Spiritual Balance – Page 27 – Andrea Arthur Owan

Worldview: Can You Put Your Faith Into a Logical Explanation?

Were you able to answer last week’s worldview questions—

What’s your worldview?
Why do you believe what you believe?
Who’s had the greatest influence in your life, and why?

Perhaps you were able to write down what you believe in several sentences, even though you might not have been able to put a title to the worldview philosophy it fell under.

But I’m going to guess that answering Why you believe what you do might be tougher to answer.

A story of worldview failure and the lifelong negative effects—

I once asked a friend why she’d become an atheist, and she revealed to me that one day in Sunday School class, when she was a little girl, she asked her Sunday school teacher: “Why do you believe that? How do you know that’s true?” The answer she received from her Sunday school teacher was less than affirming, or confirming, and it would have a lasting, dramatic affect on my friend’s life and faith.

What was the teacher’s answer?

“I just know it’s true.” That’s it. No defense, no apologetics, no explanation to satisfy the thoughtful curiosity of a very inquisitive child. (My friend would go on to become an investigative journalist). My friend claims she was so frustrated and disgusted that she lost all faith in God or Christianity, because, as far as she could see, even her teacher didn’t know why she believed what she professed to believe. Thirty years later, my friend still had a tone of disdain in her voice for that teacher, who definitely let this seeking little girl down. With a thud.

What’s the moral of that story?

The Apostle Peter provides it in his first personal letters to Christian believers. The Amplified Bible gives a great, thoughtful rendering—

“But in your hearts set Christ apart [as holy—acknowledging Him, giving Him first place in your lives] as Lord. Always be ready to give a [logical] defense to anyone who asks you to account for the hope and confident assurance [elicited by faith] that is within you, yet [do it] with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:25).

The CEV version gives it to us short and sweet:

“Honor Christ and let him be the Lord of your life. Always be ready to give an answer when someone asks you about your hope.”

But many of us can’t put our faith into a logical explanation. Or we use a lot of Christian-speak that flies right over the head of unbelievers. They end up looking at us with glazed eyeballs, no closer to the truth than they were before asking us. Or, worse yet, they wind up moving farther away from a life-saving faith!

Because we’re not always ready to give an answer to someone when they ask us about our hope. We can’t give a logical defense for our beliefs. And you can imagine what that leaves them thinking about those beliefs and us.

Throughout history there have been a lot of thinkers and writers whose beliefs and teachings have had a profound impact on us. When they philosophized about life, their thoughts usually centered on God and His existence, or non-existence. Their beliefs have colored our world without us being aware of it.

When my friend didn’t get the answer she was seeking, she sought knowledge elsewhere. These thinkers colored her worldview and shaped her beliefs. They provided—what seemed to her—to be cogent answers to life’s big questions. And these thoughts have been guiding her life and decisions for decades.

Next week—

We’ll begin looking at 19 of the most well known thinkers and philosophers of all time and will specifically explore what these men thought about God in human history. Your knowledge of their thoughts, conclusions, and how they intersect, or diverge from, God’s word is important for living a true, well-balanced life.

But let me leave you with several questions to ponder before I sign off:

How would you have answered my friend? When she was little? Now—as an adult?
Have you taken Peter’s instructions to heart? Are you ready to give anyone who asks a logical explanation for your faith when they ask about it?

Thanks for joining me! I’d love it if you’d take a moment to make a comment! And please share this post with a friend you think might be interested in the topic. Maybe someone you’d love to enjoy a philosophical discussion with!

Until next week,

may you always be ready to logically explain your faith and hope—in much joy, gentleness and thanksgiving!

Blessings,

Andrea

May you prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers (3 John 2).

Photos courtesy of Google Images

7 Lessons Learned From a Near-Death Experience

If you had a near-death experience (NDE), what kind of lessons do you think you’d learn from your heavenly visit? Lessons you’d eagerly tell others about once you’d returned to the land of Earth-dwellers.

Would it be the incomparable beauty of Heaven? The exquisite reuniting with friends and loved ones who’d gone ahead of you to their heavenly reward? Would you want to be able to see and describe what Jesus, and God look like?

A personal experience—

Dr. Mary C. Neal, an orthopedic/spine surgeon—who says she experienced a NDE—wanted to share the lessons she learned from her experience and does so with thoughtfulness, cogency, and grace in her recent book 7 Lessons From Heaven: How Dying Taught Me to Live a Joy-Filled Life.*

I first read about her account in Guideposts’s Mysterious Ways magazine a couple of years ago and found her experience intriguing. As a fellow health professional, I appreciated her honesty about being a pragmatic skeptic, which initially kept her from telling her story. Then I heard her on Eric Metaxas’s Show (radio program) a couple of months ago and was drawn to her gentle grace and humility. So I jumped at the opportunity to hear her speak in person at Tucson’s Good Friday Breakfast program on March 30.

She was just as humble in person. She didn’t pretend to be a theologian; she only told what her personal experiences were. And she understood where the skeptics were coming from, having been one herself before her NDE event. I snatched up several copies of her book.

Book overview—

In the beginning of the book, she gives a brief recounting of the Chilean kayaking accident that took her life and sent her on a journey to heaven. Her original book, To Heaven and Back: A Doctor’s Extraordinary Account of Her Death, Heaven, Angels, and Life Again, which was on the New York Times bestseller list for more than a year, covers this event in detail. After an overview, she intertwines her story with the lessons she learned.

One big lesson is that she still had work to do here on Earth—one of them being to tell her story, which she initially dragged her feet on doing—even though she didn’t want to leave Heaven.

Another insight the Lord gives her is that her precious son will die early, which did happen. (I’m not spoiling anything here; she gets to that event early in the book.)

I don’t know if I could handle being given that kind of information. I’ve heard people the premonitions they’ve had about losing one of their children or loved ones, but it takes a pretty incredible person to deal with it the way she did. Yet, it almost seems as though God gave her that information to prepare her heart for the event, which itself was a merciful blessing.

Some lessons learned—

Some of the priceless, life-altering lessons Dr. Neal learns are:

Life Goes Further Than Science—which was a big surprise to her, and will be to many to others
Miracles Are Always in the Making—even though too many of us dismiss that fact
Angels Walk Among Us—even though we might not know it
God Has a Plan—even if we can’t see it
Beauty Blossoms From All Things—just as Scripture says it does
There is Hope in the Midst of Loss—here, she speaks eloquently and emotionally, with the authority of experience

Then she explains how we can all live with absolute trust in God and our heavenly future. And it’s that living in absolute trust that she told us at the Good Friday Breakfast changed her life and way of living more than anything else. Trust. I plan to print that out in HUGE bold lettering and tack it on the wall of my study, so I am confronted—and comforted—by it everyday. It’s something I always need to be reminded of.

Are we physical beings with spirits, or primarily spiritual beings temporarily clothed in physical bodies?

This question would be a great discussion all by itself, but I won’t tell you in this post what Dr. Neal’s assessment is. I’ll save that for you to mull over and then read about in her book. You won’t be disappointed.

The answer could profoundly change the way you view, and live your life!

Another plus in this book—

Dr. Neal has a “Reading Group Guide” with some great chapter questions, so you might want to consider it for a Bible study or book club read. I know it will challenge some of your perceptions about theology, life, death, the afterlife, miracles and Heaven.

But isn’t it great to be challenged! It’s something the Lord does to us all of the time.

Until next week,

Happy Reading!

Andrea

May you prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers (3 John 2).

Photo courtesy of Google Images

*You can learn more about Dr. Neal at: drmaryneal.com

Looking for (and Finding) Streams in Your Desert

Water is a commodity here in the Southwestern desert. We highly prize it and nearly collapse into giddy convulsions when the heavens unleash it onto the desert floor during our summer monsoon. So whenever you happen upon it here, it’s like finding a pearl of great price. You lap it up emotionally and spiritually, and always physically, since dehydration looms as a potential health hazard for desert-dwellers.

And doesn’t that sound like an analogy of life?

Have you ever been in a desert time of your life?

We all traverse times of plodding through what feels like an emotional and spiritual desert. We live in “a funk” as a friend of mine calls it. Many of us experience deserts containing some scraps of life, while others can’t seem to locate a shred of nourishment anywhere. We stumble through life, pursuing mirages and coming up dry. We’re in a hurry to get through it—believing it has nothing valuable to teach us—and look in all the wrong places for life nourishing water.

Or we wait and wait and wait for the water to come to us.

Knowing God’s promises about the desert

Sometimes what we need to do is trust, listen, and look for it, recalling what God proclaimed to the prophet Isaiah:

“Listen carefully, I am about to do a new thing. Now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it? I will even put a road in the wilderness, Rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43:19, Amplified Bible).

First, God calls us to listen.
Then he tells us he’s about to do a new thing and describes what it will be.
He cautions us to be aware of it, looking for it.
He tells us he’ll provide a road in the wilderness;
and make rivers to flow in the desert.

I thought a lot about that passage, the pricelessness and spirit-infusing joy of finding water in the desert this last weekend after hiking in Sabino Canyon, a recreational area near our home described as “a desert oasis.”

The engineer and I could have parked ourselves at the bottom of the canyon and waited for the water to flow to us. But that would have been an exercise in futility because rain is rare here this time of year, and that day the early rising sun quickly burned away the threadbare cloud blanket and heated up the canyon walls.

Instead, the engineer and I went in search of the water. Rather than attempt to carve out our own road, we took the path provided. We actually pulled out a map to follow. We hiked and ascended and eventually arrived at the prize—melted mountain snow water cascading down chiseled and glossed granite cliffs into clear pools. Pools large enough to toss your body into and paddle around in. Seven waterfalls and trickles stacked at the end of a boxed desert canyon. A source of life and refreshment to wildlife, plants, and people.

After claiming a spot at the edge of one of the pools, a pool that had already been claimed by a pair of male Mallard ducks—who thought they’d scored big when we fished around in our fanny packs and extracted two energy bars for a snack they hoped we’d share with them—I unlaced and dragged off my Keen hiking boots and wooly socks and slid my swollen feet and throbbing left toe into the crystal clear, COLD water.

My feet were grateful for that water, my eyes and brain were grateful for that water, and my soul screamed internal heaven-sent hallelujahs for it. I could have sat there for hours, intermittently soaking my feet, watching the ducks beg, paddle around lazily and leave rippling wakes behind them. I could have watched the cloud wisps putter across the powder blue sky; the rock faces change shape in the pool reflections; the saguaro cactus cast short, shorter and then lengthening shadows across the cliffs they miraculously find enough nourishment to grow in; the candy apple red cardinals fly up-down zigzag patterns from one shade-providing mesquite tree to another.

Can you avoid a desert time?

But the frustrating reality was that I couldn’t stay up there indefinitely in that seven-pool nirvana. I had to walk back down the canyon away from it. And that’s the way life functions for most of us too.

We can’t avoid it. For whatever reason, life or God himself orchestrates a desert time in our lives. Moses fled to the desert after he murdered a man and hid there for forty years before God called him back to Egypt to free his people. Bible teacher Dr. J. Vernon, McGee quips that Moses was getting his Backside-of-the-Desert degree. While that always gets a chuckle, there’s a heap of truth to it.

Jesus went into the wilderness for forty days. We don’t know what he experienced every day on his journey, but we do know Satan harassed and tempted him when he seemed to be at his weakest.

Without trying to sound crass, I’d say the experiences toughened both of them up for what lie ahead.

Elijah the prophet orchestrated his own trip to the desert when—terrified—he ran for his life from the evil Queen Jezebel and ended up being ministered to by God. Elijah managed to find a hideout near a flowing stream, his personal stream in his desert. Through that experience, I’m guessing he learned a lot more about God’s mercy and compassion.

Jesus, Moses and Elijah all learned a lot during their desert time—about God and about themselves. We learn about them and God through our reading of these events.

You can learn a lot during your desert time, even while searching and waiting for the water God promises to give you.

How are you handling your desert time?

Usually we need to lean into our desert time, without trying to fight it or run from it. But then we need to make sure that we don’t get mired in it. Stuck in our parched wilderness.

Some questions I invite you to ask yourself to make your, or someone else’s desert time productive. The counsel of a friend (you) could be just what they need right now, a life-replenishing river in their desert.

Are you experiencing a desert time right now in your life, and how are you handling it? Could you be encouraging and supporting someone you know who is experiencing one?

Are you trusting wholeheartedly in God’s promise to provide you a “road” out, a river of spiritual life at the end of your desert journey?

Are you asking God what he’s trying to teach you during this desert time, so you don’t have to stay there any longer than necessary?

Are you asking him to reveal the road out?

And are you actively searching for the life-giving water?

Care to Share?

I’d love to hear how you handle your desert times. If you’d like to share, just head over to the Blog page to leave a comment you can share with others. W want to help each other successfully traverse our desert times.

I pray you spend your time rejoicing in God’s promise of providing a road out, a road leading to a temporal and spiritual stream in your desert, and the heaven-bound road you’ll traverse when your time on Earth is done!

Until Monday!

Blessings,

Andrea

May you prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers (3 John 2).

Photo 2018 © Andrea A Owan

What Are the 3 Fundamental Questions of Life? (And How Would You Answer Them?)

Have you ever asked yourself the three key questions that confront the mystery of your existence? The major questions philosophy students usually dig into. Like:

Who am I?
Why am I here?
What’s the meaning of life

Worldview

How you answer those questions depends upon your worldview, the lens through which you look to answer life’s big questions, make life decisions, and respond to socio-political issues. Worldview is your particular philosophy of life.

Your worldview is the template upon which you live your life.

Why ask those questions?

Asking those questions and grinding out the answers to them helps you focus on how you view life and function in it. If you’re secure in your answers, you have a firm template upon which to live your life well, live it balanced, and live it intentionally.

Surprisingly, though, most people cannot tell you what they believe, and their beliefs may waffle every day. Because they’re not firm in their beliefs and understanding of them, they vacillate. As my husband, the engineer, likes to say (with flowing, side-to-side arm movements to punctuate his statement), they flow back and forth like sea kelp—whatever direction the water or tide happens to be going, they follow.

It’s not a particularly pleasant or effective way to live life, following the crowd or most popular view. Living life that way gets frustrating and exhausting.

The deadly question

But then we encounter a tougher question: Why do you believe what you believe?

Even fewer people can answer that question and stumble all over their answer. Their “why” may be that they read it in some new book, or they’ve acquired someone else’s opinion about life and claimed it as their own. Or they’ve assembled such a hodge podge of ideas they end up with something akin to a worldview smorgasbord.

Answering the big questions

Let’s take a brief look at how you might initially answer the philosophical questions.

Who am I?

This really goes beyond the idea of “finding yourself,” which often doesn’t give you a firm, useful answer you can do anything constructive with. People trying to “find themselves” are usually floating around, trying and tasting everything life has to offer. While they might enjoy something for a time, they usually get bored and move onto something else. They have life Attention Deficit Disorder.

Maybe you answer it by saying: I’m a daughter or son, a sister or brother, a wife or husband, a mother or father. Or you could qualify your training or profession and answer: I’m a teacher, doctor, or housekeeper. Or choose the physical aspects of your life by noting you’re an invalid or athlete. And you could claim several of those identities simultaneously. With each identity comes different expectations and responsibilities.

Why am I here?

Sadly, many people have difficulty answering the Why because they think they’ve been arbitrarily plunked down on earth at this time in history, rather than being fearfully, wonderfully, and deliberately made for this particular time. Knowing and believing there is a point to your life will be the foundation for life having the meaning you desire it to have.

What is the meaning of life?

Your answer might go all different directions. But let’s take the example of the writers of the Westminster Catechism, who wrestled with this way back in the year A.D. 1647. Because they had a distinctive Christian worldview, they reworded the question as “What is the chief end of man?” which sort of rolls all three questions into one. And the answer they arrived at?

“To know God and enjoy Him forever.”

A six-word sentence packed with meaning and purpose. If we unpack it, we get more questions.

But we’re not going to unpack it today. Before we unpack it, we need to become philosophy—and archeology—students. We need to get an overview of all of life’s major world views (philosophies) and see where we fit into them. Then we need to dig in further to establish our beliefs. To further build a strong, balanced life foundation.

For the week

I invite you to spend some time meditating on those questions this week. How would you answer them? And why would you answer them the way you do? And if you feel like sharing, I’d love to know what your answers are! Just head over to the “Blog” page and leave a comment.

Next week Monday we’ll embark on Worldview 101. I promise it won’t be dry and boring!

Thanks for joining me for this Meditation Monday. I hope to see you Wednesday for the health and fitness post!

Blessings,

Andrea

May you prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers (3 John 2).

Welcome to Meditation Mondays! Prepping for Spiritual Success

Welcome to Andrea’s Meditation Monday blog posts! I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to have you join me for this journey.

Every Monday we’ll explore the deep questions of life and spirituality. Not religion, per se, although I may do some history and basic theology overviews so you can see how similar many of the religions are, and how different.

But let’s get our feet wet today in preparation of stepping into the river of life next Monday!

Devotions or Digging Deeper?

You may have a daily devotion book you use. That’s wonderful if you do. It’s a way for you to learn how others are doing on their journey with God, how their experiences relate to yours, and how their experiences speak to your heart. You will likely find peace and encouragement through your daily devotions. So I want to assure you that we’re not going to set aside the devotion, if you like to use one.

What I’m inviting you to do, though, is to simplify. And go deeper.

What do I meant by that?

Maybe you—like I—sometimes find daily devotions a bit tedious, or that they sometimes only skim the surface. That’s often because a devotion piece is supposed to be short and concise, without time to dive into the deep end of the passage or focus. They just give you a sample or hors d-oeuvres-sized taste. And maybe you feel as though you’ve become a slave to “doing them,” or “getting them done.” I hear people ask, “Did you do your devotion today?” as though it was a chore, and they’re you’re devotion police.

Or maybe you miss one or two, berate yourself for that neglect, and then feel as though you’ve failed at your personal spiritual-self-improvement-program. You might promise yourself you’ll go back to those missed devotions, and dutifully mark the pages to read them. But soon your go-back-to devotions pile up. If you’re the super achiever type, or coerced by guilt, you do read them—all in one sitting—and, while you’re relieved you could now get your gold star (from God, or the devotion police—which may be you) for accomplishing that feat, you don’t get any spiritually productive (soul changing) kernels out of that marathon read-fest.

Or maybe you’re like me. I sometimes like to sit down every day to a familiar devotion book. But more often, I go in waves. Sometimes the devotion tide and interest is out; and sometimes it’s in and high. But most of the time I’d rather have an idea or thought a week to really chew on.

That’s what I mean by simplicity.

And then you can take that thought or idea to a deeper level, with more introspective, exhaustive questions.

That’s what we’ll do together on Meditation Mondays. Really dig up and till the soils of our hearts and souls. Get out some soul fertilizer and enrich the spiritual soil.

4 Steps to Prepare for Success

But first we need to prepare. Because anything worth doing well requires good preparation!

For next Monday there are some things you’ll want to do to give your meditation the best chance of success.

First, locate your Bible. Any version will do. Use whatever you’re comfortable with. If you’re using an online Bible, make sure you can bookmark the pages or highlight passages.

Second, get a journal you can use a pen or pencil to write in. While you may not be the journaling type, I can’t encourage you enough to give this journaling thing a shot. The actual process of writing (not typing) helps you slow down, focus and remember your thoughts and impressions. Even doodling or drawing pictures will engage the brain, rev it up, promote thought and creativity, and trigger the development of new neuron connections. Your brain’s superhighway will enlarge!

And it doesn’t have to be a fancy journal. One of those lined paper, spiral type notebooks you bought for a high school or college class will do.

Then, decide on a day and time you can commit to reading the post and writing in your journal. Pick a time that’s best for you, one you’re most likely to stay with. I recommend at least reading the post on Monday or Tuesday so you have all week to think about and meditate on it. But you may select an entirely different day to make journal notes. If you’re in your home or a building, make yourself a “Do Not Disturb” or “Occupied” sign to hang on the door of the room you’ll be sitting in. Be intentional. (I recommend a quiet place inside, or outside, for this. Not some hip coffee cafe where people and activities (and loud, fingers-raking-a-blackboard espresso machine noise) can overwhelm the brain and senses.

Finally, I invite you to find the following verse in your Bible, read it, commit it to memory, and use it to pray for yourself frequently throughout the week. Call to the Creator of the universe, to do what He promises to do. Doing that will prepare your heart and mind for whatever it is God wants to teach you. He has a word to speak specifically to you, a truth He wants to reveal. For your benefit and His glory!

“Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and might things, which you do not know” Jeremiah 33:3. (NKJV)

If you like The Message, Eugene Peterson’s rendering of this verse is great!

“Call to me and I will answer you. I’ll tell you marvelous and wondrous things that you could never figure out on your own.”

I cannot begin to tell you what truths were revealed to me once I started using this verse as a focus. God is faithful, and He will faithfully answer your prayer for revelation if you call to him with all your heart.

Expect great things from our gracious and generous God!

Looking forward to seeing you back next Monday, when we’ll start exploring several of the most important questions in life!

AND I hope you’ll also join me this Wednesday, for our first Workout Wednesdays!

Blessings,

Andrea

May you prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers (3 John 2).

Photo Courtesy of Christopher P Owan