iChaplain

A Simple Question with a Complicated Answer When people think about Peter and Paul, they often picture two of the most influential figures in the early Church, united in their mission to share the message of Jesus.  Yet when we look more closely at the Bible, the relationship between Peter and Paul seems more complex than a simple friendship story. Were they best mates? Probably not. They came from very different backgrounds. Peter was a fisherman, called by Jesus while working on his boat (Luke 5:1–11). He was passionate, courageous and often impulsive. Paul was a Pharisee, highly educated and deeply knowledgeable about law. His encounter with Jesus came dramatically on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1–19). Not only were they different, but they sometimes disagreed. Paul even writes about challenging Peter over an important issue in the early Church (Galatians 2:11–14). Yet despite their differences, they remained united.  In many ways, that might be more impressive than friend...

  We  don’t always wake up thinking, “Today I’m going to ignore God.” We wake up thinking about what needs to get done.  The bills, the messages, the job, the family. Alongside it all, there’s something else quietly shaping us, a desire for stability, a hope that things will work out, a longing to feel secure, valued, or at peace.  Life fills up quickly with these things, and before we realise it, our attention is already spoken for.  It’s not that we’ve rejected God. We’ve simply become busy, preoccupied, distracted. And it’s into that very normal, very human reality that Jesus speaks: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” At first, it can sound like a call to simply “put God first.”  But as we sit with it, we begin to see that Jesus is not just talking about where God sits in our lives. He is challenging what shapes our lives in the first place.  Because the real issue isn’t just that we...

There are moments in life when everything seems to slow down.  A waiting room late in the evening.  A quiet house after difficult news.  A long pause in a conversation where no one quite knows what to say.  These are the moments when the usual distractions fall away, and we are left with our thoughts.  And sometimes, almost without warning, a question surfaces:  If there is a God, where are you right now? Not always as a challenge. Not even always with anger.  Sometimes it feels more like a quiet reaching, honest and unguarded.  But this question does not only arise in private moments.  It can also come while watching the news, or listening to what is happening in the world. Stories of conflict, suffering and loss can leave us with the same quiet, unsettled thought: Where is God in all of this? For many people, the question of suffering does not begin as an abstract idea. It begins here, in ordinary life and in the world around us: when somet...