Author: Roger Edwards

Redemption: The Unexpected Consequence of Suffering

  “Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be. I have been bent and broken, but – I hope – into a better shape.” ~ Charles Dickens, Great Expectations Suffering has an unexpected consequence. It produces redemption. It teaches you to understand, as Dickens wrote, what “your heart used to be.” That is what redemption is – becoming more of what “your heart used to be.” Combine those sentences and you get: Suffering produces redemption. This is a… Continue reading Redemption: The Unexpected Consequence of Suffering

Jacob’s Ladder

The story of Jacob’s ladder is well known. There is even a song about it, an old spiritual: “We are climbing Jacob’s ladder…” But I’m thinking the song has it backwards – we aren’t climbing up Jacob’s ladder in order to live in heaven; God is coming down Jacob’s ladder. He is coming to live in us. So maybe we don’t know the story that well after all. Even Jacob didn’t understand the story. It changes everything; it turns the universe upside down. Look again at Genesis 28.10-21. 10 Jacob… Continue reading Jacob’s Ladder

Wonder and Longing

  People underestimate themselves.  And we do it on purpose. The New Testament talks about God living inside of us. This claims an enormity of capacity within the human being. According to the bold claim, Timelessness and Boundlessness can actually fit inside a person. I’ve always wondered at the idea. As a child, I asked my mother, “Jesus was a man, right?” “Yes,” she replied. “Well,” I said, “then how can a grown man fit inside a little boy’s heart?” She tried to explain it to me. Something about human… Continue reading Wonder and Longing

A Man’s Gotta Know His Limitations…

Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry If I heard this right on Youtube, Harry didn’t mean this as a compliment. But limitations are a compliment. They are a grace. If you want to be human, you have to know your limitations – but even more – you have to embrace them. You have to learn to love them. Your limitations are a gift from God. They make you what you are made to be. Let me explain –  if you were physically boundless – how could you be held by a… Continue reading A Man’s Gotta Know His Limitations…

Homesickness

  “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” – Augustine If I am made for God, then I am vastly deep. Perhaps bottomless. On the outside, I am finite: enclosed by skin, limited in reach. But on the inside, I am infinite: eternity set upon my heart. I feel the ache sometimes. But it makes me uneasy; I try to ignore it. I concentrate on the outside. I work to extend my reach; stretch my dollars, speed up my… Continue reading Homesickness

Equipping the Community

    The Barnabas Center believes that God uses struggle to lead people back to Him. Therefore, our goal has always been to join people in struggle in order to discover how God might use it for good. Yes, we hope to relieve pain – the searing grief, the shame of a failure or the wound of betrayal. Yes, we want people to experience healing and reconciliation. But we have always wanted more. We want struggle to bring us back to a fundamental truth about ourselves: that we are dependent… Continue reading Equipping the Community

How to Be Loved

  My 2014 goal is ‘Be Loved’. This year, I want to live under, in and through God’s love. I want to accept it, as a gift. I want to rest on its abundance. I don’t want to live another year pretending like I don’t need love. I know what that’s like. It has all the desperate stress of living a lie, since, of course, it is a lie. You say, “I’m fine,” even when you’re not. You hide joy, even when you feel it. Not too high; not too… Continue reading How to Be Loved

Be Loved

  “If God is love….what does that make me?” I’ve made my list of 2014 goals. Most of them are measurable. Like: Work out at least 3 times a week. Or before my counseling day begins – I will take 5 minutes (I use a timer) and be quiet, I will breathe in the grace of that moment. Those are good goals according to what the ‘goal experts’ recommend. They are specific (work out, create a practice prior to counseling) and they are measurable (3 times a week, 5 minutes).… Continue reading Be Loved

Prepare For Christmas – The Shepherds

The third angelic visitation occurred to shepherds who were minding their own business, which is to say that they were minding sheep. They weren’t preparing for Christmas; they were preparing for bed. At this odd point (in the middle of the night) and at this odd place (in the middle of a field) the “angel of the Lord appeared to them.” I might add that the angel appeared “to these odd characters,” for it seems odd that shepherds would be included. Shepherds, as you might imagine, were a crusty, mangy sort, often… Continue reading Prepare For Christmas – The Shepherds

Prepare for Christmas – Mary

“…God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee to virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph…” The first thing you notice about how Mary approached Christmas is that she wasn’t (approaching Christmas). It came to her. “God sent the angel…” and initiates the encounter. The heavenly message drastically upended the course of Mary’s expectation. She had no plans to be “Mary, mother of God”. She was going to be “Mrs. Joseph, wife of carpenter”. She was going to raise a family in a little (well-built) home in… Continue reading Prepare for Christmas – Mary