St. John of the Cross, a Carmelite priest from Spain, coined the phrase the “dark night of the soul”.  It is a poignant metaphor used to describe a phase in a person’s spiritual life that is marked by a sense of loneliness and desolation.   St. John’s stories tell of the soul’s journey from a bodily home to its union with God.  In this story, St. John depicts this journey taking place at night, the darkness representing the trials and struggles as a person matures deeply in Christ.  It is the process whereby all the things we had relied upon to give us meaning and satisfaction apart from God begin to lose their ability to do so, and at the same time God begins the work of becoming the source of our meaning, identity and satisfaction.  Read the rest of this entry »

Rejoining the conversation from last week, the guys explore what discipleship and spiritual formation look like, and wonder why Christians seem so incapable of affording each other grace, and what that says about us.

Podcast: Download (Duration: 26:14 — 12.0MB)

This week Mark and Mike begin delving into the unnerving question about our methods of discipleship, and what we are really producing—or reproducing—while simultaneously addressing the issues that arise when our doctrines begin colliding into our relationship with God.

Podcast: Download (Duration: 24:19 — 11.1MB)

This is a poem from a dear friend,  Andre’ Lefebvre.  Andre’ is a prophetic musician and artist who loves to share the heart of God through his work.  This poem expresses his heart-break over the hi-jacking of the Kingdom by the power brokers of the world who seek to fortify their own agenda in the name of God.

I don’t belong in your…

left                                                                                                                  right
center

center left center right

extreme left  <——————————> extreme right
liberal          moderate Read the rest of this entry »

News reports in Canada have been surfacing lately about people jumping the H1N1 vaccination queue. (Note: for you Americans, that means they are cutting to the front of the line). In particular, a professional hockey team in Alberta and their families received the vaccine in private, while sundry at-risk people were turned away at public clinics after waiting for hours in line. The ensuing public maelstrom has already resulted in the loss of one government worker’s job.

I find this fascinating for a whole host of reasons, not the least of which is how unfounded our shock and outrage seem. In a culture that has elevated celebrity to a cult of worship, and made it clear that we value our celebrities above ourselves (the everyday people who make the real world go round), is it really shocking that special treatment is doled out to them? Do we really have grounds to cry foul, when we are getting exactly what we clamor for?

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