Posts by Radhika Sharda, MD
The Grain of Wheat Must Die
Recently, during a bedtime conversation about faith, my 11-year-old son mentioned a theory he had found online that the Christian story was something “made up” by ancient Romans to govern their state. When I heard this, I nearly laughed out loud. “Who on earth,” I asked, “would ever come up with a religion like this?”…
Read MoreLove that Overflows with Life
To what shall we compare the love of God? What is it like to dwell in relationship with the Lord? These are questions we face each time we approach the Lord in prayer. The Christian faith offers us several different images for relating to God. On one hand, we are invited into a filial relationship…
Read More“The Lord is God! The Lord is God!”
“Which god do you pray to?” This question, posed to me many years ago by a Hindu acquaintance at a family gathering, bewildered me when I first heard it. Though I knew little of God in those days before faith, I understood that God, whoever He was, must be one; and thus even to speak…
Read MoreCome, Spirit of Truth
In his priestly discourse during the Last Supper, Jesus intertwines the imminence of his death with the promise of the Holy Spirit. “I shall not leave you orphans,” he attests. Jesus speaks of the “comforter” who will come to dwell in the disciples forever. This, the “Spirit of truth,” will usher in a new mode…
Read More“It is the Lord!”
For anyone outside the Christian faith approaching the Gospels, perhaps the most decisive part of the narrative is the account of the Resurrection. It is the hinge upon which the drama stands or falls. Christianity stakes everything upon the historical reality of Christ’s Resurrection. Recognising the Risen Lord What proves even more intriguing, though, is…
Read MorePlunged in Fire
Perhaps the most dramatic prayer one can make is the one offered when all else seems lost. Imagine a prisoner on death row being pardoned at the last minute, or a missing child’s miraculous return home. When we find ourselves in such crushing situations, poised at the verge of defeat, our prayer for mercy becomes…
Read MoreHow Lovely is Your Dwelling Place
Churches have had a way of following me throughout my youth. In the years before my conversion, our family moved through several different towns, and oddly enough, near each home there was always a church. Our drives home from school were always marked by the presence of a church. Here in North Carolina, every time…
Read MoreTrue God, True Image
As a radiologist, I spend hours in a dark room every day reviewing images. On one monitor, I click on a patient’s name, and then I wait for the images to come up on the adjoining monitors. Sometimes a message comes up in capital letters declaring, “NO IMAGE.” Staring at that message in the dark…
Read MoreFinding Refuge in the Yoke
“Come to me, all you who are weary,” Jesus urges us in today’s Gospel reading. Few calls resonate so deeply as this open-armed invitation to every tired soul. Who among us has not known the trials and weariness of everyday life? “Come to me” offers the balm of restoration. Yet a few verses later, we…
Read MoreSmall Enough to Kneel
Have you ever wondered what allows some people to believe, while others do not? What special trait or disposition of mind equips one person to participate in faith, while another continues in his own ways? Why do some souls readily see the deeper layers of reality, while others see only the surface? What sets them…
Read More