grace | Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Keeping our Small Boat Afloat: Thoughts on Redemption, Giving up Regret, and my Thirty Year Marriage

Anita Mathias — Tue, 26 Mar 2019 18:48:11 +0000

Our wedding portrait, 30 years ago I love this verbally rich “worship song” from the young song-writer John Mark Macmillan He is jealous for me. Love’s like a hurricane, and I am a tree Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy. I don’t have time to maintain these regrets, When I think about […]

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Biggest Losers, Grace, and Silver Linings

Anita Mathias — Fri, 27 May 2016 21:19:56 +0000

I read the New York Times’ distressing account of The Biggest Loser show. Because of their rapid weight loss, the participants’ metabolisms dramatically slowed down, as happens with any diet. Researchers discovered that, six years on, the metabolism of the contestants continued slowing down, and they continued gaining weight disproportionate to their calorie intake, their […]

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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 Imaginative Literature Stirs the Heart to Conversion (A Guest Post by Holly Ordway)

Anita Mathias — Mon, 13 Oct 2014 22:08:08 +0000

I am honoured to welcome Dr. Holly Ordway to my blog today. In which Imaginative Literature Stirs the Heart to Conversion How could a fierce atheist enter into Christian faith? There are many ways for God’s grace to work; my own story is one that highlights the importance of imaginative literature! When I was firmly […]

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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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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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One Novelist’s Long Journey to Publication: A Guest Post by Rachel Allord

Anita Mathias — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 12:16:59 +0000

When my son was born fourteen years ago, I loved being a stay at home mom. Truly I did. And yet at the same time, something inside of me felt restless, like my creativity was slowly drying up. I figured out how to nurse with one hand and hold a book in the other and, […]

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In which Grace is like Manna, Given Day by Day, in our Time of Need, and Just Enough

Anita Mathias — Thu, 23 May 2013 09:47:57 +0000

I have desired some real life fairy tales which haven’t happened. And there are spiritual fairy tales I have desired. To be able to say: “Some one prayed for me, and the mathematical problem which has baffled me all my adult life: “How to eat less than I burn” was resolved, just like that.” “I prayed for […]

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The Root of Peace (from Brennan Manning’s “Ragamuffin Gospel”)

Anita Mathias — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 17:19:30 +0000

Philosopher Jacques Maritain once said that the culmination of knowledge is not conceptual but experiential: I feel God. Such is the promise of the Scriptures: Be still and know (experience) that I am God. My own journey bears witness to that. I mean simply that a living, loving God can and does make his presence […]

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My Train Wreck into Grace

Anita Mathias — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 10:19:06 +0000

Sometimes, when my tongue runs away with me, and I use my words to express anger rather than bestow grace, and those words steal life and strength and peace rather than lavish them, I see the red flag of Jesus, and am stopped dead in my tracks. But sometimes, I don’t stop, and don’t listen […]

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