Creation is God's Gift
Luann Budd
God has created us to perceive his glory and goodness in the beauty we find all around us.
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President's Blog
Luann Budd, president of NEWIM, blogs about the spiritual life of a leader, shares insight from what she is reading, and reflects on the call to Christian leadership.
Let It Go
Luann Budd
How can we work with the Holy Spirit to cultivate patience? Certainly, we can count to ten, we can take deep breaths, we can write all about it in our journal, we can rehearse in our minds a favorite verse of Scripture, we can go for a jog, or we can take some advice from Frozen and just “let it go.”
Read MoreJoy is A Key
Luann Budd
Recently, life overwhelmed me and I lost my sense of joy. I felt strangely dead. Even my connection to the Lord seemed to disappear. I could make a list of God’s amazing attributes, all good reasons to praise him, but I wasn't moved.
When we aren't joyful, is there anything we can do to draw near to the Lord with sincere devotion? I can hear my mentors saying, “Press on. Feelings aren’t important. They're fickle. They come and go.” That's true. But throughout Scripture, we're exhorted to pay close attention to our hearts.
Is there anything we can do to help our hearts engage with the Lord again? I think so.
Read MoreAre We Still In This Together?
Luann Budd
Almost everyone talks about how hard the isolation is on their children and they struggle trying to manage work and home and keeping their kids on track with school. Of course, we feel out of sorts and grieve the obvious, and also the intangible, losses. This is a sad time and it’s hard. At the outset it seemed so clear: we are in this together. But now, I’m not so sure.
Read MoreMystery and Wonder
Luann Budd
Paul says that our spiritual formation is as radical as dying and being recreated. I’ve spent some time recently reflecting on what this means.
Read MoreBeyond Mars
Luann Budd
I was flying to Chicago and although I had my own books to read, I started flipping through the Southwest Airlines magazine. I never read the airline magazine. Tucked inside was a nugget of wisdom, hidden treasure from the Lord.
Read MoreStories from our year of Spiritual Discernment
Luann Budd
Gary Walters, the president of my denomination, mentioned he has a table full of roosters outside his office. At the midwinter conference, he told us why.
Read MoreSpiritual Discernment: What does the process look like?
Luann Budd
2017 was a year of spiritual discernment for the NEWIM Board and me. As we transitioned from Jackie's leadership to mine, we sought to discern God's leading. What is spiritual discernment and what does the process look like? I found Henri Nouwen's book on Spiritual Discernment very helpful in confirming what I understood about the process.
Read MoreThat We May Have Life
Luann Budd
It's really easy to get buried in too much work, only to have one more thing come up that we must do. Of course we say, "Yes," and before long we are living overwhelmed. I've been quite surprised that even during retirement when I'm not reporting to a boss, I still find myself running ragged. It seems that no matter what stage of life we are in, the only way to have some time to rest is to schedule it.
Read MoreImmersed
Luann Budd
We often live as if heaven were far away, lost somewhere beyond the clouds. Yet, we affirm that Jesus said he would never leave us and we know the Holy Spirit lives within us. If the Presence of God brings heaven to us, if as Paul told the Athenians “we live and move and have our being in Him,” we don’t want to miss Him, living as if there is a distance.
Read MoreCrooked Timber
Luann Budd
How can we make progress in our struggle against sin?
We are "fearfully and wonderfully made," yet we find in ourselves an incredible bent toward selfishness and overconfidence in our own abilities. Earlier generations expressed this truth by saying that we are “crooked timber.”
Is there anything that we can do?
Read MoreI Could Sing of Your Love Forever
Luann Budd
Over the mountains and the sea
Your river runs with the love for me
Floating in the River that is God's Love
Luann Budd
Are there prerequisites for Christian ministry? I think so.
Jesus really wants us to know His love. When we get to heaven, I think He will ask us, “Did you know that I loved you?” He wants us to float in the river that is His love. He doesn’t want us to just stand alongside the bank of the river getting splashed every so often. He wants us to jump in, be fully immersed, letting the current carry us downstream. That's a prereq for ministry.
Read MoreLearning to Pray from the Puritans
Luann Budd
I’ve been surprised to notice how often the Puritans prayed that they could enjoy TODAY one of the blessings we are promised in heaven. For example:
"Let there be unrestrained fellowship with Jesus, today.”
“In heaven we will hear the Divine Accolade, may we hear today, “Well done”.
“In heaven, we will breathe joy. May we be filled with joy as we receive the gifts You give.”
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