One in Christ

I spent last week at the Appalachian regional family camp for my denomination, which I’ve been attending for a dozen years or so. I was struck by how this particular camp reflected what the body of Christ is supposed to be. Aside from the usual hugs and laughter, we united in prayer for a couple people facing serious medical issues and others who have lost loved ones. There was a lot of encouragement, remembering, worship, and pointing one another to the truths of Scripture and who God is. The week ended with the regional delegate meeting where there was the potential for divisiveness, but that was averted through a lot of prayer and remembering that we are in this work together.

Whether it is among denominations, regions, churches, or our individual lives, we can be quick to forget that we are one body. We often feel isolated, and we think we have to take matters into our own hands to get anything done. In Ephesians 4, Paul is emphatic:

“Walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body… [gifted by God] to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith…” (1-4, 12-13).

When we truly believe that we are one in Christ, we are more likely to pursue His will through prayer, rather than setting our own agendas. We will be more concerned to “look not only to [our] own interest, but also to the interests of others” (Phil. 24). We can seek to understand where others are coming from, rather than making assumptions.

On the individual level, being part of the body of Christ is a reminder that we are not meant to live in isolation or to keep all our problems and worries secret. Henri Nouwen wrote in The Inner Voice of Love:

“Your journey is made not just for yourself but for all who belong to the body… The journey you are choosing is Jesus’ journey, and whether or not you are fully aware of it, you are also asking your brothers and sisters to follow you… Your choices also call your friends to make new choices” (50).

As members of one body, we come together to share our heartaches, joys, struggles, and join in the work set before us all. We encourage one another (1 Thess. 4:18), pray for one another (James 5:16), equip one another (Eph. 4:12), and spur one another on to love and good deeds (Heb. 10:24). Family camp happens to be a good example of extended quality time together, but these things should also be occurring on a regular basis through local churches and small groups. We were never meant to go through this life alone.

“If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it” (1 Cor. 12:26-27).

© 2025 Dawn Rutan text and photo from AACA campground in 2020. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Out of Control

Many in our world are running after power and control. From rulers of nations to overseers of households, we don’t like things that are unpredictable or outside of our control. And yet even in our own lives there is much we cannot do. Henri Nouwen wrote in The Inner Voice of Love:

“There are places in you where you are completely powerless. You so much want to heal yourself, fight your temptations, and stay in control. But you cannot do it yourself… Your willingness to let go of your desire to control your life reveals a certain trust. The more you relinquish your stubborn need to maintain power, the more you will get in touch with the One who has the power to heal and guide you. And the more you get in touch with that divine power, the easier it will be to confess to yourself and to others your basic powerlessness” (27).

God never intended for us to be self-sufficient. We were made to fulfill different roles on earth, and thus we need one another for basic survival. And we were made for relationships, so we need to give and receive love. And above all this, we need God, our Creator and Sustainer, to maintain our very existence. Jesus said to His disciples:

“And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? … But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith!” (Luke 12:25, 28).

We can’t even grow a tomato apart from God, much less control the events of our lives or the actions of others. Warren Wiersbe has a short book on John 15 titled Abide. He notes:

“The Father often has to remind us that we are branches and not the Vine itself. He permits us to go through circumstances that bring out our weakness and His strength. He repeatedly teaches us, ‘apart from me, you can do nothing’ (Jn. 15:5).”

It’s tempting to think that we have more control than we actually do, but it doesn’t take much to derail our plans. A doctor’s diagnosis, a reckless driver, a temperamental coworker, an unexpected flood, “the best laid schemes of mouse and men go oft awry” (Robert Burns).

In each and every situation, our learned response should be to turn to the One who is omniscient and omnipotent, and trust that He will sustain us to His determined end. Nouwen wrote, “Be quiet, acknowledge your powerlessness, and have faith that one day you will know how much you have received” (28).

“I welcome everything that comes to me today, because I know it’s for my healing.

I welcome all thoughts, feelings, emotions, persons, situations, and conditions.

I let go of my desire for power and control.

I let go of my desire for affection, esteem, approval, and pleasure.

I let go of my desire for survival and security.

I let go of my desire to change any situation, condition, person, or myself.

I open to the love and presence of God and God’s action within. Amen.”

–Thomas Keating

“For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men… Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord” (1 Cor. 1:25, 31).

© 2025 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

The Eyes Have It

The subject of social media and artificial intelligence has come up on recent episodes in two different podcasts that I listen to. (Links are below.) In both cases, they warned of the increasing relational disconnect that we are experiencing. We are made for connection with other people. One of the first skills we learned as infants was to make eye contact with our parents. And before long, we learned how to follow someone else’s gaze to see what they were looking at. Sight, sound, and touch are vital to our development as children and our health as adults. Those with visual or auditory deficits rely on their other senses even more. (Imagine if Helen Keller had never had Anne Sullivan to learn from.) It has long been known that infants don’t thrive if they are kept isolated or ignored in their cribs.

I watched a behind the scenes clip from a favorite PBS drama, and was a little surprised to hear one of the directors say that he prefers real film for close-up scenes because the digital cameras somehow lose the sparkle in the eyes. Actors look less human simply by using digital technology.

Why is it that we have accepted so readily this disembodied life that technology facilitates? Why is it so easy for us to self-isolate and pull away from small groups and corporate worship? I believe this is one of the great deceptions foisted on us by the enemy of our souls, that screens are an acceptable alternative to life together. It’s ironic that we turn from the “one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5) and we turn to media that is neither god nor man.

When God created the world, He quickly proclaimed, “It is not good that the man should be alone” (Gen. 2:18). He wasn’t referring just to marriage, but to relationships with others as well. Apparently, it was also a regular practice for God Himself to show up in the Garden of Eden and talk with Adam and Eve (Gen. 3:8). Then in the turning point of the biblical narrative, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). Though there were written Scriptures, the incarnation was essential because God is a relational being. He could have created some impersonal method of salvation, but that wasn’t good enough for His plan. He wasn’t just saving people from their sin and its consequences. He was saving them to relationship with Him for eternity. And not just with Him, but with all of His children by faith.

I have a suspicion that in the new heavens and new earth, there’s going to be a lot less reliance on technology and a lot more relational interaction, because that is how God designed us. My local grocery store just installed several self-checkouts, despite the fact that they’d tried once before and no one used them. Even though I’m not a terribly social person, I want to interact with real cashiers and at least try to share a smile with them and thank them for their work.

Facebook seems to think that all I need in life is more videos of pandas rolling down hills, and ideas for new Lego builds. But what I need, and what I think we all need, are reminders that there are real people who will look us in the eye and actually see us for who we are. We need that in our daily lives, at work or school, running errands, and especially through our local churches as we connect with one another and worship God together.

Technology can sometimes help to keep lines of communication open (though it can also hurt too), but screens can never replace relationships with real people. Let’s not let them.

“For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them” (Matt. 13:14, quoting Isaiah 6:9-10).

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Russell Moore interview with Nicholas Carr- “Building Attention in a Digital Age”

Geoff Holsclaw interview with Joshua Cocanye- “Why We Gather: The Neuroscience Behind Corporate Worship”

The Life of Helen Keller film segment

© 2025 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Not My Job

Sometime during the night I was thinking about Matthew 14 (and parallels in the other Gospels) where Jesus has been teaching the people. At the end of the day the disciples suggest that Jesus should send the crowds away to find food. Jesus responds, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat” (Matt. 14:16). He knew perfectly well that they didn’t have enough food on hand to serve more than 5000 people. He already knew how He planned to provide the food for them. I was reminded of an interview where Dallas Jenkins said,

“God does impossible math... Your job is not to feed the 5000 but to give Him your loaves and fish… My job is not to worry about the impact or to worry about the multiplication, it’s just to make sure whatever loaves and fish I do provide are as good and healthy as they can be.”

Some of us are pretty good at worrying about the details. “How is this going to work?” “What if...?” My personality leads to me look for all the answers before anyone asks me the questions, because I don’t want to look ignorant or incompetent. (Yeah, I know, pride and shame are flip sides of the same coin.) I have to be reminded often “That’s not your job.” Not only is it impossible for any person to know all the answers or to have all the resources, God actually delights in showing up in our weakness.

He can multiply resources in ways we never even imagined. He has answers to questions we never thought of asking. He arranges circumstances for events we never expected. All He asks is that we keep showing up and giving Him what little we have to offer, in particular through the spiritual gifts He has given us.

“Having gifts that differ according to the grace give to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness” (Rom. 12:6-8).

We each do our small part and trust God for the outcome. Part of the challenge, at least for me, is in discerning where my part ends and God’s begins. I could research, study, and plan for eons and never feel like I’m done. There comes a time when we each have to say, “I’ve done what I know to do,” and let it go. If God wants something to happen, He can do it without me figuring out all the details. In fact, He will get more glory if I end up saying, “Oh, I never would have thought of that.”

Even the disciples didn’t get it. Shortly after the feeding of the 5000, they had the same question with a crowd of 4000. “Where are we to get enough bread in such a desolate place to feed so great a crowd?” (Matt. 15:33). Human math just doesn’t quite add up when God is involved. At such times, I think it is okay (though hard) to say, “God, I can’t make sense of this, so I guess my job is to trust You now.”

In what is becoming one of my favorite scenes in the Gospels, a man brought his son to the disciples and asked them to cast out the evil spirit that was tormenting him. The disciples were failing miserably when Jesus showed up and proclaimed, “All things are possible for one who believes.” The father cried out, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:23-24). The disciples hadn’t yet figured out that they didn’t have the power to do anything apart from God. The job for the disciples, as for all of us, is to believe God can do and will do things we could never ask or imagine, because that’s His job.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths” (Prov. 3:5-6).

© 2025 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Upside Down

“You who have made me see many troubles and calamities will revive me again; from the depths of the earth You will bring me up again” (Psalm 71:20).

I have mixed feelings about this particular verse. It is a precious promise of what God can do and will do for His children. And yet that first phrase is a little scary. “You made me see troubles and calamities”? Does God cause suffering? A parallel might be the opening of the book of Job. Satan attacks Job, yet it is only by God’s permission. Or in Genesis 50:20, Joseph tells his brothers, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today.”

Scripture is clear that God is sovereign over all things, yet He clearly allows evil things to happen even to people who love Him dearly. And since our days were written “when as yet there was none of them” (Ps. 139:16), God planned from the beginning exactly how He was going to use sin and suffering for His own good purposes in our lives.

In my imagination, I picture God writing out the book of our lives and asking Satan, “OK, what would you like to happen to this person? … Ah ha, I’ll permit that and then flip it upside down so that they and their family members come to rely on Me!” No matter what Satan comes up with, God holds the winning card.

Although we don’t know who wrote Psalm 71, it could certainly be a reflection of David’s life. As a young man he was ignored or condemned by his brothers. He was chosen by God to become the king, but spent years on the run from King Saul. He lived in an era when war was an annual event, with some wins and some losses. He made some bad decisions that included getting Bathsheba pregnant and then conspiring to murder her husband. His own son plotted against him to steal the kingdom away. And yet in all this he kept turning to God in faith over and over again. David faced many troubles and calamities, but God was never far away.

Charles Spurgeon wrote about this psalm, “Here is faith’s inference from the infinite greatness of the Lord. He has been strong to smite; he will be also strong to save. He has shown me many heavy and severe trials, and he will also show me many and precious mercies.” Spurgeon wasn’t referring to merely theoretical trials. He had plenty of controversy to deal with in his ministry, as well as physical and emotional struggles. By faith he trusted that God’s good purposes would prevail.

I don’t know what God is planning to do through the things that hurt me or those I love. I may never know in this lifetime. I hope that my faith is growing stronger along the way, and that there are fewer valleys of doubt. I have not arrived on the mountaintop nor can I see it ahead. But I can say with certainty that I would not be where I am if it were not for God’s “many and precious mercies” reviving me and bearing me up along the way. I believe that we can hold onto Jesus’ promise to His disciples:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy… So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you” (John 16:20, 22).

© 2025 Dawn Rutan. Photo from one of my many hikes on the Rough Ridge trail near Blowing Rock, NC. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Blessed

The following is something I wrote for my denomination’s women’s ministry email for May.

Have you ever scrolled through social media and seen comments like:

Got engaged today! #Blessed
New grandchild! #Blessed
Just missed being in a car accident! #Blessed
Test results clear! #Blessed

I often think to myself, what if the circumstances were different? Are we only blessed when things are going well? In our culture there is a clear assumption that the beatitudes should say things like:

Blessed are the rich, for they can buy whatever they want.
Blessed are the powerful, for they can control the people around them.
Blessed are the healthy, for they need no one to help them.
Blessed are those in favorable circumstances, for they shall have no worries.

But that’s certainly not what Jesus said in Matthew 5. He proclaimed blessings on the poor in spirit, mourners, meek, hungry for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, and even the persecuted—in short, all the people our culture tends to look down on and try to avoid. Sure, it’s nice to enjoy good circumstances, but that’s not usually the things that grow our faith.

I love the Apostle Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 12:9 (ESV), “But [the Lord] said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” And James reminds us, “Count it all joy, my brothers [and sisters], when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (1:2-4). Times of trial and hardship can result in the blessing of spiritual growth.

I was reading in Deuteronomy of the blessings of obedience and the curses of disobedience proclaimed to the nation of Israel as they entered the Promised Land. That might sound very legalistic unless you remember the new covenant in Jesus’ blood. He bore our curses so that we may be eternally blessed (Gal. 3:13-14). We have the blessing of forgiveness now and life in His kingdom forever.

This life is often painful, and happiness may be hard to find at times, but for the Christian there is never a time when we are not blessed. I can testify that my faith is much stronger today because of times of difficulty, loneliness, and depression. When people have failed to take good care of me, I am blessed to know that Jesus is always there for me. When sorrows have felt overwhelming, I am blessed to remember that God comforts the brokenhearted. When life is painful, I am blessed because I’m sure this is not the end of the story. No matter what my circumstances, I know that I am blessed because I am a child of the one true King, and He will never let me go.

“Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning” (Ps. 30:5b), and one day “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:4).

#SoBlessed!

© 2025 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Faith and Fear

There is a Christian tradition that talks about the train of “Fact – Faith – Feelings,” where facts are the engine and feelings are the caboose. But this is confusing at best, and potentially misleading. (See https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/fact-faith-feeling.) I’m toying with the idea of it being like a Venn diagram where our goal is to live in the center where all three meet and inform and confirm one another, rather than taking any of them on their own. (I haven’t thought through all the implications of that approach, though I’m sure it’s not perfect.)

Some Christians teach or imply that if you have enough faith, you will never wrestle with fear or anxiety. However, this does not seem to be the teaching of Scripture. Psalm 56:3 says, “When I am afraid, I put my trust in You.” In his Daily Treasury from the Psalms, Charles Spurgeon wrote about this verse:

“David was no braggart—he does not claim never to be afraid, and he was no brutish stoic free from fear… He feared, but that fear did not fill the whole area of his mind, for he adds, ‘I will trust in thee.’ It is possible, then, for fear and faith to occupy the mind at the same moment… It is a blessed fear that drives us to trust. Unregenerate fear drives from God; gracious fear drives to him.”

In a similar vein, Brennan Manning wrote:

“We often presume that trust will dispel the confusion, illuminate the darkness, vanquish the uncertainty, and redeem the times. But the crowd of witnesses in Hebrews 11 testifies that this is not the case. Our trust does not bring final clarity on this earth. It does not still the chaos or dull the pain or provide a crutch. When all else is unclear, the heart of trust says, as Jesus did on the cross, ‘Into your hands I commit my spirit’ (Luke 23:46)” (Ruthless Trust, 6).

Faith doesn’t preclude fear, but it should inform what we do with our fears. It’s easy to get lost in our feelings and forget the truths of Scripture and the promises of God. We may believe that God is present with us and is sovereign over the world, and yet still struggle to know how to trust Him in the midst of difficult circumstances.

Multiple times recently I have heard people say that in Scripture, “Do not fear” is not a command to obey but an invitation to remember God’s presence and care. He invites us to come to Him with all our fears, and to walk alongside the One whose “yoke is easy and [His] burden is light” (Matt. 11:30), rather than trying to carry our burdens alone.

I believe we can learn to turn to God with our fears, though I admit I’m not very good at that. My brain gets stuck in a vicious cycle of anxious thoughts because I want to control the outcome of some situation. I have to remind myself frequently that I am neither omnipotent nor omniscient, but I can trust the One who is. Spurgeon noted on Psalm 55, “We can have no better ground of confidence. The Lord is all, and more than all, that faith can need as the foundation of peaceful dependence. Lord, increase our faith evermore.”

“Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you; He will never permit the righteous to be moved” (Ps. 55:22).

© 2025 Dawn Rutan. Image edited from pixabay.com original. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.