Category: Relationships

The mundane magic of ministry

Posted on by fabsharford

Last Wednesday I shared a quote about believing that there is relevance and significance even in the mundane tasks.

Timely.

What a week.

Some days, I just want ministry to feel different.

I want magic.  I want to feel possessed by the Spirit of God.  I want mountaintop moments. I want angels who will bust down jail cell walls.Screen Shot 2013-06-23 at 5.39.14 PM

I’ve experienced those moments.  They’ve been real and powerful.

But more and more I’m starting to see that much of deep discipleship rests its head in the mundane.

In my life, development has rarely felt romantic or inspiring.

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How to encourage others

Posted on by fabsharford

Yesterday I shared three books I’ve been reading this summer that have significantly challenged and grown me in my faith.

One of them was A Call to Spiritual Reformation by Carson.

So great guys.  So great.

It’s had me processing a lot about the way I encourage others.

I tend to pendulum swing between these two tendencies:  Screen Shot 2013-06-23 at 5.38.42 PM

(1) encouraging people in a way that makes much of them

The backslapping flatterer constantly compliments everyone.  Regardless of the quality of the work, this extrovert comes alongside and bellows “terrific job!” “Wonderful piece of work.” “Never seen flowers better arranged!” “I don’t know how the ushers would get by if it were not for your contribution.”

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Why no one needs to feel weird on father’s day

Posted on by fabsharford

Happy Father’s Day.

What a complicated story our God is writing.

He is writing it through your father and mine.  He is writing it through the perfect dads out there and the broken and absent men.

Esther seems the perfect book to read on Father’s Day.

It’s a story of twisted circumstances, turned so strangely for the deliverance of God’s people.  It’s confusing to me.  The King decrees the Jews be killed and instead of just changing the King’s mind, God engineers a crazy series of random events to rescue His people.  Why the complicated plot?  Why the intrigue and drama?

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Friends who fail

Posted on by fabsharford

Sometimes I do stupid things.

(I know, I know, shocking I’m sure.)

When I do stupid things I have to deal with all the panic and fear that people are going to reject me.  I’m confident that if I am annoying, people will not want to be around me.  I’ll leave a party or conversation and replay what I said, evaluating how many opportunities I had to sabotage friendships and relationships.

And then I’ll go to work: sending texts, making phone calls, doing what I can to fix it.

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Two things I’m praying for marriage/singleness

Posted on by fabsharford

Yesterday I processed why we should want marriage or singleness at all.

Today I thought I’d share some of the implications of those thoughts on my prayer life.  I spent some good time yesterday praying for:

(1) An undivided heart in singleness and an obsession to:

Display the spiritual nature of God’s family that grows from regeneration and faith, not procreation and sexScreen Shot 2013-05-20 at 6.41.55 PM

Father, I pray that you would help me not to waste this season of singleness.  Let me invest in those around me with as much vigor as mother invests in her children: with passion, prayer and love for those who are your lost sheep.

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