Jordan Stones Blog

Have you ever found yourself thinking, “How could God let the happen?” “WHY?”, “What did I do to deserve this?”, Or, in a raw vulnerable moment thought “If this is God’s will....I am not sure i want to be a part of it”. Everyone eventually has an encounter that pulls back the curtain and exposes evil. Our instinctual response is WHY? Unfortunately, that question across time, generation, and all the deep thinkers of the world has never held a satisfying answer. But, being in the career I am in...and having the conversations I have...that is not OK. I can’t sit with the autricities and traumas and unseen raging wars in the hearts of the beloveds of God and be OK with, “I don’t know?” Whether this has hit close to home or not..as Boyd puts it: “To live thoughtfully with Christlike love we must allow ourselves to be disturbed by the grotesque realities surrounding us and sympathetically enter into the nightmarish suffering of others.” (Boyd, P. 57) People loo

I want to introduce you to someone.  They live very close to  you. Closer than your breath, really.  Her name is Beloved.  Here is the message, the only message, that I have been called here to say, put here in words laced together by Brennan Manning:        “ Being the beloved is your identity, the core of your existence.  It is not merely a lofty thought, an inspiring idea, or a name among many. It is the name by which God knows us and the way he relates to us .” (Nouwen, 1998)       The Imposter        It’s tricky, because she sometimes walks around as the Imposter. On some days you will notice her doing something ordinary-maybe walking to the mailbox-and wonder what out of town guest might be visiting, because she hardly looks familiar.    Brennan Manning familiarizes us in his book  Abba’s Child  with the Imposter.  Among other things, she can be recognized by: (p. 16)   She lives in fear: “The false self plays its deceptive role