catapult magazine

Items tagged pain

• Sunshine after the storm

  A family endures a painful situation to discover the enduring beauty of God's grace.

• Paradox and the Fall

  Since the Fall, God uses our weaknesses to build community and helps us gain a sense of Eden's bliss.

• Lessons learned through crisis

  A young cancer survivor shares how her experience refreshed her perspective on God's promises.

• Responding to violence

  Michael Ondaatje's novel, Anil's Ghost, addresses hopeless violence but doesn't offer any answers.

• A Beloved Enemy

  To overcome pain and fear, we must first desire to let go of our suffering.

• One is the loneliest number

  An exegesis of-sorts of II Timothy 4:9-18.

• My son, Jacob

  A birthmother tells her story of sacrifice.

• Camino de Santiago

  Reflections on a walk worth the suffering.

• The death of a marriage

  Divorce is never God's intention for marriage, but there is still grace.

• More of myself

  Reflection on experiences that flow between the community and the self.

• Late night thoughts on addiction as symptom

  A reflection that reframes the assumption that addiction is an illness.

• March 16

  An excerpt from a journal about coping with chronic pain.

• A year of life in "the zoo"

  On the joys and challenges of living in Christian community.

• Haunted by hope

  A reflection on expectations at the initiation of another Advent.

• Reality and hope

  A pastor presents a message of Advent hope to a small congregation in the middle of uncertainty.
  

• Hating my family

  The times, they are a changin’ in my family and yours.

• Sinking down

  On gaining a "sense of place" through knowledge of nightmares.

• East Side Gallery, Berlin (detail)

• Supernovaena

• From Buster to Batman

  The blessings and curses of growing beyond imaginary friends.

• The freedom, the pain and the just desserts of nerdiness

  Middle school lessons, for better or worse, become life lessons.

• (Partly) rebelling against rebellion

  Reflections of a pastor's kid on struggling against expectations.

• Buoyant optimism

  A review of Happy-Go-Lucky, directed by Mike Leigh.

• Enough

  A short manifesto that's easy to memorize, but not always easy to live.

• Fog

  On learning to trust after life changes in a split second.

• Being Bethlehem

  All creation is groaning...and someone has to push.

• The Gospel of the Birth Story

  A reading that embraces the images of birth woven throughout the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

• Suffering the hap-happiest season

  How can our Christmas rituals proclaim good news for sad people?

• To throw away or to keep

  Being born again into a new identity yields more questions than answers, with a need to proceed.

• New life

  How hours of pain and anger broke through to love.