In which I am Amazed by Grace | Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Finding Golden Hours in Dark Days (and Some Thoughts on Forgiveness)

Anita Mathias — Sun, 23 Sep 2018 08:53:12 +0000

I love travel, and I’ve had many, many magical trips over the years…Costa Rica, New Zealand, Norway, Slovenia, and several trips to Switzerland, Italy, France and Greece were highlights. But anyone who travels a lot knows that every trip will not be a slice of heaven. Things can go wrong, tempers can go wrong. So […]

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Gratitude: A Secret to Happiness

Anita Mathias — Sun, 07 Jan 2018 13:57:03 +0000

Georgia O’Keefe All of us have a negativity bias which makes us more apt to remember one mean comment about our writing, our children, our appearance, or our characters, than dozens of positive ones. It’s true, isn’t it? More disquietingly, I’ve read, in Andrew Solomon’s brilliant The Noonday Demon that the myelin sheath around […]

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Hope for Limping Christians. Changing your Character is both an Act of Will and an Act of Grace

Anita Mathias — Sun, 13 Mar 2016 20:09:17 +0000

Neuroscientist James Fallon was (interestingly!) studying the brains of murderous psychopaths, using brain scans of his family as a control group of the healthy. He suddenly noticed the unmistakable brain scan of a psychopath among his family’s scans. Puzzled, certain it has been misfiled, he has the technician break the code. The brain of […]

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Mud and the Breath of God: That is What We Are

Anita Mathias — Tue, 01 Sep 2015 15:34:17 +0000

Several years ago, I wanted to go through a study on Agape Love, the blazing core of Christianity–but not a particular strength of mine!! And being an extroverted, sort of A type personality, I got permission from my church to organise a Bible Study on the topic under their auspices. Now, like most everyone, I […]

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In Which–Fortunately–Our Progress in the Spiritual Life Is Dependent on Grace and the Spirit, Not Our Hard Work

Anita Mathias — Sat, 21 Feb 2015 11:06:51 +0000

I often think of this sermon illustration from my time in Williamsburg, VA: You cannot knock on the door of Buckingham Palace, or the White House and enter. You need an invitation, or you will be firmly ushered out (at best!). God, creator of the cosmos, 70 thousand million million million (70 sextillion) […]

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In which God Creates Beauty from My Mistakes

Anita Mathias — Mon, 26 Jan 2015 18:54:14 +0000

In this season of hibernation, I think… and my remembrance of things past is not unaccompanied by regret. Mists of sadness rise. I will not enter them for they might drag me into a quagmire. No, I will not re-read past chapters. Today’s chapter is being written—Jesus dictating, me writing. Or sometimes, me writing fast, impulsively, […]

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I don’t have time to maintain these regrets

Anita Mathias — Mon, 28 Jul 2014 21:12:09 +0000

My daughter Zoe introduced me to this song by John Mark Macmillan: I don’t have time to maintain these regrets I am a memoirist (and also a restless, tiptoes person full of hope for the future). However examination of the past is rarely without regret. If only. I wish I had But that’s it!! No more looking […]

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When We are Caterpillars in a Ring of Fire, and Need Rescue from Above

Anita Mathias — Sun, 29 Jun 2014 22:01:22 +0000

Image Credit I read a striking essay this week. Two women counsellors listened to my story. I was prayed for very gently. I was encouraged to forgive all the people I felt had done me real or imaginary hurts throughout my life. It took a long time. Eventually, I came to the last thing, and […]

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In which Christ can heal the fierce memories of the past

Anita Mathias — Tue, 15 Apr 2014 20:08:30 +0000

“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun. Keats, sitting down to read King Lear again, feels torn between anticipation and the dread of immersing himself again in this scabrous tragedy. Once again the fierce dispute, Betwixt damnation and impassion’d clay Must I burn through; once more humbly assay The bitter-sweet of this Shakespearian […]

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A Beautiful Train Wreck into Grace

Anita Mathias — Thu, 27 Feb 2014 20:19:22 +0000

Sometimes, my tongue runs away with me, and I use my words to express anger and frustration rather than bestow grace and life, and those words steal life and strength rather than lavish them, And I see the red flag of Jesus at the level crossing of my heart, and am stopped dead in […]

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