July 26, 2026

The SEND U Blog

Reflections and Resources for Lifelong Learning for Missionaries

Category: Character

Character, Lifelong Learning, Spiritual Formation, Christ

Who Are the Best Students When God is the Teacher?

In the past month, I have been meditating on the idea of awe and reverence.   A spiritual audit I took in early November asked the question, “Have I maintained a genuine awe of God?”   I realized that this was a weak area of mine, and I decided to take a month to reflect on different Bible verses that spoke about awe of God. One of my last meditations was on the passage from Hebrews 5:7-10 which speaks of Jesus’ reverence for his Heavenly Father. Yes, Jesus, though he was God Himself, had a deep reverence for his Father in heaven, a reverence that enabled him to be a great student.  Hebrews 5:7–10 (NIV) During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. … Read the whole post
Ken Guenther2 mins read
Stress Management, Training

Stress: Too Much and Too Little – Part Two

In a previous post, I talked about the importance of maintaining margin.    Too much stress for too long a period is unhelpful and destructive. But as I also demonstrated from the life of Paul, we must not avoid all stress at all costs.   I am afraid that far too often I have said “no” to an opportunity simply because it would have stretched me beyond my comfort zone.   But I need to be stretched if I am to grow. I see many parallels to physical training.   When I started running (again) in 2009 after knee surgery, I was not able to run more than a kilometer before being totally exhausted.  Over the period of a couple of months, I was able to extend that to almost 5 km, a distance with which I was quite satisfied.   After all, I was not a serious runner, and already in my late 40’s,… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther1 min read
Training, Stress Management

Stress: Too Much and Too Little – Part One

Is stress, even cross-cultural stress, always a bad thing? Too much stress is not good.   More than 4 years ago on this blog, I mentioned a book by Dr. Richard Swenson on the topic of “Margin” – Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives.   I had read the book and was recommending it because I recognized that many of our missionaries were subject to overload and consequent burn-out.   (See another recommendation on our SEND U wiki.)… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther1 min read
Confrontation

Choose to Believe the Voice of Truth

I am finishing my read-through-the-Bible-in-2-years plan at the end of this month, and so these days, I am reading through the book of Revelation in the New Testament and the last of the Minor Prophets in the Old Testament. Yesterday in reading Revelation 20, I noted in my journal that a single angel from heaven can seize (arrest) Satan and throw him into the bottomless pit and keep him there (Rev 20:1-3).  It seems so simple and matter of fact.   God simply sends one of his angels who immediately finds Satan and arrests him without any extended battle or resistance.  Satan is prevented from deceiving the nations any longer until his prison term is over.    In Daniel 10, we read that of a battle between the angels and the demonic forces, and the prince of the kingdom of Persia is able to withstand the angels of God for 21 days… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther3 mins read
Character, Hardship, Spiritual Formation, Christ

Christ Went Through the Crucible Before Us

In the preparation of his servants, God uses crucible experiences that test and purify us.   This is no less true of missionaries than of any other servants of God.   In a previous post in this blog, I looked at Scripture verses that speak of crucibles and noted some different types of crucible experiences.   I emphasized that our response to these crucible experiences is critical.  If they are to be transformative, we need to identify and extract from these difficult and often painful experiences that which God has intended that we learn from it. How do we do that?  How do we mine crucibles? I think we need to begin by learning from Jesus.   He not only went through the crucible in order to purchase our redemption, but he shows us how to persevere and learn from these experiences.… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther1 min read
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