trust^(10/8)

A sense of belonging

Your sense of belonging within a community is affected by the interplay between identity, perception, and reciprocity. Belonging, at least as an emotional experience, is never static. You move through networks of communities on a daily basis, with each community supporting a range of belonging that fluctuates based on the three factors I’ve listed and likely more. Here I’ll explore how these factors influence one’s sense of belonging in a single community and the consequences thereof.…

Steps to interactive gratitude

Step 1) Gratitude from me to God Take a moment right now and prayerfully ask the Spirit to help you remember a moment of gratitude. This memory can be anything that comes to your mind. It can be something simple that happened during the day or a theme you have encountered many times. When something comes to mind, take time to write down what you are thankful for in a conversational manner with God.…

When we do not expect god to listen we treat him as though he is an idol

When we do not expect God to listen to us, we are inadvertently treating the Living God as though He was an idol made by our human hands.

Without interaction we become hardened or indifferent

Without interaction, many of us become hardened or indifferent to God altogether. After all, God seems indifferent to our suffering or incompetent or even cruel.

Conversation about the Bible

What follows is a thread copied from a lovely Mastodon conversation across the past two days between my account @acbilson, @corbden, and @Shobeck). Visit the start of the thread here to read in full. @acbilson One rejection of the #bible I’ve witnessed is that it contains horrendous evil, even evil in which God’s actions get enmeshed. Case in point: Abraham’s nephew, Lot, offers his virgin daughters to be gang raped by his neighbors to protect his male guests.…

What I must say

There’s a fear which keeps surfacing in my psyche. It’s the fear that I will be taken away from my children by a society increasingly free to exercise violence towards nonconformity. This fear arises most often when I read articles about the narrow edge our society balances upon with the upcoming presidential election. On a political level, I do not care whether one votes for a Republican or a Democratic candidate.…

How to pray for my family

It’s my sense that many Christians in the United States are confused about our social location. We believe that we’re living in Israel. As Israel’s prophets confronted the kings of Judah with a call for Torah living, so we are convinced that the American Church’s role is to call for a national return to Torah. We’re mistaken. We do not live in Israel, we live in Babylon. We are not Isaiah, we are Esther.…

Evil seems fair and feels foul

You have frightened me several times tonight, but never in the way that servants of the Enemy would, or so I imagine. I think of of his spies would–well, seem fairer and feel fouler, if you understand. (Frodo speaking with Strider about trusting him, though they’ve only just met.)

The now and not yet

Life in the now-and-not-yet-kingdom can be an emotional teeter-totter between the “now” and the “not yet.” When I review world history from the past 2,000 years, there’s little evidence for a triumphalist view of the Kingdom’s spread throughout the earth. Cycles of violence and oppression continue without abatement from the days of Noah to the hour of Ukraine’s invasion. The United State’s self-image of type of Promised Land is unmistakably stained with the blood of Native Americans and Africans alike.…

The sun's special help did not come

It occurred to me this was the ideal time for the Sun to send his special help, and whenever his pattern in the bedroom altered suddenly, or when he burst our in the sky following an overcast spell, I’d watch with particular keenness. But though he continued unfailingly to send his normal nourishment, his special help didn’t come. Klara the AF wonders that the Sun, her source of life, has not brought healing to her sick friend Josie when her health begins to fail.…

The way of trust is a movement into ambiguity

The way of trust is a movement into obscurity, into the undefined, into ambiguity, not into some predetermined, clearly delineated plan for the future. The next step discloses itself only out of a discernment of God acting in the desert of the present moment.

Lack of trust is a wound as grievous as whatever caused it

Creative scientists and saints expect revelation and do not fear it. Neither do children. But as we grow up and we are hurt, we learn not to trust, and that lack of trust is a wound as grievous as whatever caused it.

Learning to trust authority again

I was once honest and vulnerable at work. But at a company I’d rather forget, I was hated for my vulnerability, which is my strength, and my honesty was shaped into a dagger and plunged into my exposed heart. Will I ever be safe to entrust myself to anyone with authority over my livelihood? Or am I consigned to live forever behind a partial mask among those who have power to hurt me?…

Foster trust with both performance and vulnerability

Both cognitive and affective trust are required to make business relationships thrive. “What events led you to trust [your colleagues and friends]?” writes Meyer (pg. 167). For an American, the answer depends on the person. Friendships in the United States are established in affective trust, built slowly over shared interests as each party lets their guard down and shares their true feelings, negative or positive. Business relationships; however, are another story.…

Employees need communication, growth, recognition and trust

What makes employees feel engaged at work? Answers range from the complex to the simple, but Kruze believes engagement can be distilled into four categories: Communication, Growth, Recognition, and Trust ((Kruse, pg. 23)). Employees typically favor one category over the other three, although some have the advantage to equally value two or more. The category an employee favors is the most important factor to the employee’s feeling of engagement in the workplace and, while all four should be present, this factor makes the greatest difference.…

Ease suspicion with direct contact

Suspicion is a barrier to cross-cultural entrepreneurship. Many will not trust an outside venture until they hear reports from others in their own culture that it holds value for them. Even when some benefit from the business venture, interest will often build slowly. The entrepreneur, knowing acceptance of his business venture will take time, may choose to market his business to the whole population in hope that for some his business venture may be recognized as valuable.…

Expect divine strength and miracles

Christians in business may expect divine strength and miracles to accompany their work. For many Christians there is a level of expectation that God’s presence and power will accompany their church services, evangelistic crusades, or prayer gatherings. Stories of God’s activity often begin with the words, “At church last Sunday,” or “at last week’s conference.” But when Monday comes, the average Christian appears to leave their God at home. When preachers address this disconnect between action and belief, they often exhort Christians to be a light in the darkness by adhering to a standard of moral perfection.…

Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules—that the LORD your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, that you may fear the LORD your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long.…