by Carolyn Miller | Nov 1, 2023 | Spiritual Growth
Dear God, I’d like joy, complete joy please. —Me I can’t remember when our editor sent out the Redbud Post topics list for this year…but it must have been near this time last year. I remember skimming the topics and skipping over this month’s: Joy. This wasn’t...
by Bethany LaShell | Nov 1, 2023 | Spiritual Growth
My alarm blares every morning as I reach to slap the snooze button one more time and tell Alexa to just stop already. (Yes, I set multiple alarms.) I drag myself out of bed after an embarrassing number of snooze slaps and groan as Alexa recites the weather and my...
by Stephanie Reeves | Oct 1, 2023 | Spiritual Growth
Dear Reader, It’s ironic that I would say that I’m not very good at being contemplative, seeing as I’m a writer and the senior editor for a meditation app. (Insert eye-roll emoji here.) I don’t mind silence. Where the rest of my family likes to have music in their...
by Bethany LaShell | Oct 1, 2023 | Spiritual Growth
The idea of pondering, meditating, and contemplating runs counter-culturally to the five- and ten-minute devotionals making their way around social media and arriving in inboxes daily. There’s nothing inherently wrong with those types of readings or videos, especially...
by E.L. Sherene Joseph | Oct 1, 2023 | Spiritual Growth
In the life of a Christian, we often hear sermons on the spiritual disciplines of the rhythms we need to practice—prayer, worship, Scripture, mission, and community. But the process of contemplation is unique. It requires us to lay down our desperate need for a life...
by Stephanie Thompson | Oct 1, 2023 | Spiritual Growth
During the past two years, I have worked through a brain reset. Much like when a computer crashes and needs to reboot, so did my brain. After surviving a horrific car accident, I navigated through the complex paths of healing. I anticipated a bit of what that might...
by Nicole T. Walters | Oct 1, 2023 | Uncategorized
I have a good earthly father; one I still call “Daddy” though I am past 40. I grew up thinking of God as my good heavenly father. I’ve never doubted, even when suffering came, that God knew what was best for me. And yet, I struggled to see myself as his loved child...
by Kristin Vanderlip | Oct 1, 2023 | Spiritual Growth
The hurried whispers of leaves rustling in the wind. The beam of gentle morning sunlight cascading in through the window, shining a spotlight on the dance of otherwise invisible dust particles in the air. The white daisies blooming in the crack of the cement...
by Sarah Freymuth | Oct 1, 2023 | Spiritual Growth
Lord, my heart is not proud; my eyes are not haughty. I don’t concern myself with matters too great or awesome for me. But I have stilled and quieted myself… -Psalm 131:1-2 NIV When God wants our attention, he’ll be sure to get it. He wanted mine the other day. I...
by Margaret Lea (Margalea) Warner | Oct 1, 2023 | Spiritual Growth
There is spiritual treasure to be found in taking moments of holy pause, noticing and celebrating patterns of grace. There is a prayer form called the “Examen” which entails reflecting back at bedtime on the day’s moments, feelings, thoughts, and actions. You can ask...
by Stephanie Reeves | Sep 1, 2023 | Faith and Culture
There’s a movement among Gen Zers that puts forth the idea that one should only work if one wants to. They insist that the arts would thrive if more artistic people (who work because they have to in order to live) were supported instead by those who actually want to...
by April Yamasaki | Sep 1, 2023 | Faith and Culture
After working 25 years in pastoral ministry, I felt a new wind of the Spirit blowing in my life: Not to look for a new ministry assignment in another local church, but to invest more deeply in my writing and speaking beyond the local congregation. For years I’d...
by Sarah White | Sep 1, 2023 | Faith and Culture
My 4-year-old daughter and I sat together at the kitchen table coloring small washable animal figurines with markers. She had assigned me the cat and requested I decorate it with a rainbow sweater. Whenever she or I finished coloring an animal, she ran up to the...
by Tasha Jun | Sep 1, 2023 | Faith and Culture
I can’t help but think That the word ju-bi-lee Sounds a lot like ju-ju-be Remember sitting at a tea house in Seoul? We looked for jujube seeds Daechu at the bottom Of my cup like wrinkled treasure You were uncomfortable legs bent sideways while we sipped through the...