Author: dpatrickcollins

Essayist, poet and author of fiction providing unique insights into the Christian experience.

The Christian Soul: Acceptance

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I have to let you in on a little secret: This whole series on Christian Spirituality is personal to me. I suppose any topic written is personal to its author in some way. But this one is especially so. When I talk of “you” and “us” and “we” in these discussions, I am speaking to myself as much as anyone else. The “you” inside me is listening to what I have to say.

And so last week when I introduced the question concerning what motivates us, I was thinking about what happened to me long ago. I was thinking about being told by some individuals I was not okay before God, and that the only way I could be okay before God was by doing everything the Bible said — which meant doing everything they said. It was that simple, really. Continue reading “The Christian Soul: Acceptance” →

The Christian Soul: Love

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I run risk at this point in our series on Christian Spirituality of repeating myself. But since it is the New Year — and I have also interrupted our discussion with my most recent piece on divorce — allow me to recap.

The year 2017 (as far as our discussion is concerned) was about tearing down. We closed out 2017 laying waste to the notion of Christian obligation. Before that, we had laid waste to the notion of Christian freedom (that is, that Jesus died that we might do as we please). Continue reading “The Christian Soul: Love” →

The Question of Divorce

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I am taking a break temporarily from our series on the Christian Soul in order to address an issue which was very relevant to my Christian journey several years ago. It pertains to an issue that in many parts of the church is a settled matter, and this issue is the question of divorce.

By the question of divorce, I mean not so much whether divorce is allowable but whether remarriage after divorce is. And to set the proper stage for this discussion, I would like to begin with a story. Continue reading “The Question of Divorce” →

The Christian Soul: Obligation

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I mentioned before that there has been, woven throughout our discussion on Christian Spirituality, a progression. And now we reach a turning point in that progression. Having concluded the Christian life is essentially a work of God taking place on the inside of us, we now turn inward. Continue reading “The Christian Soul: Obligation” →

The Shepherd’s Report on Christmas Night

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‘Twas the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen:
A brilliant light shining bright
Upon white snow and evergreen
As we made our way through an endless pastoral night.

Honestly, I could not tell
(This is no joke) when those angelic praises broke
Whether I’d be caught up to Heaven
Or be sent straight to hell.

But then that celestial figure spoke
And all my fears did quell.

It was like a dream
Or no, like from a dream we did awaken.
The very core of who we were was shaken
And all our judgments not as they now seem.

Like stepping into full color from monochrome —
A realm of blues and greens and reds and vibrant gold,
Ripe with things that have all been foretold,
Unearthly place that we now call our home.

But what about you? Certainly you
Have seen the starlight creeping underneath the door
And in your doubt have known there must be more
And sensed that is was for you, too?

This season know, whether you to fire-lit settings are led (or driven)
Or wander endless pastoral nights forlorn
To us this day a Son has now been given,
To us this very night a child is born.

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash