Tag Archives: christianpain

Life’s a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. A mixture of good and bad. Of treats and terrors; happiness and horror; pleasure and pain. We call the bad “evil.” Sometimes it’s particularly bad. Think, for example, of victims of terrorism, pedophilia, or a drunk driver. When particularly bad evil happens a question rises, demanding an answer […]

When evil goes public as it did in Las Vegas last week—brazenly, tragically, and fatally—many Christians feel they need to do for God something God doesn’t feel the need to do for Himself. They become His Perry Mason’s. They make Him their client and seek to defend Him in the court of human opinion. That court’s […]

It happens to just about every Christian. For some reason, prayer flies standby in most of our lives. Something happens and it gets bumped from the day’s flight. So, family stresses or business demands or spiritual laziness make you skip prayer one day. And before you know it you’re on a slippery slope. And five […]

How do you stay optimistic about God in a painful situation that isn’t going to change? For example: arthritis that laughs at Aleve; singleness making you bluer than George Jones’s He Stopped Loving Her Today; a job so boring it makes watching someone else’s home movies seem like skydiving; a Pharaoh oppressive boss. You get the point. […]

To paraphrase Paul, before God saved me, “for me to live was basketball.” I was so dedicated that after I became a Christian an older minister friend told me, “Charley, if you follow Jesus the way you followed basketball you’ll be someone God really uses.” God says something similar to us about our trials. As […]

Too many of us find our troubles Bear instead of Bull Markets. Why? Because we don’t face them as Grace Focused Optimists. Why not? Because we don’t listen to what God tells us about them. The point is not that we don’t listen to some of what God says about our troubles. It’s worse. We […]

The late Jack Miller once asked his wife Rose Marie, “If you could change any one thing about me, what would it be?” She said, “Jack, you don’t listen.” Jack answered, “No, no, no” and repeated his question, demonstrating that Rose Marie was spot on. The writer of Hebrews emphasizes too many of us aren’t […]

Anyone can light a fire in the hearth of gratitude with the dry seasoned wood of good things. But because God says, “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:20), we need something that can light a gratitude fire using the wet green […]

I’m a Grace Focused Optimist. I live with The Christian Attitude toward life. That’s optimism . . . the optimism that through Jesus my life is a grace G.O.O.D. A God orchestrated opportunity for development (into Christlikeness) through disposition (optimism) for doxology (giving God glory). Today we conclude our series on the O in our […]

As a Grace Focused Optimist I face life with The Christian Attitude of optimism that my life is a grace G.O.O.D.—a God orchestrated opportunity for development, disposition, and doxology. In the last two posts we’ve examined the truth that O is for Orchestration by answering the questions “Why do bad things happen to Christians?” and […]