Helping People Find a Better Path
As I write this, I’ve just returned from the east coast, in what proved to be an intense but fruitful time. So many people I met on this trip were in the throes of severe crisis, looking for a way to navigate their need with a loving Father alongside. Some had recently lost children to tragic accidents, one was about to lose her child to a congenital medical condition. Others were battling guilt from past religious experiences, or loneliness after no longer feeling connected to the congregations they used to attend.
No, I don’t try to fix all of that in a few hours or a few days, I simply look for a way to walk alongside people at that point in their journey and encourage them down the better road. If grief is isolating them or turning a couple against the other, I look for that path where grief promotes healing and encourage them to go that way way. If they are trying to earn their healing with one more prayer, or pretending to have “faith”, I help them relax and entrust all that to Jesus’ love for them rather than their own effort.
In every uncomfortable situation we stand at a crossroads. One path leads to greater freedom and life, the other to greater pain and destruction. Sometimes people can’t see the path to life and that’s where we can help point it out to them in simple encouragements. It isn’t always easy to see, but it leans toward trusting God to do in us what we could never do for ourselves.
I just put up a new blog today about handling the truth with love, which is part of my continuing series on The Phenomenon of the Dones. That dovetails with this encouragement quite well. If you haven’t seen it, you can find it here.
Updates
Come check out the changes at TheGodJourney.com. Now that The Shack movie is all but completed, Brad is back at co-host and we have re-designed the website for easier navigation and an updated look. For the last issue we rolled out a new website for Lifestream.org. This month we have just completed a re-design of The God Journey.com d our new website this year, come take a look. Everything I’m doing is easily accessed from the front page.
Join Brad and I in Israel for TheGodJourney Tour. Because the release of The Shack movie conflicted with our Israel dates, we had to move them to earlier in they year. We will now be headed to Israel January 25 through February 4, 2017. The pre-trip to Petra has moved to January 22-25. If you’re interested in joining us you can get all the details here. For those interested in the release date of the movie, it is now March 3, 2017.
The movie of So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore, called Out of the Game, is moving along nicely and stirring up some interest even among Christian filmmakers. We are getting ready to raise the needed capital to go into production. If you’d like to help with this project, either by being an investor in the movie, or through contributions to Lifestream, you will get your chance shortly. Keep an eye on Lifestream.org for details. (If you’d like to subscriber to the blog, you will receive notifications by email whenever we post news there.
Torrential rains this spring have given us another setback in Kenya with a break out of Typhoid and malaria. Medical teams are in that region now to offer vaccinations and medial attention. If you’d like to help us with this need, you can get more information here.
The on-line book discussion of Wayne’s Finding Church continues in our new forum. Come join us if you’d like to discover how to embrace the church that Jesus is building in your own corner of the world.
For the readers out there I’ve recommended eight good books this spring that I think many of you would enjoy. If you’re looking for some summer reading, scroll back a couple of months through the blog. You’ll find books on God’s mystery, discussing sexuality with your daughter, on death and tragedy, and even a book on marriage by a family court judge.
Upcoming Travel: I’ll be in Alberta Canada from June 3-13, and then on it looks like I’ll be in Nashville and Bowling Green, KY on July 7-12, but that isn’t final yet. Get all the details on Wayne’s Travel Schedule. If you’d like to know when Wayne is visiting near you be sure and sign up for our mailing list and include your location so we can send you a notice.
In Case You Missed it…
- Here are the best 23 minutes I have on my Hope the church Jesus is building. These were my opening comments to a gathering near London. You can listen here
- When God doesn’t seem to move as fast as you want, learn about his Slow and Glorious Working.
- At TheGodJourney.com we’ve been talking a bit about sexuality and salvation, but not together! Let’s Talk Sex and Who Doesn’t Need a Friend? Also, find out just what’s broken about evangelical theology in How Contrarian Are We?
To get all the latest information as it happens, you can subscribe to the blogs at Lifestream or The God Journey and receive notification in your email whenever we post something new.
