Posted on by Lori Cartmell

The Game is Rigged

In life, it’s easy to conclude that you’re getting the short end of the stick.

On social media, everyone seems to be having a better life than you are.

At the grocery store, each year you pay a bit more for the same item.

In the parking lot, the other guy inevitably gets the spot you were waiting for.

At the casino, the house always wins.

Even your bathroom scale seems to be part of the conspiracy against you: surely it’s rounding up?

But with God, this isn’t true. The game is rigged in your favour!

How so?

When we think of the scales of justice and mercy, we assume they’re evenly balanced. But God actually has his finger on the scale, so to speak. For those who believe in His Son, it’s tilted heavily toward mercy.

“The Lord isn't slow about keeping his promises, as some people think he is. In fact, God is patient, because he wants everyone to turn from sin and no one to be lost.” (2 Peter 3:9)

God longs to be merciful (Isaiah 30:18). But at the same time He must judge sin.

How does He reconcile these two seemingly contradictory impulses?

At the Cross.

Read more
Posted on by Lori Cartmell

Put On Some Heart-Shaped Glasses!

Image by StockSnap from Pixabay

When we’re going through tough times, it’s easy to get discouraged.

We all worry about our health, our families, our finances, and the future. Believers aren’t immune to these anxieties.

When life is spinning out of control, we often feel overwhelmed. We wonder where God is in our difficulties.

What we need is a different perspective.

I’m not suggesting we put on rose-coloured glasses, but rather heart-shaped ones.

The beating heart of God resounds with love for His children.

Read more
Posted on by Lori Cartmell

The Garden of the Heart

Image by Miroslav Kaclík from Pixabay

As a special treat for my Faith Cafe visitors, here’s a fresh take on Psalm 23:

In the garden of the heart, where shadows fade,
I walk with the Beloved, who never leads astray.
He is the shepherd, gentle and wise,
His love, like a river, flows through the skies.
The pastures of grace are green and wide,
I rest in His presence, where peace will reside.
Still waters call, soft and serene,
In His embrace, I am cleansed, I am seen.
Though the valley of darkness may stretch its might,
I fear no shadow, for He is my light.
His staff and His rod, steady in hand,
Guide me with wisdom, through this shifting land.
Image by Kati from Pixabay
No hunger nor thirst shall find me here,
For the table He sets, overflows with cheer.
Anointing my soul with oil of bliss,
I drink from His cup, a cup of endless kiss.
In the house of the Beloved, I shall stay,
Where love is the lamp that lights my way.
From moment to moment, from breath to breath,
I walk in His grace, defying death.
In the arms of the Shepherd, I am whole,
For He leads me home, to the garden of soul.
Image by Susann Mielke from Pixabay

(In case you’re wondering who wrote this lovely poem, it was the result of my tooling around with ChatGPT!)

© 2025 Lori J. Cartmell. All rights reserved.

Posted on by Lori Cartmell

Note to Subscribers

Dear friends:

Just a note to let my cherished subscribers know that I’ll be posting on a less frequent schedule moving forward.

Other commitments mean that I have less time to devote to the Faith Cafe nowadays.

I’ll still be writing articles for this blog, but on a more occasional basis.

Thanks for your understanding, and thank you for tuning in over the past five years!

Love and blessings,

Lori

© 2025 Lori J. Cartmell. All rights reserved.

Posted on by Lori Cartmell

Faith Wasn’t Built In A Day

Image of Rome’s Colosseum by Leonhard Niederwimmer from Pixabay

They say Rome wasn’t built in a day.

I think we can say the same about our faith.

We see hints of this in Scripture:

“The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’ ” (Luke 17:5)

“The father instantly cried out, ‘I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!’ ” (Mark 9:24)

Steadfast trust in God’s promises and character is something that is gradually established in us, brick by brick, year by year.

Take Abraham, for example. This hero of the Old Testament is held out in the book of Hebrews as a paragon of faith.

But he didn’t start out that way. In fact, his record in the faith department was a bit spotty for a while. God had to build up his faith over time…

Read more
Posted on by Lori Cartmell

The Christmas Fruitcake Hack

Do you like Christmas fruitcake? Or do you just pretend to?

Some people look forward to making or receiving fruitcakes at this time of year. Other people dread the prospect of eating fruitcake yet again.

If you’ve been faking enjoyment of Christmas fruitcake all these years and would really rather not eat any more of it, I think I have a solution for you:

Make Christmas fruitcake cookies instead.

I hit upon this idea years ago and have never looked back. I liked some of the ingredients in fruitcake, but was never fond of the dense, molasses-y cake surrounding them.

With fruitcake cookies, however, you keep the best parts of fruitcake and add more butter. You also omit the ingredients that are unpalatable to you. The recipe is thereby transformed into something completely new. What results is a scrumptious cookie that is a crowd-pleaser whenever I serve it.

In the same way, isn’t that sort of what God does in our lives? When we become believers in Jesus, God keeps the best parts of us and adds the Holy Spirit. As we become more like Jesus, the unpalatable aspects of us are gradually left behind: our impatience, pride, lack of generosity, selfishness, etc.

Read more
Posted on by Lori Cartmell

The Perfect Christmas?

Photo by Adam Clark on Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0

What’s your idea of the perfect Christmas? Many of us have images in our minds of what the ideal Yuletide should look like.

It usually involves a spectacular Christmas tree with enticing gifts piled beneath it. The house would be decorated with pine boughs and red bows inside, and the exterior decked out with lights. The day itself would feature a scrumptious dinner with all the fixings, and numerous home-baked desserts. Top it all off with a house full of family, friends and laughter.

There’s only one problem with this picture.

It’s awfully hard to live up to.

Perhaps you were laid off from your job just before Christmas. Or maybe you’re employed, but things are still really tight financially. You just can’t provide all the gifts that your children have been asking for, and you know they might be disappointed.

Or maybe someone in your family is going through a health crisis. It looks serious, and you’re all under a lot of stress as a result. It might be hard to feel “merry” this Christmas.

It could be that you have some fractured or broken relationships in your life. Maybe things are very tense with a certain family member. Or perhaps you’ve lost someone dear to you, and this will be the first Christmas without them. The holidays might be a lonely time for you.

There are a lot of reasons why the Christmas season might fall short of what we want it to be.

But when you think about it, the first Christmas was fraught with struggles, too. Mary and Joseph certainly didn’t have it easy.

Read more
Posted on by Lori Cartmell

Yes, Virginia, There Really Is A Jesus Christ!

Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay

If you still believe in Santa Claus, please avert your eyes from the screen right now.

I’ll wait.

For the rest of you, how old were you when you realized that there wasn’t really a Santa Claus?

Five or six? Nine or ten? Thirty?

For me, the realization came on bit by bit over the years when I was little.

First off, on the gift tags on my Christmas presents, I noticed that the “To Lori, Love Santa” inscription was written in handwriting that looked an awful lot like my Mom’s. In fact, exactly like hers. I realized that it was, in fact, my Mom’s handwriting, not Santa’s.

That was my first inkling that something was up with this whole Santa thing.

Later on, I saw a notice in the newspaper that Santa would be visiting the Eaton Centre, a major mall in downtown Toronto. I was so excited! I could get my picture taken with the real Santa!

But then I saw another ad touting Santa’s visit to another mall on the same day. At the exact same time. How could Santa be in two places at once? That seemed a bit fishy to me. It slowly dawned on me that it wasn’t really Santa, but merely regular people in Santa costumes.

As an older but wiser young person, I came to discover that a lot of people I’d thought were real were in fact fictitious. Not just Santa and the Tooth Fairy, but others as well. There isn’t even a real Betty Crocker—she’s merely a creation of advertisers.

It’s always disillusioning when you discover that something you once believed in isn’t true after all.

But how comforting it is to know that there really was a Jesus Christ.

Read more
Posted on by Lori Cartmell

The Most Dazzling Christmas Light

Photo by Paul Vladuchick on Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

What’s your favourite Christmas tradition? Is it exchanging gifts, baking special desserts, decorating the tree, or perhaps wearing ugly Christmas sweaters?

For many of us, our most cherished Christmas tradition probably involves lights, whether they’re on your own Christmas tree, or decorating houses in your neighbourhood.

Some people go all out, putting tens of thousands of lights on their home. There’s even a long-running TV reality show called “The Great Christmas Light Fight,” in which families compete against each other to create elaborate Christmas light displays.

This season is inextricably linked to lights, but might we have missed the most important light of all?

We’re putting up Christmas lights in houses and on streets that are already well lit. The colourful lights are beautiful and bring us joy, but don’t really provide much extra illumination. We seem to have all the light we need.

But maybe we don’t realize how much darkness we’re really in. With our busy, self-sufficient lives, we may not recognize that we’re lacking a different sort of light, one that resides inside of us.

Read more
Posted on by Lori Cartmell

A Special Kind of Faith

Tulip bulbs at a flower market
Photo from Pxhere, Public Domain

They say that planting seeds is an act of faith.

I think that’s true: you put seeds in the ground in spring, hoping most will germinate and grow into a plant. If you’re lucky, you might see hints of growth in a few days, but often it can be weeks before a little green head pokes its way out of the soil.

If planting seeds takes faith, then I think it takes a special act of faith to plant bulbs in the fall.

In the fall, you know the days are getting shorter and colder. The leaves are dropping from the trees, and tender plants are beginning to die from early frosts. You know that snow will soon blanket the garden to the depth of a couple feet.

You’re heading into a barren season.

The precious tulip, daffodil, or hyacinth bulbs that you’ve just planted will disappear from your view for many months. You’ll have no indication that they’re all right, let alone any guarantee that they’ll eventually bloom. They may fall prey to rabbits, squirrels or deer. Who knows what will happen to them?

And yet you still go ahead and plant fall bulbs, trusting that they’ll survive the frigid winter and bloom later in spring.

Some things in our lives take special faith to trust for, too, don’t they?

Read more