Nov 1

Nov 1 Death is Not Normal

Faith, Life Abundant, Loving God, The Stuff That Matters

A few months ago, I attended a funeral celebrating the life of my aunt who died way too soon. Cancer took her life, leaving my uncle devastated in its wake.

Earlier this week, I attended a funeral celebrating the life of a friend who died way too soon. Aggressive brain cancer took her life, leaving her husband and children feeling the depths of her absence.

25 years ago, I attended a funeral celebrating the life of my best friend who died way too soon. Congenital heart disease took his life overnight, leaving friends and family confused and disoriented.

You could fill in your own stories of experiencing loss, of dealing with the death of a loved one, of mourning someone who left the land of the living earlier than expected.

There is something inside each and every one of us that knows, deep inside, that this isn’t the way things ought to be.

Apr 19

Apr 19 True North (How to Find Perfect Peace)

Nathan Westwick

Faith, Fighting for What's Good, Loving God, Real Change, The Stuff That Matters

“You shall have no other Gods before me.”

When I hear this first commandment, something in me is stirred; a stirring that speaks of something magnificent and weighty in its simplicity.

Something that says that if we could get that first commandment right, we might not need the other nine.

Feb 14

Feb 14 Why We Shouldn’t Take Shortcuts for Lent

Nathan Westwick

Fighting for What's Good, Life Abundant, Loving God, Real Change, The Journey

With today marking not only Valentine’s Day, but also the start of Lent, it seemed like a good time to talk all things chocolate, love, and surrender. (OK, maybe not the cleanest of introductory sentences, but every blog must start somewhere, right?)

Now that the awkward intro is out of the way, let’s talk about Lent for a moment.

It’s a relatively new thing for me, as most evangelical churches don’t do a whole lot about the 40 days prior to Easter, so here’s a quick crash course in case your early experience with people practicing Lent was a bit like mine: Looking with strange glances at the girls in my class who were giving up sweets, like chocolate, carbs or some other silly thing, quite likely for weight loss, all under the guise of piety, or as we call it, Lent.