Tag: Death

Links for the Weekend (2025-02-07)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

Each Friday, I’ll post links to 3–5 resources from around the web you may want to check out.

Your Phone Habits Aren’t Just About You

Trevin Wax writes about our phone habits and the way they affect people around us.

You’ve likely seen this phenomenon elsewhere. If you’re on a hike with friends, enjoying conversation and the beauty around you, the moment someone pulls out a phone to capture the moment for social media, the dynamic shifts. The scenery is no longer just scenery—everything is potential for content or a possible background for a selfie. The hike is no longer only about you and your friends—it’s something to be broadcast, something open for evaluation and discussion online.

To (Almost) Die is Gain

Heidi Kellogg reflects on a scary surgery and how she was affected by the prospect of facing death.

Weeks after my craniotomy I received a call from the doctor’s office. A new patient was asking to speak with someone who had faced a similar diagnosis. I happily agreed to talk with her. She was close to my age and, like me, she had a husband and two young-adult sons. She asked me, “How do you prepare to die?” I couldn’t help but think it’s best to start long before you get a diagnosis like ours. Four days was not enough time for the most important preparations, but thankfully, I had been preparing for a long time.

Near Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Our poem of the week: Near Vanderbilt University Medical Center, by A.M. Juster. It’s a short, punchy poem about our finitude as humans.

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article I wrote called Sorrow: An Engine of Christian Hope. If you haven’t already seen it, check it out!

Note: Washington Presbyterian Church and the editors of this blog do not necessarily endorse all content produced by the individuals or groups referenced here. 

Links for the Weekend (2025-01-31)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

Each Friday, I’ll post links to 3–5 resources from around the web you may want to check out.

If I Could Change Anything about the Modern Church

If Tim Challies could, he’d “return the graveyard to the churchyard.” He makes a compelling argument.

How would it change your worship if you were constantly confronted with the reality of death in this way yet also comforted by the proximity and the nearness of those who had gone before? How would it change your understanding of the church if the living and the dead maintained such a close distance? How would it change the way you prepare your heart to worship and prepare yourself to die? Speaking personally, I think it would be deeply moving and spiritually comforting. It would be a blessing to worship where my people are buried and to be buried where my people worship.

Enough with the Valorization of Doubt!

Trevin Wax laments the way many praise religious doubt as a virtue.

Of course, the life of faith isn’t easy. Thomas doubted the reality of the resurrection. A number of disciples doubted the truth even after they’d seen the risen Lord. Struggle is to be expected. That’s why Jude tells us to “have mercy on those who doubt.” Honesty about our doubt is a virtue, but it’s the honesty that’s commendable, not the doubt itself.

For The Church Podcast: Contentment

I appreciated this episode of the For the Church podcast on contentment. You might too! (Note: I do not see a transcription for this podcast episode.)

Note: Washington Presbyterian Church and the editors of this blog do not necessarily endorse all content produced by the individuals or groups referenced here. 

Links for the Weekend (2024-11-15)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

Each Friday, I’ll post links to 3–5 resources from around the web you may want to check out.

How Pondering Death Fuels Our Faith

Pondering one’s own death might not be popular these days, but Jenny Marcelene argues that it strengthens our faith.

But when I ponder the finiteness of my days, I’m drawn back to what matters most—Jesus. I’m propelled to carve out more moments to soak in God’s Word. To redirect my heart to pray on the way home from dropping kids off at school or at a stoplight. To take those extra moments to listen for the Lord’s voice before declaring my daily devotional time “done.”

Is Every Psalm About Christ?

What is the relationship between Jesus and the Psalms? Can Jesus pray every psalm, even the ones that involve confession of sin? Here’s a solid answer, in video format.

Sardis

Our poem of the week: Sardis, by Tania Runyan. It’s a poem about serving in the church nursery.

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article I wrote called Reading the Bible for the Ten Thousandth Time. If you haven’t already seen it, check it out!

Note: Washington Presbyterian Church and the editors of this blog do not necessarily endorse all content produced by the individuals or groups referenced here. 

Links for the Weekend (2024-08-09)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

Each Friday, I’ll post links to 3–5 resources from around the web you may want to check out.

Maybe We Make Meditation Too Difficult

Tim Challies wonders if we don’t often meditate on the Scriptures because we have over-complicated it.

What is meditation? Meditation is pondering the words of the Bible with the goal of better understanding and sharper application. Ideally, meditation leads us to understand the words we have read and to know how God may call us to work them out in our lives. It is one of the ways that we output wisdom after inputting knowledge.

What Does It Mean to Die with Dignity?

I have found Kathryn Butler’s writing about faith and medicine/health care so helpful this year. In this article she writes about end-of-life care and what it means to “die with dignity.”

What does it mean to die with dignity? Abstractly, we all long for a dignified death, during which family surround us and we suffer minimal pain and anxiety. In reality, however, the dying process is often unsettling, even when we try to prepare ourselves for its messy realities. Perhaps most importantly, however, conflating the phrase “death with dignity” and assisted dying confuses the conversation.

counterpressure

Our poem of the week: counterpressure, by Carreen Raynor. It’s largely about kindness.

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article I wrote called The 3-Step Path to Biblical Hope. If you haven’t already seen it, check it out!

Note: Washington Presbyterian Church and the editors of this blog do not necessarily endorse all content produced by the individuals or groups referenced here. 

Links for the Weekend (2023-11-03)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

Each Friday, I’ll post links to 3–5 resources from around the web you may want to check out.

Living Sorrows and Departed Joys

Tim Challies writes a moving article comparing the griefs that come from losing a child to death and having a child leave the faith.

His daughter has said she will come to church today. His daughter has wandered far but has said she is ready to return. His daughter who has squandered so much says she has learned her lesson. His daughter who has caused her father’s heart to ache has said that today she will soothe it. This man is looking for his daughter, his beloved daughter.

When Death Starts to Take Our Friends

This author reflects on the death of actor Matthew Perry and urges us to keep the brevity of life before us.

I was told I was going to die, once. I mean, I was told that I was going to die in a very short period of time of a dreadful illness. I didn’t. Here I am still. So far. But for a few short weeks the full impact that one day very soon would be my last day and after that, eternity, was seared into my brain. The enormous reality of it hit me. And I was only 42. The lurking truth came out of the shadows over there and stared me in the face right here.

What Does It Mean to Grieve the Holy Spirit?

Here is a video posted by Crossway in which Dr. Fred Sanders answers the question, “What does it mean to grieve the Holy Spirit?” (A transcript is also available.)

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article I wrote called 3 Skills Christians Can Learn from a Great Interviewer. If you haven’t already seen it, check it out!

Note: Washington Presbyterian Church and the editors of this blog do not necessarily endorse all content produced by the individuals or groups referenced here. 

Links for the Weekend (2023-10-20)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

Each Friday, I’ll post links to 3–5 resources from around the web you may want to check out.

The Last Thing Sufferers Need to Hear

Does the sovereignty of God bring comfort in the midst of suffering? It can, but it might not be the first thing to share with a grieving friend.

But for others, these truths—prematurely applied—can bypass the grieving process that needs to happen to fully reckon with and heal from a loss. Our brains often work in binaries, assuming that if God is in control, we shouldn’t make a fuss about it. Good theology can be used to heal the wound lightly, pronouncing “Peace, peace” when, in the raw heart of the bereaved, there is no peace (Jer. 6:14).

The Power And Pitfall Of Vulnerability

This author writes about learning to be vulnerable and the difference between online and local vulnerability.

I hated vulnerability because I’d rather push through life on my own. Put my head down, wipe the sweat and tears from my face, and plow forward alone. I sought independence, because it was the only way to keep my pride before others. If they knew what laid in my closet, they’d mock me, disown me. No one could see the shadows and grim behind my façade.

The Afterlife

This article is another entry in the “Theology in the Everyday” series at For The Church. The author here explains the Bible’s teaching on what happens after we die.

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article I wrote called Taking a Biblical Worldview to My Back Yard. If you haven’t already seen it, check it out!

Note: Washington Presbyterian Church and the editors of this blog do not necessarily endorse all content produced by the individuals or groups referenced here. 

Links for the Weekend (2/11/2022)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

Each Friday, I’ll post links to 3–5 resources from around the web you may want to check out.

Burial is Hopeful

What does a hope in resurrection look like for our dead bodies? Here’s a very hopeful answer!

When we take a departed friend and carefully prepare their body, we say that this is them, even though they are briefly not inhabiting it. We stand against the lie that our bodies are sacks of meat that we carry around while our minds are what matter—we say that these bodies are us, for all soul and body can be parted for a time.

An Open Letter to a Distressed Sufferer

Here’s a letter from a CCEF counselor to a friend who is in the midst of great suffering. Perhaps you or a friend might also be helped by the way he points to Jesus.

Dear friend, I have no definitive answer for why God has permitted this particular tsunami to flood your life. But while we can’t penetrate the mysteries of suffering, we can be sure of this: our gracious and strong Lifeguard will not let us be swept away. Whether we are flailing about in our panic or nearly comatose with grief, he holds us fast next to his heart and swims with us toward safety. Our suffering as believers is never the end of the story even when it looms large in our eyes—sometimes as large as death itself.

All This Wasted Worry

Glenna Marshall has a great word for you if you tend to stay awake at night worrying.

I went to bed that night with a personal imperative which I now quote to myself nearly every night when I turn out the light: Go to sleep, for God is awake and he loves you very much. Sometimes the things we worry over are real and serious realities. Kids get sick. Friends die. Bodies break. Finances crumble. Careers slip away. Relationships end. Cars crash. Storms rage. We can’t ignore the difficult things that we face in this life, and we don’t have to pretend to be impervious to the hurts and dangers of life on a broken, fallen planet. And yet, we also don’t have to pretend that we’re somehow preventing all the imagined bad things from happening by lying awake hatching together a rescue plan. The Rescuer has already come. We can trust him with today and tonight because he has promised us an eternity of peace. We can trust him with forever.

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article I wrote called The Winsome Christian. If you haven’t already seen it, check it out!

Note: Washington Presbyterian Church and the editors of this blog do not necessarily endorse all content produced by the individuals or groups referenced here. 

Links for the Weekend (2/4/2022)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

Each Friday, I’ll post links to 3–5 resources from around the web you may want to check out.

The God Who Has Been My Shepherd All My Life Long

This article is quite short, but I found the reflection here moving. God is our faithful, life-long shepherd.

God, the Shepherd and Guardian of my soul, has been the same for me. Never failing to walk with me—even carry me when broken, beat up, and defeated by my own failures and sins against God or others, or enduring ill treatment from straying sheep or false shepherds. In my times of following and times of straying, He has never failed me.

Bible Study is Hard Work (And That is OK).

Like lots of things that are valuable, studying the Bible is hard work. But that doesn’t mean we should turn away from it!

Studying the Bible is hard work, but lots of things are hard. It is hard to run a marathon or write a book or raise a family or maintain a healthy marriage. Bible study is hard, but it results in a deeper and more rich understanding of who God is, and who we are. The deeper I fall into God’s word, the more aware I become of my own sin and of God’s overwhelming grace to allow me to know him.

10 Passages to Read with Someone Who Is Near Death

For Christians who are close to death, words from the Lord bring special comfort and hope. Here is a list of 10 passages to read with someone near death. Read them yourself now, to be reminded of the truths we rely on, and bookmark it for later use!

Note: Washington Presbyterian Church and the editors of this blog do not necessarily endorse all content produced by the individuals or groups referenced here. 

Links for the Weekend (7/9/2021)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

Each Friday, I’ll post links to 3–5 resources from around the web you may want to check out.

Vacationing to the Glory of God

This article about vacationing seems especially appropriate for the summer.

Jesus told his disciples, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest awhile” (Mark 6:31). This call also applies to present-day disciples. Even though your life in Christ is supernatural; it’s not superhuman. If you do not ever come apart, you’ll fall apart. All of us need times of rest, relaxation, and rejuvenation. But remember that Christ’s call to his disciples to come away was a call to go with him to rest, not to go without him. So vacate… with Christ.

What Does Jeremiah 29:11 Mean?

Here’s a good explanation about an often-quoted verse in a little-read book. We need to look at context to understand Jeremiah 29:11.

If you were to take a poll on the most well-known verse in Jeremiah, there is a good chance that Jeremiah 29:11 would rank near the top, if not at the very top. This verse is commonly found on bumper stickers, signs, cards, etc., placed there to encourage people to have hope for the future that God will work things out for them. But is that really what this well-known verse means?

My 30-Second Sermon as We Prepared for a Crash Landing

As his plane was going down, Kyle Donn went through a range of thoughts and emotions.

I have never felt so out of control or totally exposed. Or—honestly—so scared. Three rows from the back of the plane, in a middle seat, with absolutely no ability to change anything that was about to happen. I played through my mind that in the next few minutes I could be meeting God.

What I Told A Teenage Boy Struggling With Lust

Rachel Welcher has written a lot about Christian sexuality. Here she relates a conversation with a teenage boy who sought her advice about his battle against lust.

I started by telling him, “You are not alone.” I explained that lust is a common struggle, something that I and almost everyone I know has dealt with at some point in their lives. And I told him that I was encouraged that he cared enough to do something about it. “It’s a good sign that you aren’t okay with this—that you want to change,” I said. And with this, he lifted his head a little.

Note: Washington Presbyterian Church and the editors of this blog do not necessarily endorse all content produced by the individuals or groups referenced here. 

Links for the Weekend (4/23/2021)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

Each Friday, I’ll post links to 3–5 resources from around the web you may want to check out.

Engaging Our Emotions, Engaging with God

Alastair Groves writes helpfully on what the Bible teaches about our emotions.

God doesn’t call us to avoid or squash our emotions (as Christians often suppose). Neither does he call us to embrace them unconditionally (as our culture often urges). Rather, he calls us to engage them by bringing our emotions to him and to his people. I like the word engage because it doesn’t make a premature assumption about whether the emotion is right or wrong, or how it might need to change. Instead it highlights what the Bible highlights: our emotions (good and bad) are meant to reveal the countless ways we need God.

Does Fasting Seem Strange To You?

Here’s a nice article from The Gospel Coalition Africa with a refresher on the practice of fasting. I liked the emphasis here on what fasting is for, not just what fasting is against.

Understood this way, the emphasis is more on what fasting is for—not for what fasting is against. Fasting is for focusing on God. It is a mindset of persistence that Jesus commends (Luke 18:1-8). It is urgent and daring. Fasting coupled with prayer desires to see the purposes of God come to pass.

The Gift of True Words

Melissa Edgington writes a lovely story about a woman finding a love letter from her husband years after he died. And there’s a lesson in here for all of us, too.

As I sat in her sunny room and listened to the quiver in her voice while she read her husband’s words, I remembered once again the immeasurable impact of expressions of love. We don’t say what we know and feel and appreciate often enough. We assume things are understood, and we underestimate the impact of our words. Write letters. Leave notes. Drop words into the space between you, and fill the unsure hearts around you with concrete understanding of all that’s inside of you. We will never regret gifting sweet words to another.

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article written by Erica Goehring called Tending a Fruitful Life. If you haven’t already seen it, check it out!

Note: Washington Presbyterian Church and the editors of this blog do not necessarily endorse all content produced by the individuals or groups referenced here.