struggle
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Manna
In this wilderness,wild with uncertainty and crusty, hard-baked wisdom,we gather bread at dawn,only enough to get us through another long, roasting day,another clay-oven of challenges,another set of imposed tasksimportant to Someone,but mystery to us. Text and image © 2013 by Dirk deVries.… Continue reading
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Abraham and Isaac
The most powerful storiesare the ones from which we instinctively recoil.Take, for example,Abraham's call to sacrifice his son, Isaac–this is meant to be a doorway to the sacred? It's a doorway to an empty elevator shaft. Who is God?What is… Continue reading
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Troubled Hearts
I have days of frustration,wondering how I'll continue,close to giving up. And I'll lay in bedand imagine God in the room,drawing close,putting a stilling hand to my forehead,sayng something needed, like,"I know it's rough,"or "I'm here with you,"or "Open your heart–just a… Continue reading
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Jacob
What if Jacob,sleeping that night in the desert,running in desperation from his deceit and dishonor,had slept with a pistolstashed beneath his stony pillow? What if,suddenly attacked by the angel(or God or whatever–it's left deliciously vague),Jacob had pulled out his gunand… Continue reading
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Job II
And what would you have said?"Life sucks"?"There is no answer"?"God is capricious and uncaring"?"God? What God?""Try meth instead"? I would have sat beside himand wept. Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. Continue reading
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Job I
So Job asked(quite reasonably),"What the hell?" And God answered(equally reasonably),"Who the hell are you to ask?" And in the impasseboth realizedthe equal needone of the other. So go ahead and ask,"What the hell?" And don't be surprisedwhen God responds,"I don't… Continue reading