8 results for tag: life’s journey

The Resume of Life – Stuart Segall

"If you don't use your experience, your past is wasted, and you are betraying yourself." Alan Shepard Sometimes the past becomes a teacher only when we finally stop running from it. These words from Alan Shepard reminded me why our stories matter, and why sharing them might help someone else breathe again. Sometimes the only way forward is to let your past speak, not to shame you, but to guide you. His quote reminded me again that nothing we have walked through is wasted, and maybe what I have lived can help someone else breathe a little easier today. This quote carries a quiet but unmistakable truth. Your past is not something to escape or ...

An Enemy and a Reality Called Depletion – Stuart Segall

As I age, depletion is one of my “enemies”.  As a chaplain to others, I get so exhausted and depleted when I have helped someone on their journey home that I have to renew, refresh, and rededicate myself to the simple, profound, and miraculous words of our Lord.   I am as needy and dependent on them as anyone!  So, this one is a “for me…a for us” one as much as any other I have written. When life starts pressing in on us, we can take a moment to settle ourselves in the quiet of God’s presence. That peace we’re longing for isn’t something we have to chase; it’s something we can return to, again and again, ...

Time, Tenderness and the Hourglass We All Carry – Stuart Segall

Every life is carried inside a vessel of time, and that vessel is always moving—finite, fragile, and full of meaning. In the painting, this truth is rendered with striking simplicity: an elderly man and a young child stand hand in hand before a radiant sunset, their silhouettes dark against a world alive with molten golds, deep oranges, and the first gathering blues of evening. Though their faces are hidden, their presence speaks volumes. Within each silhouette glows an hourglass. The elder’s is nearly empty, the sand pooled at the bottom like the weight of years lived—years shaped by love, mistakes, endurance, and the slow accumulation ...

All Things Beautiful #4 – Ken Williams

"Volunteers?” Ken Williams Volunteers help make all things beautiful. Volunteers? Plants that sprout from the ground without a human planting the seed. Such plants are a witness to the truth Jesus declared on the Cross, “it is finished.” After this he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. (John 19:30b) How do volunteers witness Jesus’ victory over evil? Author, Robert F. Capon writes, “…all the antagonism in the world has already been aced out by Jesus…aced out: finessed, tricked into doing God’s thing when all the while it thought it was doing its own thing.” “Kingdom, Grace, Judgment”, Paradox, Outrage, and Vindica...

All Things Beautiful #3 – Ken Williams

"Life Finds a Way; Life is the Way” Ken Williams In one scene from the movie Jurassic Park, Dr. Ian Malcolm, a mathematician specializing in chaos theory, was surprised to learn scientists were cloning dinosaurs from blood DNA preserved in fossilized mosquitos. He warned that they had opened the door to enormous power with uncertain consequences. He told the cloners that they were naïve if they thought they could control this extinct animal population, extinct for good reasons. They shared that they were reproducing females alone, controlling their reproduction. Dr. Malcolm’s deep respect for life’s power, reasoned that humans cannot ...

Hinds’ Feet by Stuart Segall

Life has never been a straight road for me. It has been a winding climb that has been marked by valleys of loss, stretches of loneliness, and moments where the ground beneath me felt too fragile to hold. Yet, just as often, there have been glimpses of light when I needed it most!  There were unexpected tender mercies and the quiet strength to take one more step upward when I thought I couldn’t.  My story is not one of ease, but of endurance.  In the world of psychology, I would be labeled a “survivor” profile.  One of stumbling and rising, of learning to trust the One who steadies my feet when the path at times seemed ...

Life, Dirt, Dust, Jesus Part 5 – Ken Williams

The knowledge that God “breathed” the breath of life into clay, taken from dirt, that came from nothing, is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it. My mind splits open attempting to grasp that God, the true Light, who enlightens everyone, came into the world he created, but the world was blind and did not know him. Humans are beautiful works of Love and Beauty but became adversarial. We are not totally depraved. God will have his way with his beloved humanity. God’s self-giving, self-emptying, selfless being defeats the adversarial spirit within us once we desire to come home to our Father in heaven. Listening to the ...

Meandering in Our Journey by Bermie Dizon

There’s a common perception that a straight path is the only way forward, that if we aren’t moving directly toward our goals, we must be lost. But life doesn’t always follow a straight line. Sometimes, we find ourselves meandering—taking detours, exploring new paths, and pausing along the way. In these moments, it’s easy to feel like we’re off course, like we’ve lost our way. But what if these meanderings are not signs of being lost, but rather opportunities to listen, meditate, and enjoy God’s creation? Now that I’m retired, I’ve found more time to take walks. When I walk, I intentionally decide not to have a fixed ...