Grace Notes
a weekly blog by Steven Norris
Do What You Can
By Steven Norris From 2010 to 2018, our family made our home in Western North Carolina. Though we certainly felt a providential leading that brought us to Griffin, we left a piece of our heart in the mountains. Therefore, you can understand my heartbreak as I...
Theater: A Glimpse of God’s Kingdom?
By Steven Norris Have you ever had the joy of participating in community theater? Professional shows are great, but there is something magical about performing for the compensation of audience members’ smiles. This weekend, I have the privilege of returning to...
You Are Not a Victim of Circumstance
By Steven Norris When I was teaching middle school, one of the primary lessons that I sought to instill in my students was the importance of their choices and the corresponding consequences. I am quite certain that they frequently got tired of hearing me, “You...
Words Are Hard
By Steven Norris Words matter. In a world full of misdirection, spin, and outright lies, words matter. The New Testament book of James forcefully warns about the danger of using words carefully. The spark of a word (or its interpretation) can create a warming fire as...
Redefining Success
By Steven Norris Standing beside Mamaw’s graveside was a surreal experience. I had visited that cemetery regularly and seen the place where she would be laid to rest for 19 years leading up to that day. Papaw had “preceded her in death,” the obituary read. I have...
Is that prophet talking to me?
By Steven Norris Have you ever encountered a prophet face-to-face? It can be a “mixed bag,” to put it lightly. On the one hand, most people of faith long for a fresh word from God speaking into our current circumstances. However, prophets have a tendency to hold up a...
Practical Wisdom for Tough Days
By Steven Norris We live in a world that is simultaneously drowning in knowledge and starving for wisdom. We carry around in our pockets access to more of the world’s collected knowledge than people have had at any point in human history. Yet, knowing how to translate...
The Biggest Danger to the Church
By Steven Norris Dallas Willard has been one of the spiritual giants in my life and faith development. I still maintain that his book, The Divine Conspiracy, is one of the best articulations of the gospel message I have heard. This week, I discovered a quote from...
Prayer: Communion with the Divine
By Steven Norris How do you pray? Since each of us is unique, one could say that there are as many forms of prayer as there are people in the world, whether that entails bowing one’s head, closing the eyes, kneeling, talking to God about challenges, confession...
Framing Our Words
By Steven Norris “Music is made in the silences between the notes.” I first heard that phrase from one of my professors at the University of Southern Mississippi. It did not originate with him. In fact, I’ve seen it attributed to both Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and...