Archive for October, 2011

Community.  It’s a buzz word right now, especially among the 20- and 30-somethings. What does it mean in our walk with the Lord?  How can we truly live out the sort of community described to us in Acts?

Our society is too comfortable.

Not only that, our society thinks it should, by whatever means necessary, push us in all areas of our individual lives towards being comfortable.

The only problem is this: The other side of comfort is complacency. The side effects of a life of safety and fulfillment are an abandonment of our Kingdom purposes and an idolatrous relationship with having our needs met that is, in essence, cheating on God.

Two weeks ago, I attended the Apprentice Institute held in the booming metropolis of Wichita, Kansas. One of the keynote speakers is a dear friend of mine, Mindy Caliguire. Her presentation was entitled “Hounded by Heaven Living into Personal Transformation”. I got settled into my seat as Mindy began her presentation. She’s a gifted speaker and writer, and I was ready to hear whatever she had to say.

Over the years, we hear hundreds, then thousands of messages, talks or Bible studies. Of course we don’t remember them all. The ones that stick for me have usually been profoundly simple, and often involved a memorable metaphor.

It had been a rough night in the little cave I’d slept in.  The ground was bumpy and angled at a slope.  Last night the allure of sleeping in a rocky mountain cave seemed worth the inconvenience.  But, I didn’t anticipate the hours would be filled with sleepy visions of a lost bear stumbling upon my borrowed patch of earth.  I don’t think I’ll ever sleep in a cave again.

It was a Sunday morning and all around the world countless faithful sheep were stumbling into sanctuaries, with worn hope and the fresh wounds of the week’s chaos.  I thought of them as I knelt beside my little fire and brewed the morning coffee.

It is deeply important to us that we keep the fact that our journal is meant to be a conversation (hence the name, Conversations) in front of us at all times. We hope to prompt thought, encouragement and conversation with God, with others and with our editorial team. If nothing else, our past issue succeeded in doing just that! We heard from you, loudly and clearly, positively and negatively. We knew that we were taking a risk with the cover art for Issue 9.1: “Spirituality and the Body.” Before the issue was published, we prayed, consulted our editorial board and advisors and spent a long time in conversation ourselves.

Philip Yancey

In Conversation with Gary W. Moon

Philip Yancey is a popular author and speaker known for careful research, keen insight and raw honesty. Not long ago he was driving on a deserted road in New Mexico one Sunday morning when his Ford Explorer hit a patch of black ice. Yancey wrestled with the steering wheel, but his SUV went over an embankment, shattering glass, plastic, metal and bones.

He was rushed to a hospital where, after being strapped to a gurney for seven hours, a doctor broke the bad news: “Your neck is broken and a bone fragment may have nicked a major artery.” Then the doctor said, “This is a life-threatening situation. Here’s a phone. You may want to contact your loved ones and tell them goodbye.”

On the darkening, rainy night of April 29, 2011, as people huddled in basements and closets, a powerful, churning EF-4 tornado, with 175-mile-per-hour winds bore down on the small northwestern Georgia town of Ringgold. At about 8:30 p.m., it angrily smashed the McDonald’s and BP service center, flattened a three-story Super 8 motel, and turned a Ruby Tuesday restaurant into kindling. It engulfed Christopher Black’s home, instantly killing him and his wife, Pamela, and their two children, Kelsea and Cody. The tornado, one of 13 to strike Georgia that April night, left eight dead in Ringgold and scores of others missing.

My many-months-ago agreed upon assignment was to write an article that fit in with the theme of this issue of Conversations, the problem of pain. As one member of the editorial team put it, I have the reputation of being “so open about what God teaches [me] on [my] personal journey of pain.” It was thought that perhaps I might be able to help understand the promise of pain more than to strategize its relief.

The last 10 years of my journey have been challenging— physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. I grew up strong and active without much sickness, but recently I have experienced several illnesses that have been painful and limiting. In 1995, a major heart artery dissected after an angioplasty. In 1999, I was diagnosed with breast cancer and subsequently underwent treatment, including a mastectomy. In 2005, my thyroid was removed because of cancer and since that time I have struggled to get my hormones balanced. Most recently I have undergone corrective foot surgery following a broken foot.