As someone who is still praying for a clear diagnosis after a year of dealing with a grueling, painful whatever-this-is, I’m devouring everything and anything that will give me hope and strength. I’m keen to read about Ray’s journey. They say peace comes with acceptance, here’s hoping Ray has good advice on how to swallow that bitter pill.
Very intriguing. I'm astonished but also somehow not surprised that writing a sales pitch to yourself would work, given that you know what is going on.
Well done, Joel. Thanks for the inspiring review. I'm a newbie, but I can't help responding.
So many threads are woven together in our need for greater faith as we process the hands we are dealt.
Sometimes greater faith is taking bold action.
Sometimes greater faith is striving in prayer with all the confidence we can muster.
And sometimes greater faith is surrendering to a new confidence -- that God's plan is higher and better than ours whether we understand it in the moment or not. That seems to be St. Paul's response, and he counterintuitively gloried in it rather than continuing to demand his initial request. Thank God for Paul's wisdom!
I hope I will never discourage anyone from either of the first two threads, but I also pray for wisdom to discern which thread God intends for my unique situation at this present time (which is not static forever).
I pray for my will, but I always beg God to trump it.
There’s huge spiritual import for this as well. How do we get ourselves to do the things--spiritual disciplines, cultivating virtue--we don’t want to do? We have to tell ourselves a compelling story. The Church provides us with it: the Gospel, the Saints and hagiography, iconography, and all the rest. “Read This or Die”, indeed!
People often ask me for advice from the Bible, and when I'm struggling with something personally challenging or impossible, I've found true what Ray found true. Talking to yourself as if you were talking to someone else-- whether through writing or just through objective thinking-- can bring light on the obvious path to take. I remember Michael Hyatt's challenge in the Best Year Ever to ask yourself, "What's at stake if I don't change?" Imagining yourself at the end of your life where you WANT to be can provide the emotional oomph to take the first step down the path to get there.
As someone who is still praying for a clear diagnosis after a year of dealing with a grueling, painful whatever-this-is, I’m devouring everything and anything that will give me hope and strength. I’m keen to read about Ray’s journey. They say peace comes with acceptance, here’s hoping Ray has good advice on how to swallow that bitter pill.
Thanks for the inspiring review! I can't wait to read the book myself.
Very intriguing. I'm astonished but also somehow not surprised that writing a sales pitch to yourself would work, given that you know what is going on.
Well done, Joel. Thanks for the inspiring review. I'm a newbie, but I can't help responding.
So many threads are woven together in our need for greater faith as we process the hands we are dealt.
Sometimes greater faith is taking bold action.
Sometimes greater faith is striving in prayer with all the confidence we can muster.
And sometimes greater faith is surrendering to a new confidence -- that God's plan is higher and better than ours whether we understand it in the moment or not. That seems to be St. Paul's response, and he counterintuitively gloried in it rather than continuing to demand his initial request. Thank God for Paul's wisdom!
I hope I will never discourage anyone from either of the first two threads, but I also pray for wisdom to discern which thread God intends for my unique situation at this present time (which is not static forever).
I pray for my will, but I always beg God to trump it.
There’s huge spiritual import for this as well. How do we get ourselves to do the things--spiritual disciplines, cultivating virtue--we don’t want to do? We have to tell ourselves a compelling story. The Church provides us with it: the Gospel, the Saints and hagiography, iconography, and all the rest. “Read This or Die”, indeed!
People often ask me for advice from the Bible, and when I'm struggling with something personally challenging or impossible, I've found true what Ray found true. Talking to yourself as if you were talking to someone else-- whether through writing or just through objective thinking-- can bring light on the obvious path to take. I remember Michael Hyatt's challenge in the Best Year Ever to ask yourself, "What's at stake if I don't change?" Imagining yourself at the end of your life where you WANT to be can provide the emotional oomph to take the first step down the path to get there.