Jon Bloom

The fact that we really don’t know what Paul’s thorn was turns out to be both merciful and instructive to us. It’s merciful because, given the various possibilities, we all can identify with Paul to some degree in our afflictions. It’s instructive because what Paul’s thorn was isn’t the point. The point is what God’s purpose was for the thorn.

Jesus spoke many profound and important words to his disciples the night before his crucifixion. But there’s one statement we might easily pass over, because of the context in which he made it. Yet it is loaded with personal meaning for each of us who follows him.

I love the psalms, because of their beauty and because the wide range of emotions they contain grant us permission to express to God our honest questions, doubts, griefs, and despair. My friend Jon Bloom, board chair and co-founder of Desiring God, wrote about two back-to-back psalms and the powerful message their proximity expresses.

This blog by my friend Jon Bloom is one of those that I resonated with from start to finish. Hope you enjoy it, and take it to heart. In these days in which we live, it is so true, so relevant, and so important for all of us.

 The word translated “distracted” means “to be drawn about in different directions.” We are not distracted to something, but away from something. 

Princess Diana once said, “Only do what your heart tells you.” This is a creed believed by millions. It’s a statement of faith in one of the great pop cultural myths of the Western world. It’s a gospel proclaimed in many of our stories, movies, and songs.