Donavon Riley

Featured in: Favicon

1517.org

spotterup.com

Articles

To Unmake The Ruin

Dec 31, 2024 | spotterup.com | Donavon Riley

To Unmake The Ruin by Donavon L Riley We twist our longing for God into idols, yet Christ enters our wreckage—not to affirm but to redeem—crafting wholeness from our brokenness and calling us to step into the daring simplicity of being made new. — D. +++We wander through a wilderness where confusion wears the face of freedom, blind to the wounds we hold as if they were medals. The vessel God shaped—the clay warmed by His breath—is cracked, discarded in a feverish chase for an imagined liberation.
The Moment Is Holy Ground

Dec 30, 2024 | spotterup.com | Donavon Riley

The Moment Is Holy Ground by Donavon L RileyBehind us lies the cross, not the shame we fear, and before us stretches eternity. Christ calls us to live in the undivided tenderness of the present, where wounds no longer rule and freedom is found. — D. +++We trudge forward, yet our heads are turned backward, as if the past were still hunting us. The regrets cling like burrs to our coat sleeves, the old angers smolder where joy should be.
It Is Not Our Job To Remain Whole

Dec 27, 2024 | spotterup.com | Donavon Riley

It Is Not Our Job To Remain Whole by Donavon L RileyChrist in December is the winter fire, quietly gathering the forgotten and broken, binding their wounds, and inviting them to be born again through the great roots of His enduring love.—D. +++December wraps its cold hands around the earth, and yet there, in the barren fields of frost, a Child is born—a crackling fire offered to those who sit far from summer’s laughter. This is no mere seasonal cheer.
The Day After Christmas

Dec 26, 2024 | spotterup.com | Donavon Riley

The Day After Christmas by Donavon L RileyChristmastide is not the end of joy, but its slow unfolding, where the heart, now still, picks up the story of the birth, beyond the fever of the feast.— D. +++The day after Christmas is like the frost on the far side of a winter storm—an arrival. The clamor of unwrapping and feasting settles into something deeper, quieter. It’s a day when the air feels bruised by what has passed, yet strangely tender, as if the world itself holds its breath to remember.
The Feast They Cannot Flee

Dec 24, 2024 | spotterup.com | Donavon Riley

The Feast They Cannot Flee by Donavon L RileyEven those who mock the manger and deny the birth find themselves bound to its story, their lights and wreaths, their gifts and feasts, all echoing a joy they cannot name and a truth they cannot escape. — D. +++At the heart of this season lies a paradox so profound it even warps itself around the lives of those who claim they’ve no need of God.
The Eternal Child Does Not Relent

Dec 19, 2024 | spotterup.com | Donavon Riley

The Eternal Child Does Not Relent by Donavon L Riley G.K. Chesterton once wrote that God “has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.” Think of it: not a gray-bearded god slumped on some throne, but a wild and restless youth, scattering stars like seeds into the deep soil of the night sky. This isn’t the God we’ve tamed in our minds, locked into cathedral rafters and long sighing prayers.
Despair Is Worse Than Sin

Dec 18, 2024 | spotterup.com | Donavon Riley

Despair Is Worse Than Sin by Donavon L Riley Faith in Christ is a door flung wide, a new sky blooming overhead. But before long, we stumble on another truth: this faith demands that we sit down with ourselves—alone, face-to-face. And this is where the wrestling begins. Sin is no abstract list; it sits in your own chest, crouching. The world is no distant grief; it snarls right here, now. And there are darker things, too—whispers and claws that come in the night, drawing circles of fear around us.
Why Do We Resist It?

Dec 17, 2024 | spotterup.com | Donavon Riley

Why Do We Resist It? by Donavon L RileyIn the culture of sunlight and straight teeth, no one wants to fall. But sooner or later, every man and woman stumbles onto some dark battlefield—sometimes behind their own ribcage. The wound comes. No one escapes it. It slips like a blade into the sinew: betrayal, loss, despair. For some, it is failure—a snapping tree, once mighty and proud, toppling to earth. For others, an emptiness—a field in winter with no tracks in the snow, no birds wheeling overhead.
Authority That Gives Rather Than Takes

Dec 16, 2024 | spotterup.com | Donavon Riley

Authority That Gives Rather Than Takes by Donavon L Riley Authority, in the modern mind, arrives wrapped in iron. It clangs into view like a sword striking a shield—loud, harsh, and cold. Modern culture has forged a new mythology: in its stories, all authority becomes oppression, a great shackle chaining the spirit of humankind. The priest stands among these ruined myths vilified as a relic of outdated hierarchies.
A Stone Wall Steadfast in A Winter Wind

Dec 13, 2024 | spotterup.com | Donavon Riley

A Stone Wall Steadfast in A Winter Wind by Donavon L RileyWorld leaders grapple with the earth as if their schemes could domesticate its untamed rhythms. They carve treaties into the soil, as though words could bind what is boundless. They hammer laws into the heavens, thinking edicts could hold sway over stars. But their efforts falter at the wild edges of what is, their trembling maps and models unable to comprehend the great, unruly pulse of life.