With Me
I have written before about Bonnie-the-Dog, my faithful canine companion. She is the Ultimate Pet – a beautiful creature who
Shannon Vowell
February 18, 2023
BEGINNING ... Again
Discovering and Delighting in God's Plan for Your Future
by Shannon Vowell
Featuring illustrations by award-winning artist Sara Joseph
Published by Sunwing Press
Available on Amazon
BEGINNING ... Again
Discovering and Delighting in God's Plan for Your Future
by Shannon Vowell
Featuring illustrations by award-winning
artist Sara Joseph
Published by Sunwing Press
Available on Amazon
BEGINNING ... Again
Discovering and Delighting in God's Plan for Your Future
by Shannon Vowell
Featuring illustrations by award-winning
artist Sara Joseph
Published by Sunwing Press
Available on Amazon
You may be asking,
Why Jesus?
Why Jesus? – In a global marketplace of ideas, why pursue a carpenter who claimed to be God?
Why Jesus? – When I do choose to pursue the carpenter, why do suffering and doubt persist?
Why? Jesus! – Can the pursuit of Jesus, in itself, be the answer?
Shannon Vowell
Author / Seeker
If questions like these tend to strain your brain or pain your heart, then, welcome! This site is for YOU.
Let’s assume that questions launch quests. And let’s get cozy with this dynamic. Because if questions are bridges and catalysts rather than roadblocks or dead ends, then asking is a self-evidently exciting step. Jesus himself explains: “You have not because you ask not.” Our thought process here derives from the joyful inverse – another Jesus-statement, equally powerful and true: “Ask and you shall receive.” YES! If my own question-heavy journey has taught me anything for certain, it is these two things: First, asking is the only step that takes me anywhere worth going. And second, the only questions that don’t lead me to Jesus are the questions I don’t ask.
So, Fellow Seeker, let’s ask, together … let’s pursue answers, together … and let’s savor the asking and the pursuit as intentionally as we celebrate the answers and the destinations.
Let’s assume that questions launch quests. And let’s get cozy with this dynamic. Because if questions are bridges and catalysts rather than roadblocks or dead ends, then asking is a self-evidently exciting step. Jesus himself explains: “You have not because you ask not.” Our thought process here derives from the joyful inverse – another Jesus-statement, equally powerful and true: “Ask and you shall receive.” YES! If my own question-heavy journey has taught me anything for certain, it is these two things: First, asking is the only step that takes me anywhere worth going. And second, the only questions that don’t lead me to Jesus are the questions I don’t ask.
So, Fellow Seeker, let’s ask, together … let’s pursue answers, together … and let’s savor the asking and the pursuit as intentionally as we celebrate the answers and the destinations.
As surely as questions launch us on quests, your quest is as uniquely your own as are your questions.
Even if millions of others in ages past have asked questions that sound like yours, no one has ever asked them from the perspective which belongs to you alone. Logically, then, even those answers which confirm “universal Truth” will come phrased in language that speaks to you, personally. Bearing that in mind, quests remain shared adventures. Support, encouragement, brainstorming ways to keep moving – fellow questers immeasurably enrich the journey. Sometimes fellow questers re-route the journey and keep us away from deadly peril / on track toward the treasure we pursue!
So, my purpose here is not to offer you “all the answers” – nor to pretend that your answers will align completely with those I’ve found. Rather, I want to share the hope I have found in my own questing – and to offer what I have in the way of equipment and encouragement as fuel for the journey that can only, ever, be yours. I know from personal experience that Jesus welcomes questions – no matter what they are. I have learned (a hard lesson!) that Jesus is the source of our intellect as well as its purpose. And I live every day surrounded by evidence that Jesus created our curiosity, which means our curiosity inevitably compels us toward him.
My core premise –
and my promise to you:
All truth belongs to Jesus because Jesus IS truth. It’s taken me a lifetime to know even that much. (A quest can’t be hurried!) And what a comfort to know that Jesus has time for us, for our questions and questing … and that because of Jesus we have all the time we need to ask and seek and pursue.
In the World
Does Jesus have anything relevant to say to 21st century issues like poverty, racism, environmental depredations, political systems, ideologies and isms, etc? More fundamentally, can Jesus make any difference to real life in real time – is Jesus even involved? What is a “Christian worldview” and how can such a thing be other than judge-y and negative?
Through the Church
If Jesus really had good intentions for the world, why put something as broken and ugly as the church in charge of carrying out his vision? Given all the factual history of abuses of power and perversions of justice carried out under the banner of organized Christianity, isn’t church obsolete at this point? Why ask questions / pursue Jesus with a bunch of sinners anyway?
At Home
If Jesus is supposed to be the model of Christian life, where do we get the ideal of families in houses – since He was famously single, homeless, and always on the move? What does Jesus mean to relationships with other people who live closest to us? And what does “at home” mean for people who are called to be “in the world but not of the world?”
In the World
Does Jesus have anything relevant to say to 21st century issues like poverty, racism, environmental depredations, political systems, ideologies and isms, etc? More fundamentally, can Jesus make any difference to real life in real time – is Jesus even involved? What is a “Christian worldview” and how can such a thing be other than judge-y and negative?
Through the Church
If Jesus really had good intentions for the world, why put something as broken and ugly as the church in charge of carrying out his vision? Given all the factual history of abuses of power and perversions of justice carried out under the banner of organized Christianity, isn’t church obsolete at this point? Why ask questions / pursue Jesus with a bunch of sinners anyway?
At Home
If Jesus is supposed to be the model of Christian life, where do we get the ideal of families in houses – since He was famously single, homeless, and always on the move? What does Jesus mean to relationships with other people who live closest to us? And what does “at home” mean for people who are called to be “in the world but not of the world?”
So Why Hummingbirds
and Sunflowers?
First, hummingbirds. Hummingbirds are relentless seekers! They travel thousands of miles, following the nectar / warm weather. Their diminutive size and fragile-looking beauty belie the fact of their aerobic hardiness and aerodynamic efficiency. God designed them to seek — and to find — and then made them so gorgeous that their “quests” have the object of admiration and imitation for generations of artists. A key fact about them: they migrate as individuals, rather than as large flocks. Their quests – like our human quests – take them in pursuit of common objectives but lead them along unique routes, solo.
Second, sunflowers. Sunflowers are “heliotropic” — their blooms literally track the sun. Is there a better metaphor for Christians / Christian focus?! I love that they are so unmistakable — never have to wonder, “Is that a peony or a rose? A lilac or a lavender?” — No ambiguity or ambivalence about a sunflower! I also love that they literally stand out in a crowd because they are so darn big. And sunflowers, splendid as they are, are much more than ornaments. Beauty is the biggest job for any flower, but sunflowers are less like pageant queens than soup-kitchen saints: squirrels, chipmunks, mice, black bears, deer, hedgehogs, boars, raccoons — that’s the start of one list of animals that eat sunflower seeds.
So why hummingbirds and sunflowers? Obviously, because looking at them makes me so happy! (Multiple paintings of hummingbirds in my house, hummingbird feeders outside every window, and fresh sunflowers permanently ensconced on my kitchen table all testify to that.) But ... also because looking at the particular beauty of hummingbirds and sunflowers coaxes my grateful heart toward wisdom.
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Questing Together
I would love to journey with you. Are there questions you'd like to share with me? Answers? Signposts? Contact me below.