The Chronicles of Janie

I have observed a rather worrying trend among Christians - specifically, Christians my age. I have noticed a sad lack of passion. Or perhaps I should say, a great abundance of unfocused passion. There are a huge number of young people who are crazy about following Jesus. They're Bible readers, worshipers, active in the church. But what happens if I bring up the subject of calling, of finding your own, unique place in the Body of Christ? If I ask questions like, 'what, specifically, are you passionate about?' or 'what are your spiritual gifts?' I frequently get a bunch of blank stares and confused answers. 'Cause that's not the sort of thing most people talk about. I think it's time to change that. We need to realize how important this stuff is. We seem to live in a culture of specialist churches. My church is focused on community evangelism, while your church is really excited about discipleship, and the church down the road is all about...

I am imperfect. I will let you down. I won't always be here when you need me. I won't always say the right things at the right times. If you look closely at my life, you will see anger. You will see fear. You will see selfishness, pride, greed, insecurity. You will see failure. You will see me 'ruin my witness' countless times. Please don't put me on a pedestal, because I'll surely tumble off and break. In fact, I'm already broken. My humanity is scored with a thousand cracks and scars and gouges. It's ugly, and my natural desire is to hide my imperfections, to deny their existence. But how can I hide something so hideous? How can I deny something so obvious? The hard truth is, I can't. So I've stopped trying. My 'righteousness', my 'perfection', will never be enough, so I'm simply allowing myself to be covered by the redeeming grace of God. And each day, step-by-step, God's helping me ...

Am I truly qualified to write this post? My blog has what, 11 followers? I get a comment about once every other blue moon, and I think it's safe to say that my little blog is hardly at the top of any popularity list. So no, probably not the most qualified. However, I do read a lot of blogs, and I do write a lot of blogs, and I have made {and hopefully learned from} a great many blogging mistakes...and that's got to be worth something, right? In a spirit of humility, I'll share a few hard-learned tidbits of advice with whomever decides to read this. No worries, I won't take much of your time. Assess your reasons for blogging. I blog for enjoyment, and because blogging helps me relax and process my thoughts. Journaling would do the same thing, but my writing gets sloppy when I journal. The knowledge that somebody, somewhere might read my blog forces me to keep polishing my writing and correcting bad habits. I don't blog because I'm insecure and I n...

God does a lot of big and exciting things in my life. He also does a lot of little things. In all honesty, it's the little things that usually make the biggest impact on me. Small, silent moments of spiritual revelation. Short yet meaningful conversations with other people. The bigger purpose manifested in the little plans and details of my very simple life. It's easy to expect to see God working in the big things. Such a big God would naturally care about the big decisions and momentous occasions in my life. But for the Creator of the universe to take an interest in the tiny details, to infuse the little things with power and meaning... that fills me with an awe and gratitude which can hardly be expressed. So here I sit. I'm sipping at a mug of coffee and reflecting back over the events of last week. I'm feeling again that familiar pulse of wonder as I remember how God showed His power in so many, many little things. ___________________________________...