The Parish

When circumstances force us into the wilderness, we may feel as though we are being punished. But, perhaps God is just opening an opportunity for us to grow

The trouble and turmoil in our current world can lead us down paths of anger, resentment, frustration and even hate. But Paul has a better way to suggest.

When we find we've got to the very end of our road, even there God meets us, and turns us around and gives us a fresh perspective.

If your faith doesn't have room to adapt and change,  you run the risk of becoming a brittle goat skinned wine bag. 

Some of the most life-giving spiritual experiences aren't on the other side of discovering something new, but in the letting go of something old.  

We can live our lives under a cloud of fear that God is somehow disappointed in us.  But disappointing God may be harder than you think.

The Life of the faithfull isn't unmarred or unscathed, and this isn't because that wouldn't be faith but because that wouldn't be life.

Failures from our past can haunt us for years even when they have prompted growth and change. Sometimes the very thing we need is a rematch!

A miracle isn't about filling a net full of fish, it is about filling a heart full of hope.

Sometimes our journey takes us places that aren't at all like what we were expecting. And when that happens, faith can feel like risky business.

A finger pointing to the moon is not the moon itself. A finger can be used, but he who only looks at the finger will never see the moon. Jesus didn't come to end religion, he came to transcend it.  A look at the importance of religious practice and a warning about its misuse.

We tend to associate spring and Easter with new beginnings. But in another way, Easter is the end of the story - the grand story of God's saving work.

Easter Sunday begins where Good Friday leaves us-in the dark, but it doesn't desire to leave us there.

It is only by faith that we can call Good Friday good.

The kingdom that Jesus is launching as he rides into Jerusalem won't come with the violent overthrow of their Roman occupiers. He is bringing a different kind of peace.

30 km from Easter we discover a secret that a blind beggar seems to know.  You can follow Jesus and still be blind, it is in trusting that you will see.

As we learn to live the life of Jesus' kingdom, much of our growth comes through choices we make - choices to serve, to give, to be present. The path to Easter reminds us that sometimes growth only comes on the other side of something we'd never choose, on the other side of death.

Heading towards Easter, Jesus shows us that if there is one thing that needs to die before him, it is our agendas.