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Toward Wholeness Blog

Downward Ascent: Intersecting Covid-19 with Holy Week Crosses

Richard Dahlstrom

Apr 4, 20205 min read

Downward Ascent: Intersecting Covid-19 with Holy Week Crosses

Holy Week is an opportunity, because we’re not seeing Jesus through a, “look what he's done for me" lens. This year, the cross is ours too!

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Seasons of Life and Lessons in Staying and Letting Go

Richard Dahlstrom

Dec 15, 20184 min read

Seasons of Life and Lessons in Staying and Letting Go

left to right: Martin, Director of Tauernhof, Richard, Charlie, board member of Tauernhof. “Stay a little longer” my friend Martin...

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How Naming Your Values can Change Your Life

Richard Dahlstrom

Dec 7, 20183 min read

How Naming Your Values can Change Your Life

The sad reality, though, is that the testimonies offered that day also served as a grave reminder that courage, servanthood, generosity,...

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The thing that mustn’t change: Use Your Gifts!

Richard Dahlstrom

Oct 6, 20184 min read

The thing that mustn’t change: Use Your Gifts!

My predecessor just keep using his gifts day after day for 38 years. The difficult truth that few seem interested in hearing these days...

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“…the time we’ve been given” – The Why and How of a Personal Mission Statement

Richard Dahlstrom

Sep 29, 20184 min read

“…the time we’ve been given” – The Why and How of a Personal Mission Statement

1. Coffee. Always first: Coffee 2. Bible reading while drinking the first cup. 3. Meditation (from the Bible reading) 4. Writing in the...

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Your “Sphere of Influence” is calling and You must go

Richard Dahlstrom

Sep 6, 20184 min read

Your “Sphere of Influence” is calling and You must go

The church hasn’t been immune to this polarizing. We’ve mirrored the culture’s political tribal hatred, enough so that it’s increasingly...

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Awakening the Feminine Voice in the Church – What it means and Why it Matters

Richard Dahlstrom

Apr 7, 20184 min read

Awakening the Feminine Voice in the Church – What it means and Why it Matters

The equivalent of 5 jumbo jets worth of women die in labor each day… life time risk of maternal death is 1,000x higher in a poor country...

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Lighten up! The value of Hope over rage, cynicism, and despondency

Richard Dahlstrom

Dec 22, 20174 min read

Lighten up! The value of Hope over rage, cynicism, and despondency

The first winter we lived in the mountains, an early storm knocked down hundreds of fir trees deep in the cascades, and those trees...

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The Disco Ball of Success, and What to do when You’re Blinded by it

Richard Dahlstrom

Dec 2, 201712 min read

The Disco Ball of Success, and What to do when You’re Blinded by it

Here’s a free chapter for all those folks you know in your lives who have walked the road of success for a bit of distance and are both...

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Vicarious vs. Experience: Not Even Close

Richard Dahlstrom

Jun 9, 20174 min read

Vicarious vs. Experience: Not Even Close

They would, in other words, rather look on a relationship from the outside, experiencing the hollow thrill of being an observer, rather...

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The Gifts of Christmas #5 – Shepherd, Provider, Gift Giver

Richard Dahlstrom

Dec 24, 20164 min read

The Gifts of Christmas #5 – Shepherd, Provider, Gift Giver

Over 37 years, two stockings have become ten. JOY! It was in the late summer of 1976 when I first made my way north to Seattle,...

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Richard Dahlstrom

Aug 26, 20165 min read

Completion as a Starting Point

I started a little vacation about a week ago. The plan was to hike a big chunk of the Pacific Crest Trail with my wife of nearly 37...

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Into the fog of discipleship…step by step

Richard Dahlstrom

Apr 18, 20166 min read

Into the fog of discipleship…step by step

All right then. It will be a day to put on the touring skis, which means attaching friction creating skins to the base of the skis and...

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Ambition or Temptation? How to tell the difference

Richard Dahlstrom

Dec 20, 20144 min read

Ambition or Temptation? How to tell the difference

“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might…” The Preacher in Ecclesiastes I’m sure you’ve been there. You want...

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Richard Dahlstrom

Sep 19, 20142 min read

Last Journey’s the Best

It’s our last hike, the end of our forty days trekking through the Alps together. I’ll begin teaching next week and thinking about...

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The Wind of the Spirit – blowing plans away day by day

Richard Dahlstrom

Aug 25, 20144 min read

The Wind of the Spirit – blowing plans away day by day

Our view of guidance is important, because unless we believe God can still direct our lives, orchestrating encounters, moving us to...

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Eternity in our hearts – Leaning into our longings

Richard Dahlstrom

Jul 29, 20144 min read

Eternity in our hearts – Leaning into our longings

Most years, the first or second week of December, I’m in the little town of Schladming, in the Austrian Alps, to teach at a Bible school...

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Obscurity has its privileges. Answers to feelings of insignificance.

Richard Dahlstrom

Jul 17, 20143 min read

Obscurity has its privileges. Answers to feelings of insignificance.

In just a few short days, my wife and I will be off to Europe where we’ll trek through the Alps, fully expecting to find the fingerprints...

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Achilles Heal: Lessons for life and leadership learned from a tendon

Richard Dahlstrom

May 27, 20145 min read

Achilles Heal: Lessons for life and leadership learned from a tendon

The Achilles story is appropriate because this tendon seems the bane of countless athletes. Anatomy for Runners tells the story of a...

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Richard Dahlstrom

May 8, 20142 min read

Life is a Journey: Step by Step

There’s a hearing. It comes to us in dreams, or songs, or after a conversation in the corner booth of a Tuesday night with the one we...

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