This takes a few minutes to click through and read. But  it’s worth it. Days With My Father (HT: Challies.com)  

What I am about to recommend to you is not an easy read (if you just read the transcript) or an easy listen (if you take the time to actually listen to the message—which I recommend). But if you, or someone you love, has struggled with paralyzing, terrifying, death-desiring depression, then I encourage you to take the time to learn from this message from John Piper: Insanity and Spiritual Songs in the Soul of a Saint I also encourage you to mine the depths of: – Spiritual Depression (Lloyd-Jones) – Depression: A Stubborn Darkness (Welch) – Blame It On The Brain: Distinguishing Chemical Imbalances, Brain Disorders, and Disobedience (Welch) Oh,…

I’ve been reading Jill Carattini for years and while I’ve admired and enjoyed her intellect, faith, and writing abilities, I never knew this about her: The Right Side of Pain Brilliant. As usual. Here’s a snippet to tempt you, but please do go back and read the entire essay. What a mind! What a heart! What a grace that she points us to God: “We shuffled back and forth between the states that sat like metaphors between our divorced parents—a summer, a spring break, a Christmas without one of them. The pain of the one we were leaving was always palpable, but we always had to leave.   It’s strange…

“Your cancer is malignant.” “I’m leaving you and the kids. I want a divorce.” “You’re fired.” “I’m sorry. The baby is gone.” “There’s been an accident …”   No matter the suffering, Ed Welch’s friend reminds us: Nothing Has Changed (Still, we weep.)  

“The human heart has hidden treasures, In secret kept, in silence sealed; The thoughts, the hopes, the dreams, the pleasures, Whose charms were broken if revealed. And days may pass in gay confusion, And nights in rosy riot fly, While, lost in Fame’s or Wealth’s illusion, The memory of the Past may die. But, there are hours of lonely musing, Such as in evening silence come, When, soft as birds their pinions closing, The heart’s best feelings gather home. Then in our souls there seems to languish A tender grief that is not woe; And thoughts that once wrung groans of anguish, Now cause but some mild tears to flow.…

A beautiful read over at Wrestling with an Angel: A Birthday Letter to My Son And a frighteningly must read by Jared Wilson re: p*rn consumption in hotels when Christian conventions are in town: Your Private Life Gives Public Witness If you enjoy theology, you’ll enjoy this lovely regular post from Rebecca Writes (this is a link to her category archive): Theological Term of the Week And hooray! HT: MIS! More Paige Benton Brown teachings here.

Tim Challies posted this John Donne poem this morning and as I read it, I was flooded with memories from my freshman year in high school—the year God saved me—because I was reading John Gunther’s book by the same title (Death Be Not Proud) and the reality of the brevity of life was pressing hard upon me. If you haven’t read the Gunther book, it is a memoir by the father of a remarkable teenage boy who is diagnosed with brain cancer and dies at age seventeen. To the best of my recollection, it is not an overtly “Christian” book. I don’t recall that it included any clear presentation of…

A video worth four minutes of your time, especially if you or someone you  love is facing a cancer diagnosis: The Story of Zac Smith (HT: Challies.com)  

Ed Welch taught me (and convicted me) AGAIN with his recent article over on the CCEF website: More Things Not To Say To Those Who are Suffering In it, he makes many great points, but let me just tempt you with a few: ” … Here is something that I have heard a number of times on the ‘Not Helpful’ list. I have heard it often enough that it deserves to become part of our body of pastoral wisdom. ‘If you need anything, please call me—anytime.’ … Those who mentioned it didn’t say that the comment was meaningless to them, though it was. They said that it was actually unhelpful.…

HT to Les & Bobbie for sending me this interview with a Harvard law professor who has lived with extraordinary pain and now is facing relatively imminent death from cancer (he will probably not live through 2010). It is worth the read: You Will Call, I Will Answer He has another edifying article over at Christianity Today:   Three Gifts for Hard Times (Come to think of it, I bet this gentleman has a bunch of articles worth reading.)