting like salt in a wound. You don’t stop bleeding that way. A checklist may be okay when you’re looking at your suffering in a rearview mirror, but when you’re hurting in present tense, “Let me explain why this is happening” isn’t always liveable ...
We must never distance the Bible's answers from God. The problem of suffering is not about some thing, but Someone. It follows that the answer must not be some thing, but Someone....
Besides, answers are for the head. They don’t always reach the problem where it hurts — in the gut and in the heart. When a person is sorely suffering … people are like hurting children looking into the faces of their parents, crying and asking, “Daddy, why?” Those children don’t want explanations, answers, or “reasons why”; they want their daddy to pick them up, pat them on the backs, and reassure them everything is going to be okay.Our heartfelt plea is for assurance — Fatherly assurance — that there is an order to reality that far transcends our problems, that somehow everything will be okay. We amble on along our philosophical path, then — Bam! — get hit with suffering. No longer is our fundamental view of life providing a sense of meaning or a sense of security in our world. Suffering has not only rocked the boat, it’s capsized it.
We need assurance that the world is not splitting apart at the seams. We need to know we aren’t going to fizzle into a zillion atomic particles and go spinning off in space. We need to be reassured that the world, the universe, is not in nightmarish chaos, but orderly and stable.
God must be at the centre of things. He must be in the centre of our suffering. What’s more, he must be Daddy. Personal and compassionate. This is our cry.
God, like a father, doesn’t just give advice. He gives himself. He becomes the husband to the grieving widow (Isaiah 54:5). He becomes the comforter to the barren woman (Isaiah 54:1). He becomes the bridegroom to the single person (Psalm 10:14). He is the healer to the sick (Exodus 15:26). He is the wonderful counsellor to the confused and depressed (Isaiah 9:6).
This is what you do when someone you love is in anguish; you respond to the plea of their heart by giving them your heart. If you are the One at the centre of the universe, holding it together, if everything moves, breathes, and has its being in you, you can do no more than give yourself (Acts 17:28).
It’s the only answer that ultimately matters.
Joni Eareckson Tada When God weeps 124-125.
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our week
Posted: 2013-05-03 17:01:06 UTC+10:00
I thought I might start giving you a little picture of our lives each week. (Okay, so probably not every week.) I'm hoping this will:
- be a mini-prayer letter for those of you who support and pray for us
- fill in those of you who are just interested in how we're going
- be an aide-mémoire and a bit of fun!
So here goes! This week,
I thought I had to have my tooth out, but it turns out I don't. For the time being. Seems the problems it would create are as many as the problems it would solve. Which is kind of cheering - and kind of not, as I still have problems with my tooth. And my knees. But that's another story.
Steve is busy with talk-writing. Again. It's that time of year. He's also preaching at a wedding tomorrow. Always a bit scary-making.
Lizzy was on the radio today - for real! - for her media class. She talked about spiders in her bedroom, finding a mouse on her bathroom floor, and her brothers clinking their teeth on their spoons at dinner time. Not sure I will ever show my face in public again.
Ben is in the middle of a migraine. He made it to 2 days school this week. Would have been 3, but the athletics carnival was on *sigh*. Still, we are making steady progress, and he did get to go to work with Dad.
Thomas is 3/4 of the way through a big pile of books for his Premiers' Reading Challenge. "Just finish one, Thomas, so I can write it down!" - that's me.
Andy keeps begging me to buy star fruit. It's good to see the boy who survives on rice and tomato sauce actually wanting to try something new.
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keeping the gospel in your sights in pastoral ministry (or just in life, really)
Posted: 2013-05-03 10:00:05 UTC+10:00
Late last year, our ministry team looked at 1 Timothy 3 and 4. We noticed how, smack bang in the middle of these chapters on Christian leadership, is “the mystery of godliness”: that is, Christ our Saviour (1 Tim 3:16 cf. 4:10). In other words, to be faithful in pastoral ministry, you have to keep your eyes on Jesus. You have to fight to keep your eyes on Jesus.
flickr: Prayer by Chris Yarzab
And what a fight you will have on your hands.
I start the year with good intentions. This year I won’t get so swallowed up by everything that needs to be done that I’ll forget the gospel. But by the end of the year I’m in coping mode, and when I’m in coping mode, the gospel is that last thing to come to mind. In this desperate race to the finish line, surely it’s my own efforts that will get me there. If I just knuckle down and get these Bible studies written. If I stay in control. If I keep on top of things. If I wake up earlier, go to bed later. If I…
And in all that busyness, the gospel slips from view, and I’m on a treadmill, endlessly running to keep up.
So how do you keep your eyes on the gospel? Our leadership group brainstormed and came up with some ideas. Here are eleven of them (I've included a few of my own).
- Read the Bible for the sake of your own soul. I try to read something every day that has nothing to do with preparing anything. Or when I must read to prepare – and let’s face it, there are times like this – then I try to turn what I read into reflection, repentance, praise and prayer. At the moment I’m preparing Colossians, and I’ve found it helpful to add a psalm to my Bible reading each morning.
- Do evangelism. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that reminds me of the wonder of the gospel like seeing it light up someone else’s eyes for the first time. As I read a gospel with a friend, the very passages that seem odd or embarrassing to me are the ones that impact her most deeply, and I’m convicted afresh of the beauty and power of the gospel.
- Pray. Prayerlessness is a vicious cycle: I don’t pray because I’m trying to do things in my own strength; then I have to do things in my own strength because I’m not praying; and, before long, I’m running to keep up, God is out of the picture, and it’s all about my own efforts to stay in control. Prayer reminds me that it’s God’s grace that changes people, not me.
- Invite others to teach and admonish you (Col 3:16; Heb 10:24-25; James 5:16). It’s good to confess our struggles to wise, mature believers who hold us to account. Over the years, I’ve prayed with a couple of friends who know me well, comfort and challenge me, and keep my eyes on the goal. I meet with another group of women to pray for our non-Christian friends; this keeps us sharp and gospel-focussed.
- Meditate on the gospel. Some ways to bring the gospel to mind include reading, memorizing, meditating on and praying through Bible passages about Jesus;1 listening to gospel-centred music;2 and deliberately making the cross and resurrection part of our daily thanksgiving and prayer.
- Let life and leadership be cross-shaped. Like our Lord, instead of lording it over others, we serve (Mk 10:42-45). We choose humility over pride and ambition (Phil 2:3-11). We work hard and endure patiently (2 Tim 2:1-6; 1 Pet 2:20-25). We lay down our lives in love (1 Jn 3:16; 4:7-12). Our leadership becomes a living mnemonic, a reminder to us and others of the cross. And it’s a wonderful, non-vicious spiral: we live this way because of the cross, and living this way, are driven back to the cross; for who can live like this apart from the strengthening grace of God? (2 Cor 4:7-12; Phil 4:11-13; 2 Tim 2:1-6)
- Rest. Every night my head hits the pillow, I’m reminded that I am not God, who alone ‘neither slumbers nor sleeps’ (Ps 121:3-4). A regular day’s rest, enjoying God’s good world and his gift of family and friends, reminds us that God sustains our life and provides all good things. Over-busyness, of course, has the opposite affect: it’s a symptom of I’m-running-the-universe disease, and leads to burn-out and loss of energy and purpose.
- Read books about the gospel. I aim to read about one a year. At the moment, I’m slowly working my way through Tim Keller's King’s Cross. Others that have helped me are
John Stott’s The Cross of Christ, CJ Mahney's The Cross-Centred Life, and Nancy Guthrie's Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross.3 - Set aside a few regular hours for deeper reflection and prayer. Once a week or once a month, I sit in a cafe with an open Bible, a Christian book that I reserve just for this time, and a journal to write down thoughts and prayers; then I go for a long walk and pray. It keeps me refreshed and ready to serve, and the act of writing orders my thoughts and re-orients them to the gospel.
- Make teaching gospel-centred. Not in a forced “every Bible study has to end with Jesus” kind of way. But the gospel should be where God’s word drives us. I don’t think I’ve really understood a Bible passage until it brings me back to the gospel naturally, of its own accord, by its own route.
- Keep training and leadership gospel-centred. My husband, who heads a ministry team, makes sure that every staff meeting includes time, not just for administration, but also for encouraging each other from the Bible, praying, and discussing big issues from God’s word. It’s a great model for keeping the gospel on the agenda.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. (Heb 12:1-3)
How do you keep your eyes on the gospel?
1. You’ll find some suggested passages and methods for memorization in my posts a three-course banquet of Bible memorization and A smorgasbord of Bible memorization methods.
2. For example, Sovereign Grace’s Songs for the Cross Centred Life.
3. Others I’d like to read include Don Carson’s The Cross and Christian Ministry; Steve Jeffery, Michael Ovey and Andrew Sach’s Pierced for our Transgressions; and JI Packer and Mark Dever’s In My Place Condemned He Stood. ↩
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not rushing, but living, right now
Posted: 2013-05-02 11:52:40 UTC+10:00
This is one of those extraordinary posts where the author gathers up what you've been thinking - or have been on the edge of thinking - and puts it into words.
I often feel like I am rushing from place to place, never stopping to pray or reflect or consider. In the rush, more and more of what I do is motivated by pleasing people, not disappointing them. I lose sight of what really matters: living to please God.
Recently I've pondered the possibility of pausing from time to time, sitting in a chair and staring out a window, praying and reflecting on Jesus and calming my soul before God, before I rush onto the next task.
I love Zac Eswine's suggestions (shared by Mike Emlet):
So what does it look like to lean against the temptation to be “everywhere-for-all”?
- Frame your day with pauses that remind you of your absolute dependency on God and ground you in the present. Eswine suggests using the time-honored tradition of breaking the day into four portions—morning, noon, evening, night—and pausing at the beginning and end of each period of time to pray and read Scripture for a few minutes. Although my consistency in this discipline waxes and wanes, I can attest to how it acts as a speed bump to what would otherwise be a frenetic, prayerless, and unreflective day.
- Focus on the here and now as you meet with people. Truly attend to the people in front of you—their words, smiles, grimaces, and furrowed brows. So much of interpersonal ministry is being with a person, not arriving at a destination. We are like children on a long car ride who whine, “Are we there yet?” while missing the glory of the ordinary passing scenery, not to mention the blessing (OK, sometimes!) of being together as a family.
- Learn to value the ordinary, “exult in monotony” (66). If you don’t do this, you miss much of daily life! Without those eyes to see and ears to hear, it’s no wonder the here and now feels insufficient and the whisper to be somewhere else for someone else beckons. Can you smell the sautéed asparagus? Feel the warmth of your child’s hand? See the impish grin of one of the preschoolers in your Sunday School class? Taste the bitter goodness of that first swallow of morning coffee? Savouring these ordinary moments, gifts from God for a given place and time, reminds us that he will give us what is needful for the moments of ministry as well.
- Go to bed! “Sleep is a Sabbath-like act. We rest from it all and leave it all for God’s keeping while we lie motionless in the world for a while” (80). Honestly, this is hard for me. While I don’t have the stamina of twenty years ago, I still am often driven by an everywhere-for-all mentality that trades sleep for the diminishing returns of working late.
"We can only be at one place at one time". That is good news! Whether you are in the counselling room or in a meeting or at the dinner table or getting ready for bed, remember that you live for one Person, and he equips you to live faithfully in this one place at this moment in time.
You can read the rest here.
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online meanderings
Posted: 2013-05-02 07:40:59 UTC+10:00
We already have it all - "I just can't do it." For those who fail - and fail - and fail again.
Remember what Jesus has done - 3 wise encouragements.
Diagnosing our idols of the heart - A helpful little list from Tim Keller.
Envy hunts in a pack - I like the analysis of envy-related vices like malice and jealousy.
Older women still need encouragement and community - A few wise reflections.
Top 10 Psalms - I'm living in the Psalms at the moment, and I enjoyed Simone's list.
10 pictures of faith in Jesus - A helpful summary of the different pictures the Bible gives.
God in His providence may allow great pain and loss for His own glory. Severe in its pain but merciful because through it we see the glory of God. Lisa Spence
Don’t ask how your investment will be paying off in just thirty years. Ask how it will be paying off in thirty million years. Randy Alcorn
Suffered things are learned things. Eugene Peterson
To see more links, click here (Facebook) or here (Twitter).
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the tender King of Kings
Posted: 2013-05-01 12:11:18 UTC+10:00
Elisha Galotti speaks to her son:
"Jacob, of all the kids in your school, it’s those people, the ones who other people sometimes make fun of, who you must love and be kind to most of all. Did you know that when Jesus lived on this earth, that was the kind of man that he was?...
You can read the rest here.
"There was this woman who had been sick for a really, really long time. For years and years she had been bleeding. There probably were a lot of people who were unkind to her, and said mean stuff to her. Or maybe they ignored her and didn’t bother saying anything to her at all. A lot of people probably thought this woman was strange and that she didn’t need their love or kindness.
"And then one day, Jake, this woman meets Jesus. She is in the crowd, and she sees Him: Jesus, God Himself, the King of all the kings of the world, full of power and strength. She reached to Him, stretching her fingers toward Him, and she touched the bottom of His robe. And Jake, when Jesus felt this sick woman touch his clothes, He turned and looked for her. He found her. He saw her. He saw a woman who needed kindness, and love. He spoke words to encourage her and He healed her."
We tell stories to our children to help them understand and believe. But sometimes He takes our own words, intended for them, and circles them inward to pierce our own heart. Sometimes as the story unfolds, the reminder is actually for us.
When the battle with sin is ugly or when my heart grows cold or when wounds are deep and healing seems impossible, I look to a Saviour who has let Himself be known to me in intricate, recorded detail: He was gentle; He was kind; He looked into the eyes of that woman and spoke to her with compassion and grace.
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Couch to 5K: week 6, take 1
Posted: 2013-05-01 10:00:06 UTC+10:00
There are three different workouts for this week. They are as follows:Workout 1: a brisk 5-minute walk, then 5 minutes of running, 3 minutes of walking, 8 minutes of running, 3 minutes of walking, 5 minutes of running.
Workout 2: a brisk 5-minute walk, then 10 minutes of running, 3 minutes of walking, 10 minutes of running.
Workout 3: a brisk 5-minute walk, then 25 minutes of running with no walking.
I only make it through the first day of week 6. Then my left knee packs it in and I have to take a break for a month or so. But Jane is still busy jogging, and I'm busy buying jogging clothes:
Jane: Am meant to do the big 25 min run tomorrow... Feeling scared!
Jean: You are so far ahead of me now! How are you finding it?
I bought a pile of jogging clothes from Target today. Sick of coming home from a jog and having to wash everything I have on! Well, I'll still have to wash it, but at least I won't have to delve into my not-that-huge wardrobe...
I had to prove to myself it was worth the cost. Getting to 20 minutes and enjoying it did that!
Jane: Oh yay for jogging clothes! I never thought I'd love the sight of bike pants so much - can't run in shorts - they just ride up the whole time. Most of my stuff is Target too - good range, good prices.
Are you running this weekend?
Jean: Yes, I will be running today or tomorrow, but I'm up to day 1 of the week you just finished. I was sick with a tummy bug that other week!
My problem is I need a pocket for my iPhone, so leggings and bike pants are mostly out. I went for something looser with pockets. I've been running in a pair of old, cream-coloured 3/4 pants with a tight waist (they need to be tight or they fall down!). Effective but kinda daggy. Don't feel comfortable about showing my legs in shorts. How vain am I?!
Jane: Yes, it's all about problem solving (e.g. phone) whilst considering what you're comfortable wearing in public! I invested in a running band that holds my iPhone and it's terrific - never need to worry about what my phone's doing and it means I can go for the over-the-knee style bike pants. It was $30 from Rebel and it's mostly made out of wetsuit material except for a clear plastic part for the front of the phone.
You caught me after just getting home from the last run of week 6 - 25 mins. I was scared it would be too hard, but it really wasn't. Might go back to bed now though!
A few weeks later I invest in a waist band for my iPhone and a new pair of running shoes.
After day 1 of week 6, my running comes to an abrupt (temporary) halt, and I learn:
- jogging clothes aren't essential, but they help - as does a spot to put your smartphone
- good jogging shoes, on the other hand, are essential. So are stretching exercises.
- you need to take care of your knees. You need to take notice when your knees are getting sore. More about that next week.
It's a slow journey back into jogging, but I don't want to give up yet.How did you find week 6 of Couch to 5K?
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online meanderings
Posted: 2013-04-30 11:27:24 UTC+10:00
The man I thought was dead - A beautiful, moving post from Philip Jensen.
Four lies about introverts - Best thing on the topic I've read. And uncannily like me.
3 ways the gospel changes marriage - A great little post.
3 lies pornography tells you, including this: confessing your struggle will cost too much.
A severe mercy - I was encouraged by the reminder that suffering displays God's glory.
9 signs of a workaholic pastor and 10 tips for getting the balance right with kids and food - Jenny at her sparkling best.
Top 300 online counselling resources - Anxiety, addictions, burnout, depression, eating disorders, sexual sin, etc... A great resource from David Murray.
You don’t find out He’s your refuge until you’ve had to flee to Him for refuge — until you become a refugee. Georgianne
Children will run from law and they’ll run from grace. The ones who run from law rarely come back. But the ones who run from grace always come back. Grace draws its own back home. Tullian Tchividjian
To see more links, click here (Facebook) or here (Twitter).
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yet another interview with moi
Posted: 2013-04-30 11:32:31 UTC+10:00
Because I blog, I occasionally get asked to do an interview. Here's one I did for a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend who is doing an assignment on media and Christianity and something-or-other (can't remember now!).
Some of this will be familiar to many of you, but others might enjoy finding out a bit more about my background and what I do from day to day. (It's at times like these that the narcissism of blogging comes to the fore.)
I've picked 11 questions.
1. Briefly describe how you became a Christian.
I was brought up in a Christian home and can’t remember a time I wasn’t a Christian – although I can remember “becoming” a Christian lots of times, until a lady on a beach mission explained to me that you only have to do it once!!
I went through a time of doubt in my late teens, and wrestled with questions like, “Is the Bible true? Is Jesus really who he said he was?”. One day, having established that the New Testament is trustworthy, I sat down and read the gospel of Mark cover-to-cover and realised that, yes, Jesus is everything he said he was – God, Lord, Saviour – and that I never want to be apart from him.
2. What does your average week look like?
I spend the majority of my time caring for our kids and running our home. We have a son with a chronic illness, so that takes up much of my time and energy at the moment. I cook, clean, wash clothes, drive the kids around, and so on...
One morning a week is spent doing student ministry at the university campus nearby; one afternoon and one morning, I try to spend time with mums from school; Thursday evenings we host a church Bible study in our home; Sunday afternoons I’m often in town doing women’s ministry at our church; then we have Sunday evening church and the school week starts again.
Writing - for my own blog and for The Briefing - fits into some of the gaps in my timetable, mostly on weekdays, in the mornings after the school run and in the early afternoon.
3. For how long has your life looked like this?
My oldest daughter is 14, so I’ve been a mum for a long time. Before that I did a PhD in church history and was the female staff worker in our university Christian group. During my years as a mum, I did more or less ministry outside the home depending on the ages and stages of my kids – at first I could do a little, but with 3 and then 4 kids I couldn’t do much at all!
I started writing when my youngest son was 1 or 2, when I started to have some extra time and energy on my hands. As the kids have grown, the time I’ve had for ministry outside the home has gradually increased.
4. What motivated you to start writing your blog? Was there a single significant influence?
I think I was just keen to get back into ministry outside the home after many years raising small children. Blogging was something I could do from home, while caring for my youngest son. I’ve always loved reading, reflecting, teaching, and even, to some extent, writing. Once I started, my passion for the last one surprised me!
5. What do you personally gain from blogging / writing / reading?
It brings me great joy. It gets me into the “zone”, that wonderful place where the words flow onto the screen. It gives me relaxation and a release from all the practical, everyday duties of running a home. I’m an introvert, so when I read and write, it’s time away from other people. I love this time when I can focus on one task rather than trying endlessly to multitask and cope with the demands of four very different children.
I love the sense of achievement that comes with blogging. I tend to be a task-oriented perfectionist, and there’s not many chances to finish a task when you run a home - the clothes need washing again, the kids need to be fed again in a few hours - so I love the way you can write something and then polish it until it says exactly what you want it to say.
I also love the process of reading - reflecting - writing, filling my mind with the Bible and with other people’s reflections until I get my head around an issue and have something to say about it, then expressing that as clearly as I can.
So blogging is a perfect fit for me and gives me great satisfaction and rest.
6. In what ways does your Christian faith help you in your life, or to deal with particular issues you are concerned about?
In what ways doesn’t it? Jesus is the answer to every longing, every quest for truth, every despair. Every issue I grapple with, I bring to the Bible, and wrestle with God’s word until I have some understanding of what he wants to say. Every personal struggle, every grief and anxiety, finds its answer in God, so I bring it to him and struggle with him in prayer and read his word and ask for his help until there’s some connect between his truth and the way I feel.
7. Was your family important in developing or stimulating your interest in what you do?
My parents are committed, active Christians who read the Bible with my brother and me regularly and taught us about God. My father was a maths lecturer who taught me to think clearly and logically. My mother was an English teacher who fed us books and more books, taught me to love language, and helped train me to write.
So yes, they had a huge impact in turning me into a blogger – although none of us knew it at the time. When I was a teenager, computers were the size of a photocopier, and we certainly hadn’t heard of the Internet or blogging! And I had no plans to “be a writer”. My love for writing surprised me quite late in life!
8. What were your early religious/spiritual experiences? How significant was this in forming your beliefs these days?
My parents never skirted around difficult issues, the kind that adults struggle to understand. So I never felt like there were “too-hard” issues that you couldn’t discuss and come to understand by reading God’s word. I haven’t strayed too far from what they taught me – they were reformed in their understanding of Christianity, and so am I. They taught me to be rigorous in my thinking, which helps me not to be sloppy when I write.
There was also an intense time as a teenager when I, as you might say, “fell in love with God”. That had a big impact later when I chose the topic for my PhD – “The Puritan experience of enjoyment of God”. Part of my motivation as I write is to help reformed evangelicals like me, who can be a little cerebral, to allow ourselves to “feel” as well as believe the truth; to let God’s amazing truth have its full impact on us, heart and mind.
9. How important do you think your work is in relation to the issue you are working on?
I am a small fish in a very big Internet pond. Not quite so big in Christian circles though! Quite a few people read what I write. But this doesn't make me important. Jesus is important, I’m not. And we tend to blow up our importance in our own minds, don’t we?
I went through a mini mid-life crisis when I wanted my name to be remembered beyond the grave. Now I’m just happy if, in God’s mercy, I’m able to encourage someone to persevere in the faith, build them up in God’s truth, help them grow into Christian maturity, and, most wonderfully, help someone come to Christ.
10. How important is the media (in general) or the type of media you use (e.g. blogger)?
Important in what way? Blogging is certainly wide-reaching – or, at least, it has the potential to be, I’m sure much of what bloggers write disappears into the void, never to be read by anyone outside their own small circle. But it has the power to reach into people’s everyday reading, into homes across the globe, into countries closed to the gospel. So yes, it has the potential to be very powerful.
11. Can the media change people? If so, how? Or how does it not change people?
People are changed – really changed, from the inside out – when God’s truth makes its way into their hearts and wins them away from their false gods and idols to trust in Jesus and live for him. The media can help do this in the way any words can do this: through God’s word (2 Timothy 3:16-17), as we speak the truth in love into each others’ lives (Eph 4:15).
When I write, I think of the reader on the other end of what I write. I try to love them, to not write what is harsh or unloving, to write what will be helpful to them as they read. I try to write as well as I can because God’s truth makes its way more easily into people’s hearts if it’s clothed in well-crafted language. If any of this changes people, it will be because God, in his grace, has used his Word, through my words, to change their hearts.
So no, on its own the media can’t change people. But yes, it can change people, because God can work through it, as one person speaks his truth to another person. It can happen when non-Christians write true words about the world, or people, or beauty, or horror, or sin. It can happen when Christians write true words about the gospel, or life, or sorrow, or creation. It only changes people by God’s grace.
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