Faith – The Faith Cafe

Posted on October 15, 2025October 14, 2025 by Lori Cartmell

You Can’t Go Wrong With These Ingredients!

When you’re trying out a new recipe for the first time, do you ever get apprehensive that it won’t work out?

I certainly do. That’s why I usually stick with one of my mother’s tried-and-true dessert recipes.

I worry that if I bake a dessert I’ve never attempted before, I’m bound to mess it up. I fear that I’ll disappoint the people I serve it to, and tongues will wag.

As I walk by, people will whisper, “There’s that woman who serves fallen soufflés!”

Or, “Isn’t she the one who bakes cookies that are as hard as hockey pucks?”

In the worst-case scenario of my imagination, my baking debacle will be so embarrassing that I’d have to leave town.

With some recipes, however, you really can’t go wrong, even if you’ve never tried them before.

Brownies, for instance.

A while ago I tried a brownie recipe (see recipe below) that was different from my mother’s traditional one. I was a little nervous about how it would turn out, as I’d be serving it to friends and wanted to impress them.

I needn’t have worried.

How far wrong can you go when you throw together things like chocolate, butter and sugar? As long as you don’t burn it to a crisp, it’s going to be yummy.

You’ve got the right ingredients. Bake away!

Posted on October 3, 2025October 2, 2025 by Lori Cartmell

God Will Go Ahead of You

Do you ever get a bit anxious when faced with something completely new?

Like how to find a new job in an economy that’s unlike anything you’ve seen before? Or how to navigate a world that’s turned upside-down?

Many of us shrink from the prospect of entering uncharted territory.

And we’re not the only ones: even some animals balk when confronted with something unfamiliar.

Cows are notorious for disliking disruptions to their routines and environments. They’re particularly averse to new gates. Cows are made so nervous by new entrances and openings that they’ll stubbornly resist going through them.

This trait is so well known that it’s given rise to a phrase: “Like a cow looking at a new gate.” It means to view something with bewilderment and confusion, as though to say, “Are you serious? I’m not going through that.”

Do you feel this way when faced with the uncertainties that a new situation may bring? Is fear of the unknown keeping you from stepping forward in faith to realize your dreams?

Fear has a way of paralyzing us, so that we stay stuck where we are instead of trying something new.

But we needn’t be afraid.

God will go through the gate ahead of us.

Posted on February 18, 2025February 17, 2025 by Lori Cartmell

The Garden of the Heart

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.

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.

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

Posted on January 6, 2025January 4, 2025 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…

Posted on November 25, 2024November 1, 2024 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?

Posted on October 28, 2024October 22, 2024 by Lori Cartmell

The Master of Disguise

What’s the best Halloween costume you’ve ever seen (or worn)?

I’m particularly fond of costumes involving puns.

Like the fellow who wore a tuxedo with the word “Sorry” pinned to his shirt and went out trick-or-treating as “a formal apology.”

Or the lady who taped a dozen photocopies of pictures of her cat to her shirt. Alert people recognized her costume as that of a “copy cat.”

A simple and clever Halloween costume involves wearing a Groucho Marx-style fake nose and glasses combo, along with a name tag that reads: “Blessing.” This makes you a “blessing in disguise”!

Did you know that Jesus occasionally appeared “in disguise”?

There were a few times after Jesus’ resurrection when His friends didn’t immediately recognize Him. It seems His identity was obscured from them temporarily.

Posted on September 9, 2024September 2, 2024 by Lori Cartmell

The Key to Stronger Faith

Chickadee Photo by Larry Doucet on Pixabay

A chickadee may have a bird-brain, but it can actually be pretty smart.

Especially if it lives in a harsh climate.

What does climate have to do with bird intelligence? As it turns out, more than you’d expect.

Biologists have discovered that chickadees living in the mountains or in northern latitudes, where the weather is more severe, were smarter than their peers living more comfortably down below.

Chickadees from harsher habitats had superior spatial memories and problem-solving abilities than those living in gentler climes. They were better at finding stored caches of food and at figuring out how to access a worm treat that scientists had cleverly tucked into a glass tube.

The harsh environment made their brains work a bit harder.

Is there a lesson for humans in the example of the chickadees?

Yes, but it isn’t to move to a more wintry climate (take it from a Canadian who’s done her share of shovelling snow—it hasn’t made me smarter!).

The takeaway here is that there can be unseen benefits to the challenges we face.

Posted on September 2, 2024August 31, 2024 by Lori Cartmell

The Promise of Return

Photo of Monarch butterfly by Peter Miller on Flickr CC BY-NC-ND-2.0

One of the greatest natural events on Earth is now underway: the migration of the monarch butterfly.

Each fall, millions of these colourful insects set off from their summer breeding grounds in the northeastern U.S. and Canada for a gruelling journey. They travel thousands of miles across North America all the way to Mexico, where they’ll spend the winter.

Many people believe that the monarch butterflies that leave in the fall are the same ones that arrive back in the spring, but this isn’t so. Individual butterflies don’t make the entire round-trip journey. The ones that migrate from the northeastern part of North America in fall will never return.

Rather, their great-great-grandchildren are the ones who will arrive the following spring, as successive generations keep making their way north. The entire annual migration cycle of the monarch takes about four generations.

Perhaps I’m being fanciful, but I can imagine monarch butterflies telling their children of the awesome journey they’ll be undertaking. They may say that they’ll only be able to go part of the way with them, but to keep the faith and keep going.

Maybe they encourage their children to tell successive generations to keep believing in the promise of return. Because eventually, their descendants will see the promise fulfilled.

Aren’t we in a similar situation as believers?

We’re living in a time when we’re awaiting the fulfillment of a promise, the promise of Christ’s return. We’re not sure exactly when Christ will come back to Earth, but He has promised that He will.

Posted on August 19, 2024August 6, 2024 by Lori Cartmell

The God of Second Chances

It’s an awesome feeling to realize that you’ve got a second chance, isn’t it?

A friend of mine discovered this after moving into a house with a large garden in the summer. A beginner gardener, she was delighted to finally have enough space for an extensive vegetable garden. She immediately planted some tomato and cucumber seedlings, which are now growing vigorously.

Because she’d moved in mid-summer, however, she lamented that she’d missed the chance to start growing vegetables like beets, spinach, peas, and carrots from seed in spring. She knew that cool-weather-loving veggies like peas wouldn’t thrive in the summer heat. She figured that if you didn’t plant those seeds in the spring, you’d missed your chance for the whole year.

But the garden, like God, often gives us second chances.

I told my friend that she could actually plant those seeds in summer for a fall harvest. There was still time to grow a second crop before the frosts of November hit. She hadn’t missed out after all: she could still grow the cool-weather veggies she’d hoped for.

What a wonderful metaphor for how God deals with us!

So often, we think we’ve missed out on what we’d wanted to accomplish or what God had planned for us. We figure that either the passage of time or our own mistakes have disqualified us from achieving our dreams. We lament that it’s too late for us.

But with God, it’s never too late. Our Heavenly Father never gives up on us, and never writes us off.

Posted on April 15, 2024March 19, 2024 by Lori Cartmell

When the Underdog Becomes Top Dog

Don’t you love it when an underdog turns the tables?

We’ve all cheered at movies in which the little guy triumphs over impossible odds and wins the day.

Part of what makes these stories attractive is the confidence the underdog displays in the face of adverse circumstances. He or she often thinks that it’s the other guy who’s at a disadvantage.

I’m reminded of a classic headline from a British newspaper, possibly from the early 1930s (and possibly apocryphal). The English Channel was blanketed with thick fog, making ship travel dangerous. The witty headline read:

“Fog in Channel: Continent Isolated.”

What makes this funny is that surely it was the island of Great Britain that was isolated by the dense fog, not Continental Europe!

You’ve got to admire this type of self-assurance.

I think this the type of attitude God wants us to display, but to focus it on faith and trust in Him. He wants us to believe that with Him on our side, the one who comes against is the one who’s isolated and on the ropes.

Consider the story of David and Goliath in the Bible…