Life on Planet Earth on Unknown

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When we make room for silence we make room for ourselves.... Silence invites the unknown, the untamed, the wild, the shy, the unfathomable-that which rarely has a chance to surface within us.

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Farewell to the Known and Dear

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Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

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Scripture

Romans 10:14-15, 2 Timothy 1:7, Isaiah 43:2, Joshua 1:9, Acts 13:2-3

St. Columba was an Irish monk and abbot, who is largely responsible for the evangelization of Scotland. He founded the monastery at Iona, which became a training ground and launching point for further...

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We have been created by God, to be

Author

Jacob Traeger

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We have been created by God, to be loved by God, and to receive our identity from God. But in our everyday lives, as we go about our work, school, interacting with our family and friends, we don’t alw...

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Eeyore and Christians

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Andrew M. Davis

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A sour outlook is pessimistic about the future. Such people are always anxious, fretful, gloomy, negative, seemingly hopeless. How can a Christian be like that? We should be radiant with hope, fully e...

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Driving with Your Eyes Closed

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In this little thought experiment, Harvard psychologist David Ropeik demonstrates just how easily our fear of uncertainty can make us as we imagine driving a car with our eyes closed: Imagine driving...

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Canoeing the Mountains

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Tod E. Bolsinger

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In their book Leadership on the Line, Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky describe adaptive challenges as the work confronting a leader when there is no known fix to a problem. It’s when “best practices” ...

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Journeying: Finding the True Value of Life

Author

Brad E. Kelle

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“Follow the yellow brick road.” In L. Frank Baum’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (later made famous by the 1939 film adaptation, The Wizard of Oz ), these words provide the directions given to Doro...

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Ignorance and Fear

Author

Charles Spurgeon

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Charles Spurgeon related a trip through the Lake District, when a dense fog descended on him and his fellow travelers, “we felt ourselves to be transported into a world of mystery where everything was...

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Author

Corrie Ten Boom

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Scripture

Psalm 46:10, Hebrews 13:8, Philippians 4:6-7, Romans 8:28, Psalm 37:5

Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.

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Author

Malcolm Forbes

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Questions

One who never asks either knows everything or nothing.

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O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus

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Unknown

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O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our only Savior, the Prince of peace, give us grace seriously to lay to heart the great dangers we are in by our divisions. Take away all hatred and prejudi...

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O God, whose will it is that all your

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Unknown

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O God, whose will it is that all your children should be one in Christ; we pray for the unity of your Church. Pardon all our pride and our lack of faith, of understanding and of charity, which are the...

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Gracious God, in Christ Jesus, you

Gracious God, in Christ Jesus, you teach us to love our neighbors but instead we build dividing walls of hostility. You show us how to love one another as sisters and brothers but instead we hide from...

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Unknown

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Stress

If stress happens too often or lasts too long, it can have bad effects. It can be linked to headaches, an upset stomach, back pain, and trouble sleeping. It can weaken your immune system, making it ha...

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This Constant Bickering

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Unknown

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Scripture

James 1:19, Proverbs 17:27-28, Matthew 5:9, Luke 10:38-42, James 1:17, Acts 20:35, 2 Chronicles 13:11

The monks at a remote monastery deep in the woods followed a rigid vow of silence. Their vow could only be broken once a year—on Christmas—by one monk. That monk could speak only one sentence. One Chr...

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Hot Down Here

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Source Unknown

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A Minneapolis couple decided to go to Florida to thaw out during a particularly icy winter. They planned to stay at the same hotel where they spent their honeymoon 20 years earlier. Because of their ...

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Rainer Maria Rilke

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Were it possible for us to see further than our knowledge reaches, and yet a little way beyond the outworks of our divining, perhaps we would endure our sadnesses with greater confidence than our joys...

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Eternal God, we recognize that Your

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Eternal God, we recognize that Your ways are mysterious. Teach us to be still and to wait for You. We confess our sinfulness, our need for control, and our discomfort with the unknown. Instead of turn...

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Author

Shelly Miller

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Uncertainty provides rescue from being stuck in the familiar ways of life that keep us from moving forward into the purposes of God. Wandering into the wilderness of the unknown is God’s divine reorie...

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Shadowed by the Illusory Person

Author

Thomas Merton

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Scripture

Genesis 27:18-29, Exodus 3:11-14, Ecclesiastes 2:10-11, Luke 15:11-32, Matthew 23:27-28 , Psalm 139:23-24

Thomas Merton once said, “Every one of us is shadowed by an illusory person: a false self, This is the man I want myself to be but who cannot exist, because God does not know anything about him. A...

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A Meditation on Loss

Author

Gerald L. Sittser

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Jerry Sittser, who experienced the terrible tragedy of losing a mother, a wife, and a daughter in the same car accident, wrote these poignant words on loss: Loss creates a barren present, as if on...

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Put Your Hand into the Hand of God

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

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King George V of Britain, who was king during the tumultuous years of World War I, shared a New Year’s card with his friends that featured a drawing of an open gate. Below the image, he included thi...

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God of forgiveness and mercy, hear our

Author

James G. Kirk

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God of forgiveness and mercy, hear our prayer as we confess our sin. With moments so critical we let time go by. With deliverance so near we linger in the darkness. With Christ as our armor, we yet fe...

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Prayers of the People, Form VI

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Luke 15:11-32, Psalm 51:10, 1 John 1:9, Psalm 103:2, 1 Thessalonians 5:18, John 17:21, Ephesians 4:3-6

The Leader and People pray responsively In peace, we pray to you, Lord God. Silence For all people in their daily life and work; For our families, friends, and neighbors, and for those who are...

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Holy God, we can be so full of fear at

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Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church

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Holy God, we can be so full of fear at times – afraid of the unknown; afraid of what is beyond our control; afraid of what is strange to us. And we know that fear stops us in our tracks, hinders our a...

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Risen and present Lord: There’s no

Author

Richard Herman

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Scripture

James 5:14-15, Romans 8:38-39, Matthew 28:20, Isaiah 41:10, Psalm 23:4, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, Psalm 139:7-10

Risen and present Lord: There’s no place we go–near or far, high or low, familiar or strange–where you aren’t there with and even before us. There is no experience we have or feeling we feel that’s un...

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Author

John Calvin

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We ought to attend, first of all, to the metaphor in the verb smell, which means that Christ will be so shrewd that he will not need to learn from what he hears, or from what he sees; for by smelling ...

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Little Children Wandering the Aisles of the Internet

Author

Ashley Hales

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Addiction isn’t just measured in time spent connected to screens but also in how it dulls our spiritual sensibilities. We use social media to blunt the edges of overwhelm, to find something to thrill ...

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A Simple Act of Courage

Author

Brad Lomenick

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Courage

Many, many great things have begun with a single act of courage, throughout history and today. A person steps out and makes one courageous decision and that one domino starts many other dominoes falli...

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5 Great Worship Resources on the Psalms

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

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October 2018 For centuries, the Psalms have been the songbook of the church. From metrical settings of Psalms (think, “Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow” or “The Lord’s My Shepherd, I’ll Not Wa...

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