A few years ago I was diagnosed with “severe degenerative disc disease.” This is a lower back issue. For the last six years, the pain has often been tremendous, keeping me...

by C Michael Patton

Christian Life

My Honest Conversation with Michael Patton About Wanting to Die

An Honest and Vulnerable Prayer God, please kill me. This is a prayer I prayed with tears in my eyes for two and a half hours early Monday morning. Please. I will never ask...

Hope in Lamenting: When Life Has No Easy Answers

Sometimes, there’s no easy answer—or an answer at all!—for life’s hardest questions, especially for a Christian. I doubt no one really wants to know the reason...

by Rulonda JaBrey

Depression

Doubt

Personal (Michael Patton)

Suffering and Pain

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Waiting to Die

Over the last year, I have been hospitalized with a condition called rhabdomyolysis nine times. Each time, my kidney’s shut down. A few of these times the doctors said I...

by C Michael Patton

Suffering and Pain

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Making Sense of All Suffering – What is the Telos of Pain?

What’s the point of all the suffering Christians go through? What is God trying to accomplish? What’s the goal? The Bible talks a lot about this using the Greek word “telos”....

Will God Protect My Children?

Will God Protect My Children? My friend was not a Christian, but he was seriously considering it. He was one of my wild friends from my younger, crazier days. We used to drive...

Quotes from the Valley of the Shadow of Death: John Calvin (1509-1564)

The first post in this series consisted of quotes from Charles Spurgeon. The second from Dietrich Bonhoeffer. John Calvin probably did more (outside of God and His Word) to...

Quotes from the Valley of the Shadow of Death: Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945)

The first post in this series consisted of quotes from Charles Spurgeon. The second person who helped, in profound ways, get my family through an especially terrible year is...

Quotes from the Valley of the Shadow of Death: Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892)

My wife and I went through an especially intense period of suffering in 2013. I’m planning to pull back the curtain of our story, Lord willing, and turn it into a book...

Hurting for Oklahoma: On Bearing the Pains of Those We Don’t Know

I have been watching the television all night. Though my heart is being torn out and the miserable “Why God?” thoughts run through my mind over and over again, I...

by C Michael Patton

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