Chris Hall

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Articles & Essays by Chris Hall

Article

The Fruit of Confinement

Featured January 29, 2018

Obe­di­ence and sub­mis­sion will grow in the ​“cru­cible of impris­on­ment” — whether that hap­pens behind lit­er­al bars or in the pris­ons of fail­ing bod­ies. Chris Hall shares some thoughts with us about learn­ing spaces we’d rather not enter and the good fruit God can cul­ti­vate inside them.

Article

The Prodigal Mind of God

Featured January 22, 2018

Chris Hall and John Chrysos­tom invite us to spend some time think­ing about how much God delights in the extrav­a­gant vari­ety of his cre­ation and to con­sid­er how, as God’s image-bear­ers, we can pre­serve and pro­tect the nat­ur­al world. They remind us that ​“God loves wild things” — and so should we.

Article

A Providential Environment

Featured January 15, 2018

Does God use wild and ter­ri­ble things — like bees and snakes and immi­nent exe­cu­tion — prov­i­den­tial­ly to shape us? John Chyr­sos­tom says yes. Chris Hall reminds us that, under God’s prov­i­dence, all things hap­pen for a rea­son — even when ​“it’s scream­ing­ly dif­fi­cult to dis­cern what that rea­son is.”

Article

Benefits Beyond Our Grasp

Featured January 8, 2018

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nei­ther are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. John Chrysos­tom embraces this rev­e­la­tion. Instead of look­ing on the dan­ger­ous things in the cre­at­ed world as an absence of good­ness, he choos­es to see them as expres­sions of God’s love. Chris Hall explains.

Article

Accepting the Goodness of Creation

Featured January 3, 2018

Though it is dif­fi­cult some­times to see the good­ness of those less-than-ben­e­fi­cial aspects of nature, Chris Hall and John Chrysos­tom join us to encour­age us to see God’s prov­i­dence as demon­strat­ed in the nat­ur­al world as man­i­fes­ta­tions of his lov­ingkind­ness — whether in times of tri­al or peace.

Article

Lessons for a Pilgrim's Journey

Featured December 11, 2017

When fac­ing the ​“inde­scrib­able,” ​“inef­fa­ble, inex­press­ible, and incom­pre­hen­si­ble” ways of God’s prov­i­dence, Chris Hall encour­ages us not to lose heart and to look for the lessons. Togeth­er with John Chrysos­tom, Chris con­tin­ues to con­sid­er how the tri­als of life are test­ing and teach­ing grounds.

Article

Through Which Lens?

Featured December 4, 2017

“Many of God’s actions in the world will remain incom­pre­hen­si­ble even to the faith­ful, dis­cern­ing Chris­t­ian,” Chris Hall writes today. But, every­thing about God’s prov­i­dence, John Chrysos­tom reminds us, is root­ed in his love and good­ness. We just need to find the right lens through which to see it.

Article

On Divine Providence

Featured November 27, 2017

How are the pur­pos­es of God present and active in dif­fi­cult cir­cum­stances? How is God’s prov­i­den­tial care and pow­er man­i­fest­ed in bar­ren, lone­ly places? Might sea­sons of pain and sever­i­ty reveal the pur­pos­es of God? Chris Hall and John Chrysos­tom ask these ques­tions and find reveal­ing answers.

Article

Hungry Like the Wolf

Featured November 13, 2017

Chris Hall con­tin­ues his series on lec­tio div­ina today by giv­ing us some help­ful metaphors to engage our imag­i­na­tion as we fill our minds with med­i­ta­tion on Scrip­ture. As we con­tin­u­al­ly immerse our­selves in God’s word, align­ing our minds to Christ’s, our rav­en­ous hunger for more dri­ves us forward.

Article

When the Soul Becomes a Canvas

Featured November 6, 2017

Chris Hall and John Chrysos­tom help us con­sid­er the ways that the Holy Spir­it ​“paints upon our souls” through the prac­tice of lec­tio div­ina. Through thought­ful­ly read­ing and med­i­tat­ing upon Scrip­ture, as well as on the lives of the saints, our remem­brances will be trea­sures we car­ry with­in us.

Article

Developing a Memory Soaked in Scripture

Featured October 30, 2017

Chris Hall returns to his lec­tio div­ina series with some ideas on trans­for­ma­tion through trans­fu­sion — get­ting the mar­row of the Bible into our own blood­streams — and the way that soak­ing in Scrip­ture draws us near­er to writ­ers like Paul and, there­fore, near­er to the heart of Christ himself.

Article

Enjoying the Feast

Featured October 17, 2017

Chris Hall con­tin­ues his guid­ance through the prac­tice of lec­tio div­ina with a few more ideas about the impor­tance of that ​“Chris­to­log­i­cal munch­ing” of Scrip­ture med­i­ta­tion — ask­ing our­selves while we read, ​“Why would the Holy Spir­it want me to know this?” and ​“How is Christ present here?”

Article

Tasting and Savoring a Text

Featured October 9, 2017

Chris Hall helps us dig into the sec­ond step of lec­tio div­ina by giv­ing us a vivid metaphor to aid us in explor­ing the idea of med­i­ta­tio while we read sacred or spir­i­tu­al texts. Find out how a prac­ticed read­er is like a dog with a bone or a lozenge melt­ing on a tongue in this blog post.

Article

From Self-Deception to Self-Awareness

Featured October 2, 2017

“To acknowl­edge the truth ter­ri­fies and con­fus­es us,” Chris Hall writes in this piece, ​“because we have believed a lie for so long; its false­hood is sec­ond nature to us.” How can lec­tio div­ina aid us in mov­ing from self-decep­tion to self-aware­ness? Chris explains.

Article

Relearning Our Story

Featured September 25, 2017

Can lec­tio div­ina help us immerse our­selves in God’s sto­ry to such an extent that, when we let it seep into the cracks and cran­nies of our lives, we relearn our sto­ry? Chris Hall says yes. When we engage with Scrip­ture in this inten­tion­al way, God will rewrite our sto­ry­lines that have gone wrong.

Article

Hearing the 'Voices of the Pages'

Featured September 18, 2017

Chris Hall draws us into the read­ing habits of Bene­dic­tine monks as he con­tin­ues to explore the prac­tice of spir­i­tu­al read­ing known as lec­tio div­ina. In a world where books and com­men­taries were few and repeat­ed often, monks learned to engage in dia­logue with the texts them­selves. Chris explains.

Article

How to Avoid Dangerous Reading

Featured September 11, 2017

When is it dan­ger­ous to read the Bible? When we hold it at a dis­tance like a spec­i­men to be exam­ined rather than close­ly like a feast to be devoured. Chris Hall reflects on how the prac­tice of lec­tio div­ina can guard against the fol­ly and error of of read­ing Scrip­ture impersonally.

Article

Waking up with Isaiah

Featured September 4, 2017

As Chris Hall con­tin­ues to draw us deep­er into what it means to reit­er­ate and rumi­nate upon the Holy Scrip­ture, he shares a bit more in depth about his cur­rent prac­tice of lis­ten­ing to Isa­iah in the ear­ly morn­ing. When the prophet’s words begin to seep in, God opens doors in amaz­ing ways.

Article

How Should We Read?

Featured August 28, 2017

Once we have estab­lished that read­ing the old books is a good thing to do, the next ques­tion is, ​“How should we read them?” Thank­ful­ly, Chris Hall and Math­ew the Poor lend us a hand by offer­ing tools and strate­gies for let­ting the words of Scrip­ture and Chris­t­ian clas­sics seep into our souls.

Article

Correcting Our Characteristic Mistakes

Featured August 21, 2017

We are glad to wel­come Chris Hall back on the web­site this week to con­tin­ue his blog series. He picks up where he left off in June, with an encour­age­ment to our read­ers to explore the writ­ers of Devo­tion­al Clas­sics. Today, Chris shares with us some very good rea­sons for read­ing very old books.