#God

The Upside Down World ~ The Blog

May 28, 2015
5 min

Explaining God to a Child

A lot of Christians have a strong desire to ensure that their children follow them in the faith. And to that end, a great deal of energy is expended in teaching them what to believe. Which, to a certain extent is OK. Our faith is not endlessly malleable and there are core beliefs that have been carefully passed down through the millennia for a reason. Yet knowing what to believe about God is very different from actually knowing God. And ultimately, it is knowing God that make

Sep 24, 2014
1 min

No Strings Attached

I thought this was a sweet cartoon from The Naked Pastor. Pass It On! Tweet Email More Print Share on Tumblr WhatsApp #God #love #meme #religiousmeme

Jun 3, 2014
1 min

Sleep Tight Under the Stars

The heavens declare the glory of God; the sky displays his handiwork. Psalm19:1 See that? It’s a picture of a tiny patch of empty space taken by the Hubble Telescope. And all those things are galaxies. Galaxies! Not just one star, but bilions in each one. Can you imagine? I look at something like this and wonder,”what in the world is this all about?” What is God doing, creating so much? One galaxy would seem to be enough. Or 100 or 1000. But that’s tens of thousands of galaxi

May 19, 2014
1 min

Your Daily Cud

A random thought to ponder: We too often think that our wildest notions about God represent the outer limits rather than the jumping off point. “Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it entered into mind of man what God has planned.” Pass It On! Tweet Email More Print Share on Tumblr WhatsApp #God #life #thoughts

May 18, 2014
1 min

Weekend Wake Ups

Behind the scenes, every true artist is far more disciplined and deliberate than it appears from the outside looking in. (PS God is an artist, you know.) Pass It On! Tweet Email More Print Share on Tumblr WhatsApp #art #christianity #creation #artist #God

May 14, 2014
2 min

When Praise is a Sacrifice

Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. ~ Hebrews 13:15 Do you know that sometimes praise is a sacrifice? When there’s nothing left to praise but the air you are breathing and you praise God for air. When you’d just as soon not wake up for another day and you praise God for the bed you’re lying on. When there’s no comfort or relief so you praise God for revealing himself so you have s

May 13, 2014
4 min

In the End Times No One Listens to Their Pastor

Remember me writing about the church’s inability to deal with the reality of the world rather than clinging to their ideas about the world? Well, if you would like to see what this looks like in action, ask a pastor why people leave church and then ask 20 people who have left church about their experience. The overlap will be non-existent. Oh, I get where the church people are coming from. It’s easy enough to take “I never felt accepted” and hear “I’m unwilling to engage with

May 5, 2014
1 min

Your Daily Cud

A random thought to contemplate over your lunch break: Anyone in a serious relationship with God will at some point find it necessary to forgive Him. It may not be theologically correct, but it’s true. Pass It On! Tweet Email More Print Share on Tumblr WhatsApp #christianity #christianspirituality #spirituality #God #religion

Mar 27, 2014
4 min

The Hardest, Best Spiritual Practice I’ve Ever Tried

Learning how not to judge has been the most demanding, arduous and painful spiritual discipline I have ever undertaken. It’s also been the most fruitful. I could probably write books and books filled with stories and lessons I would never have encountered if I had not made a commitment to practicing this discipline. While most people probably don’t think of not judging as a spiritual discipline, this is exactly how I’ve practiced it. It’s something I do out of obedience and d

Mar 25, 2014
2 min

Playing With Our Lives?

Did you know that all animals play? I knew some did, but hadn’t realized how widespread play is in the animal kingdom: the existence of animal play is considered something of an intellectual scandal. It’s understudied, and those who do study it are seen as mildly eccentric. As with many vaguely threatening, speculative notions, difficult-to-satisfy criteria are introduced for proving animal play exists, and even when it is acknowledged, the research more often than not cannib

Nov 20, 2013
4 min

Loving People, Loving God

R. Trotter, The Upside Down World ~ A Book of Wisdom in Progress For a long time, I believed that loving others was an act of love towards God. A way of serving him and living out the love you had for him. If you really love God, then you would love other people as well. If out of obedience if nothing else. There is truth in that perspective. However, I’m coming to understand that the reality is much more profound. Notice that the scriptures say that if you do not love others

Nov 5, 2013
2 min

What God Told Me Yesterday

“I want you to know I never believed the things people said about you. Those people who said they could see better than you could what your faults are? I never saw what they thought they were seeing in you. All those times you were told that you are lazy or selfish or undisciplined or a stubborn know-it-all? I always thought the people saying those things were being incredibly unfair. “I know that when you took these accusations and misjudgments to heart, you were just trying

Oct 30, 2013
5 min

Reality is Reality

Especially when I was younger, I was prone to saying prayers that amounted to “God, please don’t let reality be reality.’ I would not prepare for a test and ask God to help me do well on it anyways. I would wake up late and ask God to somehow make the 5 minutes I had extend to the 15 minutes I needed. And if the bus could be running just the right amount late, that would be great. Or to let the $3 in my bank account somehow cover the $25 I needed for gas. Pretty please, pleas

Sep 29, 2013
6 min

Warning: God Can Be Ruthless

Some years ago my husband was driving through our small town’s business district early in the morning and happened to observe a hawk catch a rabbit. After nabbing the cute little bunny, the hawk alighted on a nearby light post and began ripping into the little thing’s soft belly. What struck my husband was that the rabbit was still alive and struggling when the hawk ripped into its flesh. Yet the hawk was completely unperturbed by the fact that its prey was still screaming. H

Sep 23, 2013
7 min

How the Dark Night of the Soul Is Like a Juice Cleanse

Recently one of my friends on facebook did a 10 day juice cleanse. Now, I’m always a bit sceptical about this whole concept of a cleanse because I want to believe that I can eat all the chemical food I want, in moderation and be just fine. Plus I’m really, really bad at fasting so it must be unnecessary and probably bad for you, right? But I know a lot of people swear by them. Anyways, while doing the cleanse my friend felt pretty crappy for a while. First she was achy and t

Jul 22, 2013
4 min

Excuse Me While I Get Naked With Y’all

One of the things I have learned is that your gut always tells the truth. It’s not always right, but it always tells you the truth about what you really, deep down believe. Which can be a useful thing to know. Often we know something, we intellectually assent to it, we try to live out of it and we fail continually. Because you can think your way to right belief, but knowing it deep in your gut is another thing. It’s really only when you know it deep in your gut that it become

Jun 11, 2013
4 min

Self Righteousness, Election and Healing

How’s this for the most pretentious opening line I’ve ever used for a blog post? So, I was talking with my therapist yesterday . . . . OK, maybe pretentious is too strong a word. But yes, really, I was talking with my therapist yesterday. Because when you’re going through so much and your support system is failing like a fat woman’s bra and you have a bunch of kids who might be adversely affected by watching their mother break into a million tiny shards, the responsible thing

May 6, 2013
4 min

Disbelieving Forgiveness

Sorry for the long silence. I’ve been dealing with some heavy stuff here. I think it’s getting better. Prayers are appreciated. Or if that’s not really your thing, cash is always an acceptable alternative. 😉 Today, I want to talk about what happens when we refuse to believe we are forgiven. Like everyone else, the people around me have sometimes treated me in ways that weren’t the best or even done outright awful things which I then needed to forgive. Fortunately for me, for

Mar 8, 2013
5 min

Do You Know How to Feel Loved?

Pretty regularly my three year old Olivia will tell me, “Michaela loves me.” Or Noah or Dad or whoever in the family she’s just been dealing with. Believe it or not, this doesn’t just happen when someone hands her a piece of candy. Often it’s just after being hugged or read a book or being talked with. Just simple things that seem to make her realize that she is cared for. As a mother, I don’t think I’ve ever heard more reassuring words come out of a child’s mouth than Olivia

Jun 11, 2008
1 min

Providence?

The problem I always have with just saying, “see? God looks out for us” is that if we give Him credit for odd events that go well, it begs the question of where He is when things don’t go well. I suppose He has reasons for each. I’m just glad that this morning He didn’t want us broken down on the side of the road. Pass It On! Tweet Email More Print Share on Tumblr WhatsApp #cars #God #life