Bobby, John Mark and Henri

I’ve been following John Mark’s and Bobby’s blogs concerning their divorces, and the web of emotions, of questions, of theology, and of ministry in which they find themselves.

I hurt for my wounded friends. You can look through about the last month’s worth of blogs for their respective stories (see http://www.stoned-campbelldisciple.blogspot.com/ and http://www.johnmarkhicks.wordpress.com/). They each refer to several books they have found helpful. I’ll venture another to the list: If you haven’t read Henri Nouwen’s The Wounded Healer, you should. It ought to be required reading for every Bible and religion major and every seminarian. I think I’ve read it, or in it, about a half-dozen times in the last ten years. I plan to reread it again tonight. Thankfully the day is over, or coming to an end, when ministers were almost universally larger than life pedestal dwellers. To acknowledge the reality that both brokenness and the movement of God’s grace are the warp and woof of ministry is not only healthy for the ‘minister’ but for the rest of us as well. If we do not minister as wounded healers, if we do not minister out of our brokenness and sustained by God’s healing, then pray tell, how else will we minister? And if we as a church will not acknowledge the movement of God’s grace among our broken ‘ministers’, then how will a broken world take seriously the gospel we proclaim? At this point, Henri Nouwen has something to say to us. And I know that out of their experiences John Mark and Bobby will have a good word for us.

Another book that is now at the top of my to-read stack is Rubel Shelly’s Divorce and Remarriage, A Redemptive Theology. I’ve had it for several months, but now I think is the time to take it up. Perhaps tomorrow I will blog a few lines in reflection.

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As for other matters: baby is fine, Laura is doing well, Darby is putting the finishing touches on Kindergarten, and Ella doesn’t know what to do with herself since she will be a big sister. Had a wonderful weekend with Laura's folks. We now own a mini-van. Suburbs…minivan…don’t let the trappings fool you, we’re trying hard to keep our souls. Maybe this week I can till up the fallow ground for this season’s garden. Sunday we’ll be asked to stand up “so everyone can know you” as new members at Smyrna Church of Christ (don’t hold it against them).

A Christian word for someone who is grieving

I have two suggestions to help people think through suffering and grief. Look at the online presence of Mike Cope and John Mark Hicks. Both have lost children to disease and illness. Both are trained and competent theologians and ministers. Both reject pat answers and shallow theology. Both offer instead a word which is at once biblically grounded and theologically substantive, something at once useful and hopeful. Specifically, look on Mike's blog under the category for "Megan." John Mark has two sites: a blog and an online publication page. Scroll through the blog; on the Faithsite page look especially under books and articles. I've given away several copies of "Yet Will I Trust Him" and "Anchors for the Soul." Quite honestly, it is the best material on suffering to come from Churches of Christ. I pray it has wide reception and that it helps sufferers.

Grace and peace.