Mental Health Meets Faith
Last week I finished reading the book The Lost Boy: A Foster Child’s Search for the Love of a Family. The book is one of several written by David Pelzer, chronicling his own story of abuse, along with his search for acceptance and belonging. The book focuses on the period of his life that David spent bouncing from foster home to foster home after being rescued from his destructive home life. Throughout the book, we […]
Recently, I read the book Jesus Manifesto written by Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola. Check it out here! The back cover describes the book as a “prophetic call to restore the supremacy and sovereignty of Christ in a world- and a church- that has lost sight of Him.” The book talks about the problem of knowing alot about Christ, without really knowing Christ. It talks about the problem of striving in our own strength to […]
For the past 9 months or so, I have been working as a case manager in the city of New Haven. My official title is “Employment Specialist,” my job is to work with individuals on welfare to help them to find work and to gain independence and self-suffiency. My job is often demanding and at times rewarding. I love to hear people’s stories. More than anything I want to give people a sense of hope […]
Recently, I watched the movie Taken. For those unfamiliar with the movie, Liam Neeson stars in this suspense-filled thriller depicting the story of a father whose daughter has been taken captive to sex trafficking overseas and his quest to win her back. Around the same time I watched this movie, I was also preparing a message for our youth concerning “sin and it’s wages.” The text that I used and studied for this message was […]
Tomorrow begins the adventure of 2016. 2015 seems like a blur. Just another reminder of how fast time really moves forward, whether we are ready for it or not. Time just keeps on ticking. I feel very different than I did on New Years Eve 2014. Last year, I knew big changes were ahead. Although the year did present some surprises, I was able to anticipate much of what was coming, which allowed me to […]
This morning I had planned to write about gratitude and thanksgiving. I had planned to write that even in the midst of awful circumstances there is always hope. There is always something to be thankful for. This has been a theme in my life, always looking for the silver lining. Like everyone else, I am horrified and deeply saddened by the events that have taken place in Paris. The most recent report I read indicates […]
As an adult, you start to realize some things. You start to realize what a tremendous impact your childhood has on your life. The way you think, the things you do, your personality, it was all being formed during the youngest stages of your life. This is an idea that has really stood out to me over the past week or so. I spent most of my childhood living in the same house in a […]
Recently, I had the pleasure of taking a few days off from work to visit some friends of mine that live in Texas. It was my first time on an airplane in what seems like a long while. Every time I fly, I love to look out the window of the plane. From the air, all the cities, the houses, the roads appear to be so tidy. Everything has it’s proper place. It reminds me […]
Have you ever had the experience of sharing something about yourself with someone who knew every thing you were going to say before you said it? Have you ever been approached by someone who you barely knew who told you a detail of your life that they couldn’t have known unless they heard it from someone else? Do you ever get the sense that others are paying attention to your life far more than they […]
At the beginning of this summer, I became part of a church plant. Already, the process has been an amazing one. I can feel the growing pains of transition, as God is calling each of us to step out in faith and to go to deeper levels with Him. My favorite part of this whole process is that it enables us to dream. As a team, we get to consider what we want our church […]