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General Christian

2021-12-19T04:38:01-07:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Living Alone After a Loved One Passes

Last updated on: December 19, 2021 at 4:38 am By Mark Williams

I KINDA LIKE LIVING ALONE Living alone after a loved one passes-I have to admit something—I kinda like living alone. Don’t judge me. Living alone is, well, different to say the least. Since I’ve been widowed, well, maybe we could say even before I was widowed, I was living alone. My wife being in the hospital for weeks and months at a time, doing the stem cell thing. They had to kill her immune system before they could try a... Read more

2021-12-15T11:24:53-07:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Christmas Can Be a Hard Time

Last updated on: December 15, 2021 at 11:24 am By Mark Williams

For many of us-you and me, Christmas can be one of the most painful times of the year. Funny how, in the Christian experience-this holiday, which is filled with nothing but niceness, can be so damning. Even Easter, the Super Bowl for Christians, doesn’t hold a candle to the pain one can feel during Christmas. CHRISTMAS CAN BE A PAINFUL TIME If you’ve lived much, you have life scars and those scars are reminders. I’m sixty-three, almost sixty-four and there... Read more

2021-12-12T07:00:42-07:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

God Lives In Us

Last updated on: December 12, 2021 at 7:00 am By Mark Williams

I have learned over the years our maladies don’t define us, but they are a part of us. We can or sometimes have to, rise above them sometimes just to live, especially the serious ones like the cancers and chronic illnesses or the death of a partner or the loss of a job. The not so serious ones, like snoring, can be mildly unsettling, unless it’s your dog who is doing the snoring then it’s kind of therapeutic, especially when... Read more

of our life and that luggage we are carrying

2021-12-05T07:06:56-07:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

How Fast Can We Dance?

Last updated on: December 5, 2021 at 7:06 am By Mark Williams

I’M NOT A BAD DANCER! I feel I am a pretty good dancer. After all, my parents sent me to Junior Assembly when I was eight or ten or something. I can’t really remember because I think I blocked it out, psychologically speaking. The class was fine for my brothers and sister. They were nine and thirteen years ahead of me in age and it was cool to go to such a class to learn the foxtrot and other ballroom... Read more

2021-12-01T12:15:52-07:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

What Are You Good At?

Last updated on: December 1, 2021 at 12:15 pm By Mark Williams

WHAT AM I GOOD AT? Look, I can ‘wrap’ presents. I simply don’t want to. It is nowhere close to my gifting. It’s one of those things in our lives-my life, I don’t like to do. Whoever came up with ‘gift bags’ deserves a medal. I don’t go and buy them, let me be clear. I keep the ones I receive, or I use a nice Target grocery bag. You can’t see through those like you can a Fry’s bag.... Read more

2021-11-29T10:24:22-07:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

So, You’ve been Widowed

Last updated on: November 29, 2021 at 10:24 am By Mark Williams

HOW IS IT DONE? I am not sure how people do this widow/widower thing without God. Let me say I am not sure how anyone does life without God, job loss, illness, anything. Now, maybe this year, you find yourself alone, maybe for the first time in decades. I was widowed in 2018, twenty-seven days short of our thirty-eighth anniversary and looking back to that dumpster fire of that time, I really cannot see how people experience it without any... Read more

2021-11-24T11:46:12-07:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Thanksgiving or ‘How much can I fit in my pie hole?’

Last updated on: November 24, 2021 at 11:46 am By Mark Williams

TURKEY OR HAM OR CHEESEBURGERS? Tomorrow, well, I like Thanksgiving. I am not, necessarily, a turkey person. I know, and I am sure you do to, know people who LOVE turkey. I’m not a real big fan. Cheeseburgers are my friends I’m more of a ham fan. I am really a cheeseburger fan. I’m a fan of turkey sandwiches the next day or week later, slathered in mayonnaise and cheese on some good bread. I like dressing... Read more

2021-11-21T07:48:25-07:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

God’s ‘Big Tests’

Last updated on: November 21, 2021 at 7:48 am By Mark Williams

ARE WE REALLY ‘TESTED’ BY GOD? I walked around a ‘C’ student in my high school math class-and not a solid ‘C.’ Math and I as well as Chemistry did not get along. Come to think of it, my German class was even worse. Apparently, I had a moment of stupid when I registered. I can only remember one line in that language from two years of study, ‘how are you’ in the formal form. Don’t ask me to spell... Read more

of our life and that luggage we are carrying

Trusting God

We get tired

2021-11-18T13:36:32-07:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Do I have Joy? Where can I buy some?

Last updated on: November 18, 2021 at 1:36 pm By Mark Williams

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN JOY AND HAPPINESS There’s a difference between joy and happiness. Yep. At least I think so. At my seasonal age, in my situation-a retired widower, I find myself kind of making things up as I go. Like if I’m delivering Easter eggs to my grandchildren-er-any children for that matter, in the early morning, I probably should dress up like the Easter Bunny. Maybe a version of the Easter Bunny who might have served time in prison or did... Read more

2021-11-18T13:59:09-07:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I’m not that young anymore!

Last updated on: November 18, 2021 at 1:59 pm By Mark Williams

HAS THIS EVER HAPPENED TO YOU? Has this ever happened to you? Did you ever have an epiphany you are really the age you are and not that twenty-three-year-old, ten percent body fat, six-minute miler with a propensity for math and language, the guy or gal people laughed with, bought drinks for, and just wanted to be around? Aside from most of that being a fabrication for myself, I discovered this within the past year—or maybe it was two? IT... Read more

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