Posted by C. Holland on Jan 05, 2009
After all these years in ministry and missions, the one thing that still floors me is when non-Christians are ultra-supportive of the church. I mean, these are the same people that I expect to question why I sold everything to move internationally, or to think I’m foolish for choosing a career that does not pay well by the world’s estimation. Most every time, those questions come from longtime Christians.
So just when I think I will no longer be surprised by who donates (and who doesn’t) or by who’s emotionally supportive (and who isn’t), along comes this article from The Times in the UK:
As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God
This is yet another reminder that, as much as I despise being pigeonholed, I am still guilty of doing the same to others. Not everyone who disagrees with my way of thinking, or my relationship with God, is blind to the good that Christians can accomplish through following Christ’s teachings.
Posted by C. Holland on Jan 01, 2009
As the new year comes upon us, many will be going through the age-old exercise of deciding on resolutions to better ourselves somehow. By now we’ve all heard the traditional stable of references to dieting, education, finances or banishing bad habits. These will continue to be revisited each year, hopefully with increasing success. My list will probably include aspects of these things, in addition to one thing I haven’t heard mentioned before: dealing with addiction to anxiety.
Revelation of this addiction started earlier this year when a health problem began to rear its ugly head. What I specifically have is not important to the discussion, but after several doctor visits and a surgery I now know what was plaguing me. While anxiety, stress and worry do not directly cause my health issue, they do exacerbate the problem and make it much less manageable. In other words, now that I have this problem the more I worry, the worse it gets.
Getting to the point of admission about my addiction was not an easy road. I’m pretty laid-back, I thought, easy-going. I sure let a lot slide, and I don’t indulge my perfectionist side so much anymore. But as I prayed through the diagnosis of my health concern, asking God to reveal what I’m to learn through this, the Holy Spirit began to make it crystal-clear: I was not taking every thought captive and making it obedient to Christ. Read More…
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