Author: AJ Canterbury
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Meditations on God’s Providence
What God taught me in Pennsylvania Read Time: 5 minutes by AJ Canterbury “I can’t believe I used to live here.” I repeated that exclamation every time I took in the picturesque landscapes revealed at every bend in the road. From the window, I gawked at the cascading fields encasing the country homes and farms…
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Meditations on Birthdays
What I learned by turning 43 Read Time: 6 minutes by AJ Canterbury Last month, I celebrated my 43rd birthday. The age sprung up on me with a speed and ferocity I had not seen coming. I was still getting acclimated to announcing (admitting) I was 40, and here I was now at 43 firmly established…
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How My Disability Affects More Than Just Me
Read Time: 5 minutes by AJ Canterbury My post in July focused on my personal quandary: “Why do I have my disability?” I searched the scriptures for an explanation for why God had allowed Friedreich’s Ataxia to descend and force its weight upon me. I had hoped the disability held some purpose. What I found…
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Does God Purpose the Small Stuff?
Read Time: 5 minutes by AJ Canterbury I intended to write a follow-up post to my last article, “What Are The Reasons Disability Exist,” but life presented another lesson for me to focus on. I wanted to ignore it and press on with the post I had planned to write since the interruption seemed so minor. However,…
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What Are The Reasons Disability Exists?
Photo by saeed mhmdi on Unsplash Reading Time: 5 minutes by AJ Canterbury I remember early into my diagnosis with Friedreich’s Ataxia, long before the wheelchair and progression, I dared to question aloud what I had internally wrestled with: “Why am I disabled?” I was sitting at the table at a spring dance my freshman year of college…
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How To Do Battle Against Your Own Dark Thoughts
Photo by Mitchel Lensink on Unsplash Read Time: 3 minutes by AJ Canterbury I originally wrote this article after participating in a friends’ wedding 5 years ago. After rereading the post, it struck me how recurring the battle against my own self-focused thoughts were. They seek to prevent me from embracing the life God has seen fit to…
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God’s Purpose For Your Worst Day
Read Time: 5 minutes Photo by Timothy Dykes on Unsplash by AJ Canterbury My world drastically changed in March 2000. How’s that for a dramatic beginning? It’s not an exaggeration though. I remember walking back to my college dorm room after a night of prepping the latest edition of the newspaper, believing the night was now over. Behind…
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Places Not To Take Your Disabled Friend
Reading Time: 6 minutes by AJ Canterbury One does not play around with summers in Texas. It gets hot. This thought cycled through my brain as we sat in the sweltering warehouse waiting for the band to begin playing. My friends’ band were slated to perform at a church’s outreach event, and I hadn’t anticipated…
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Where To Begin When Forgiving Is Hard
Photo by Denny Müller on Unsplash Read Time: 5 minutes While forgiveness presents as a tenant of Christianity, offering forgiveness to others presents a major struggle for the majority of believers I have spoken with or counseled. I remember a particular Sunday School class I led where the topic of forgiveness came up, and a gamut of emotions…
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How God’s Adoption Builds Relationship
Read Time: 4 minutes The icy wind rushed through the downtown corridors with a vengeance that January morning. It was expected weather for Minnesota, but it was brutal for Texas. I wasn’t made for this cold anymore, although, truth be told, I was never built for it even when I called Minnesota home. Days like…
AJ Canterbury 