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My Shallowness Confronted
I wrote them and said, Thank you for this. I have no words, just profound respect and gratitude.
Steven Pawley
December 16, 2025
Happy Tuesday! I sure hope you’re off to a good start to your week. If you’re new, I’d love to learn where you’re from so drop a quick reply and let me know.
Today, you’ll find two videos that touched and blessed me at a deep and inspirational level. I pray each one of you will take the time to watch them and then share your thoughts or experience with me. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
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When we met the believers on that trip to Kiev it was evident that life for them was very hard. We had gone with material blessings, good teaching and a desire to “help” them.
Yet in less than 24 hours it was clear they had what we needed: spiritual depth and connection. It was the first time I was genuinely confronted with my spiritual shallowness.
When Horatio Spafford penned the classic “It is Well” he did so having lost (within a couple years) a fortune to the Chicago fire, then his only son, and then his four daughters.
He was a godly successful man who sent his family ahead for some Christian service only to learn from his grieving wife in Wales, “Saved alone. What shall I do?”
On his journey to join her the ship’s captain called him to the bridge and pointed to his daughters’ watery grave. From his pain he penned “It Is Well”. It was 1873.
Believers still sing that song at funerals with hope and hot tears running down their cheeks because there is a universal understanding that life is hard, painful, and full of loss.
Those Ukrainians and Horatio Spafford chose belief over bitterness.
The tuition to worshipping God in spirit and in truth is very high. You don’t manufacture it. God brings pain, loss, and sorrow and asks, will you worship me truly, deeply, here?
There’s a group of believers in Mozambique I want you to meet. They have been savagely persecuted, murdered, ravaged, and suffering unimaginable losses for eight years.
Life is very hard. Yet they worship. I don’t know their doctrine or their language. But just like in Ukraine, I realized they have something I didn’t and I want it – no I need it.
But would I be willing to pay the tuition? Would my response be belief or bitterness?
I wrote to the ministry that introduced me to these believers and said, “Thank you for this. I have no words, just profound respect and gratitude.”
You can decide for yourself here:
They made their choice to believe, and this is what it produced:
Search “Thesoundofusfoundation” if you’d like to find them on IG or their website.
Materialism and sound doctrine cannot produce the depth of connection with God and other believers that pain and loss do. It’s just how God chose to do it.
And it’s a gift if we’ll believe.
There’s depth to this worship – just look at their faces, put yourself in their place of pain and loss, and in their desire to worship in spirit and truth.
They made their choice to believe. I’m still wrestling with my response to it all. I’ll leave you with these words from Jesus and let them speak for themselves.
You’ll find some questions to help you in the GO DEEPER section below.
Thanks for Reading!
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GO DEEPER with Today’s Read:
When you looked at the videos, what emotions, thoughts or perhaps even convictions did you experience and why do you think that is? Does it cause you to wrestle? With what?
How does material wealth and possessions or the sureness of your doctrine or aversion to discomfort affect your depth of connection with God and other believers?
Why do you suppose God “gifts” us with pain, loss, and sorrow to invite us into deeper worship? How has He done that in your life? Can you see Him doing that for you instead of to you?
A Ukrainian pastor told me his church thrived under persecution, but when it lifted, he lost many of his best people to their newfound liberty. Why do you think that is?
What are some ways you can invite God in to do a deeper work of connection with Him and other believers recognizing it might cost you some pain, loss, and discomfort?
Why not invite Him in right now? Even if you can’t or won’t, use this as an opportunity to talk honestly with God about it – that alone will begin a deeper connection with Jesus.
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