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Carolyn Arends

Carolyn Arends

Director of Education, Renovaré

Carolyn Arends

Articles & Essays by Carolyn Arends

Heart Books
Essay

Rescuing Our Focus

Published August, 2024 • Featured August 9, 2024
Carolyn Arends writes that the Renovaré is ​“part adventure, part intervention” — helping participants strengthen their ability to read deeply and to meet God in ​“good, nourishing, challenging books.”
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Article

The Fourth Petition

Published May, 2021 • Featured April 14, 2023
Carolyn Arends describes the many layers of Jesus’ invitation to bring our needs to God in the fourth petition of the Lord’s Prayer.
Wilderness 1
Article

The Gifts of the Wilderness

Published December, 2017 • Featured December 20, 2022
Longing, emptiness, and waiting can stretch and grow our souls — and prepare space for God to do some of his most holy work.
Mullins Arends
Essay

The Rich Mullins Book Bootcamp

Published September, 2022 • Featured August 30, 2022
Carolyn Arends welcomes us to a new year of the Renovaré book club by reflecting on her friendship with Rich Mullins, who turned his favorite books into a rite of passage for his touring companions.
Geese in Flight 1
Journal/Magazine Article

Do I Live An Empowered Life?

Published September, 2021 • Featured June 8, 2022
Carolyn Arends writes insightfully and honestly about opening herself to the Holy Spirit’s power that is shared with those who live under God’s reign.
Our Father 5
Book Excerpt from The Universe in 57 Words

*His* Father is *Our* Father

Published May, 2021 • Featured April 29, 2022
Carolyn Arends invites us to consider three revolutionary implications of Jesus’ teaching us to address God as ​“Our Father.”
Chagall Cross
Book Excerpt from The Universe in 57 Words

Thy Will Be Done

Published May, 2021 • Featured April 22, 2022
Carolyn Arends explores how the prayer Jesus taught centers us in the will of God — reminding us to love and calling us to open ourselves to God’s reign.
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Journal/Magazine Article

The World Desperately Needs Honest Christians

Published December, 2021 • Featured January 11, 2022
Carolyn Arends describes a conversation with a Renovaré Institute applicant about the spiritual practices of healthy leaders. She writes: ​“These habits and rhythms don’t make them bulletproof. But they sure help.”
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Journal/Magazine Article from Theology in Aisle Seven

Strength and Meekness

Published February, 2010 • Featured November 17, 2021
Originally published in Christianity Today, this piece by Carolyn Arends unpacks the curious virtue of ​“meekness,” and the related heart-attitudes of submission and trust.
Sheep sunset
Journal/Magazine Article

Why the World Is a Perfectly Safe Place to Be

Published January, 2016 • Featured June 11, 2021
Carolyn Arends invites us to agree with Scripture and ​“replace worst-case scenario thinking by anticipating the future God intends for His creation.”
11 17 Well Ordered Heart
Journal/Magazine Article

How We Order our Hearts

Published October, 2016 • Featured June 3, 2021
How can we rightly order our hearts to love well what is worthy of love? And can we do this in a way that opens the door to spiritual transformation, rather than being just another self-help or time-management system? Carolyn Arends looks at how letting go may be the key to finding order.
Sheep in a hurry
Journal/Magazine Article

A Hurry-Free Life

Published March, 2021 • Featured March 23, 2021
Does ​“relentlessly eliminate hurry” mean embracing an inefficient life? Carolyn Arends explores if it is possible to work quickly without being in a hurry.
Rain on glass
Journal/Magazine Article

Stoicism Isn't Spiritual

Published November, 2019 • Featured March 11, 2021
After her mom passed, Carolyn Arends found herself in what seemed like a disproportionate amount of pain. ​“People go through much harder things than this,” she told her counselor, ​“but here I am, undone.” She shares her journey of learning how to grieve.
Crafting
Journal/Magazine Article

Creativity in the Chaos

Published January, 2021 • Featured February 5, 2021
When COVID-19 began, Carolyn Arends noticed something weird: people were crafting. They responded to chaos with cosmos. And regardless of our artistic ability, all of us are made in the image of the Creator and instilled with a desire to create order and beauty.
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Journal/Magazine Article

Learning To Trust The Slow Work Of God

Published September, 2020 • Featured October 22, 2020
Carolyn Arends reminds us that spiritual formation is a slow process by design. ​“Let’s not mistake God’s patience for inactivity.”
Black hand reaching
Journal/Magazine Article

Listen to the Groans

Published July, 2020 • Featured August 14, 2020
“Many people see the injustice in the world as a reason to give up on faith,” writes Carolyn Arends, ​“but the irony is, when we decry injustice, our hearts resonate with the heart of God more than we can possibly imagine.”
Light jar buried in sand
Journal/Magazine Article

Hiding What They Seek

Published March, 2009 • Featured July 24, 2020
Recalling a personal story, Carolyn Arends ponders whether our attempts to be ​“seeker friendly” inadvertently conceal Jesus.
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Journal/Magazine Article

Artful Discipleship

Published June, 2016 • Featured May 21, 2020
Carolyn Arends shares with us some of the ways that the arts can play an important role in our spiritual formation. How can actively and intentionally engaging with the many disciplines of the creative world discipline us to cleave ever closer to our Creator?
Family Zooming
Journal/Magazine Article

Virtual Realities

Published May, 2020 • Featured May 5, 2020
Carolyn Arends discovered that there are barriers to singing corporately over the internet. ​“Maybe,” she offers, ​“that tells us something important.”
Hands With Ash
Journal/Magazine Article

I Was an Ash Wednesday Rookie

Published February, 2017 • Featured February 25, 2020
Renovaré Director of Education Carolyn Arends shares how the liturgical service enriched her non-liturgical faith.