Practical Spirituality

A friend of mine and my former counselor, Dr. Wes Eades, has a blog called Practical Spirituality
He recently posted an article called A Way Back to Soul. I was touched by the content within this article series. I posted a comment to Part 5 of this series (and on previous parts of this series) and decided to share with you my response. It is included below. I would encourage you to visit his site and read it for yourself. If you would, comment here to share with me your thoughts on this topic that he approaches with such gentleness.

Thank you, Wes, for sharing this with us.

My response:

WOW! What a wonderful blog article, Wes!
I have so many thoughts on all of this, but I will just answer your question posed: Who, if anyone, has ever told you about “door number 3″?

While at East Texas Baptist University, I had a professor who took me under his wing simply because he felt called to, I suppose. The relationship that developed has been one that has impacted and continues to influence my life.

He was the one who posed the question to me concerning whether or not there was another option in viewing God than the two you presented above, of which were presented to me in church, as well.

I can definitely say that Door Number 3 does not lead to a road marked with definite road signs and lots of warm sunshine. I have experienced lots of fog, clouds, rain, and storms along this road. But I’ve never felt without God’s presence and after every storm, the rainbow of God’s promise always beacons me forward.
What I have learned thus far is: Through great suffering comes the capacity for greater happiness, love, joy and grace.

We have been called as Christians to live an adventurous life not a sheltered one. As Henri Nouwen states, “We are called to live in a house of faith and not of fear.”

Being sheltered to me states that we are afraid of something. Faith walking is not about having faith that God will protect us from suffering, but instead it is about having faith that God will be with us when we do.

Thank you for the post, Wes.
Always a pleasure.