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Adding to the Beauty (5)

In his book "This Beautiful Mess" Rick McKinley poses some challenging questions, here are some more of them:

 

• Who do you know who live in conditions that cause them to suffer?  What creative ways can you come up with to suffer redemptively with them?

• If you don’t know people who suffer, think of ways you and your friends might get to know them.

• What places could you go or what circumstances could you be in to listen, give comfort and proclaim the love of the King to those who are suffering?

• Who do you pray for on a regular basis that might also need you to know them better and care for them in their suffering?

• What can you do to educate yourself on situations around the world that are causing suffering?

• In what ways have you shrunk back from proclaiming the Kingdom and the King because you did not want to suffer?

• How do the stories of Christ followers in other parts of the world inspire you to be courageous about your faith in Jesus?

Adding to the Beauty (4)

In his book "This Beautiful Mess" Rick McKinley poses some challenging questions, here are some more of them:

• What if you and your friends started dreaming of ways to redistribute wealth in your community? 

• What could you save if you started sharing and what would you do with the money?

• Who do you know in your community that needs to be loved with your cash?

• When you look at the way you give, share and care, what kingdom does your cheque book proclaim?

Go on, I dare you to begin answering them, and maybe the beauty God had mind for us all will begin to be restored that much quicker!

In his book "This Beautiful Mess" Rick McKinley poses some challenging questions, here are some more of them:

Adding to the Beauty (3)

In his book "This Beautiful Mess" Rick McKinley poses some challenging questions, here are some more of them:

• How could you and your friends practice the presence of the Kingdom in creation in your community?

• Are there places that need care or cleaning up?  Where are they?

• In what natural environments near you could you and others gather to encounter the King of Creation and His Word?

• If you started dreaming and dared to risk…what plan could you imagine and implement to restore, redeem and reclaim the sacred space in your community? (Sky’s the limit, literally.)

Go on, I dare you to begin answering them, and maybe the beauty God had mind for us all will begin to be restored that much quicker!

In his book "This Beautiful Mess" Rick McKinley poses some challenging questions, here are some more of them:

Go on, I dare you to begin answering them, and maybe the beauty God had mind for us all will begin to be restored that much quicker!

Adding to the Beauty (2)

In his book "This Beautiful Mess" Rick McKinley poses some challenging questions, here are some more of them:

• What qualities best describe some of the kids you know?

• What kinds of attitudes or values will you need to lay aside before you can learn from a child?

• How could you create an intentional connection with a child or children so you can learn with them?

• Where can you give your time in your community that could allow that kind of connection to happen? (e.g., church classes, Boys and Girls Clubs, or school programs.)

• How could the kingdom break into your community where kids are in the most need?

Go on, I dare you to begin answering them, and maybe the beauty God had mind for us all will begin to be restored that much quicker!

In his book "This Beautiful Mess" Rick McKinley poses some challenging questions, here are some more of them:

What qualities best describe some of the kids you know?

What kinds of attitudes or values will you need to lay aside before you can learn from a child?

How could you create an intentional connection with a child or children so you can learn with them?

Where can you give your time in your community that could allow that kind of connection to happen? (e.g., church classes, Boys and Girls Clubs, or school programs.)

How could the kingdom break into your community where kids are in the most need?

Go on, I dare you to begin answering them, and maybe the beauty God had mind for us all will begin to be restored that much quicker!

Adding to the Beauty (1)

Rick McKinley in his book "This Beautiful Mess" leaves the reader (me) with some questions, quite literally, and I wanted to post those questions here so maybe they can stir in you also:

• What would you say are the top three places of need in your community?
• What do you imagine the Kingdom might look like if it broke in there?
• What are some creative, simple ways that you, your family and your friends could represent the Kingdom in those areas?
• What keeps you and those you know from being signposts of heaven in your community?  How could you remove these obstacles?

Go on, I dare you to begin answering them, and maybe the beauty God had mind for us all will begin to be restored that much quicker!

A story of healing, slow and gradual

Part of an email I'm about to share was written to me by a friend the other day who has struggled for years with poor mental health, life turning out terribly and some huge emotional (and physical) blows along the way that meant when I first met this friend they seemed to be broken beyond repair. What I didn't realise at the time was that god would use our friendship to heal my friend.

There were times when healing seemed not unlikely but near impossible and so very distant. At other times there were glimpses of hope, but it was always apparent that I could not heal my friend. It was only God who could do that. Then last week I received this email:

Do you remember talking with me about healing and you were saying about God's restoration in a person. I was thinking yesterday I don't remember the last time I thought about ending it all, not wanting to be alive and just wanting to kill myself so its all over.  It used to be a daily thing Ralph, you know that from many of our conversations, and I had to consciously put it out of my mind.  How funny hey, that it doesn't even rate a mention in the daily now! That's healing isn't it. That's God restoring. It wasn't instantaneous like some people expect but it is happening daily.  The other thing is I am starting to feel joy and happiness about some stuff.  little things.  Like I actually can say I like doing this or that it makes me happy to do this or that.  It's like my feelings are coming back and its not just sadness all the time.

The limitations of not knowing my friends entire story is that you don't realise the amount of conversations that addressed this issue of ending it all, you don't know the absolute misery and depression my friend sat through, the sleepless nights they endured in tears, hoping a praying for the morning to come with something new. But all through it God was there healing, restoring and making new. Be encouraged!