Jonathan Ryan's Blog, page 4

Things Keeping Us Going: Going to a Wedding Edition

  Last week I told you about how low I had been, and how a long drive and a visit with an old friend gave the Holy Spirit an opportunity to bless my socks off. I basked in the glow of that anointing all week long. My increasingly pessimistic soul is more than pleasantly surprised […]

Dark Devotional: Mind Your Own Distractions

If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell (Mark 9:47).   My godmother sighed with sorrow as she told me why her husband had recently been asked to stop acting […]

Things Keeping Us Going: Having a Most Unexpected Encounter with the Holy Spirit Edition

  In Need of Some Hope In what seems to be an ongoing season of trauma and tragedy (for example, I had FIVE funerals in the past eight days), signs of hope may seem hard to come by. What could be more hopeful than deciding to start a life of commitment together? One of my […]

Dark Devotional: Playing Craps with Jesus

  “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” Taking a child, he placed it in their midst, and putting his arms around it, he said to them, “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives […]

Things Keeping Us Going: Getting Some Perspective Back Edition

  Sometimes you get overwhelmed. The burden of your responsibilities feels too heavy. It seems like everyone is demanding something of you. There is so much to do, and you don’t have enough time to do it. Your ears begin to ring. You get a headache, an upset stomach, maybe your bad back acts up. […]

Dark Devotional: Get Thee Behind Me, Lord

I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living (Ps. 116:9).   One night, I dreamed that I was sitting on the beach, people-watching. Children were digging in the sand, some building sandcastles and some burying each other. Adults stretched out on towels, some watching children and others working on their tans. […]

Things Keeping Us Going: Happy New Year Edition

Those of you who have known me a while know that as a career educator who follows an academic calendar, I consider Labor Day the REAL start of the New Year. That this Labor Day falls upon the same day as the start of Rosh Hoshannah, the Jewish New Year, is serendipitous, I think. Many […]

Dark Devotional: Silence, the Love Language of God

  “Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared; then will the lame leap like a stag, then the tongue of the mute will sing.”   “The Lord gives sight to the blind; the Lord raises up those who were bowed down.”   The miracles mentioned in […]

Things Keeping Us Going: Standing on the Ledge of Mt. Whelm Edition

There is so much going on that I am overwhelmed. It seems I keep noting the horrors happening around the world—Afghanistan, Covid-19, wildfires… Last week I added hurricanes to the list of things upsetting us all. Henri took a sharp left west, and most of us got off easy with just a lot of rain. […]

Dark Devotional: Why Fundamentalists Fear Empathy

This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts (Mark 7:6–7).   I had such great plans for this week’s Dark Devotional. Last Thursday, I looked at the upcoming readings well ahead of time, found a verse I decided […]