The story of the Tortoise and the Hare is one most of us learned as children. The Hare was confident in his speed and had no problem telling everyone about it. “I have never yet been beaten,” he boasted. “When I put forth my full speed, I challenge anyone here to race with me.” The [...]
n Joshua chapter 6, after the walls of Jericho fell, God gave clear instructions. The silver, gold, and valuable items were to be set apart for Him. They were not to be taken for personal use. But Achan chose to take some of those items and hide them under his tent. It seemed small. It [...]
It’s a question that comes up more often than we admit. What does God want to do with my life? It can feel hard to live with purpose when you are unsure what that purpose is. We want to move forward, but we also don’t want to move in the wrong direction. So we hesitate. [...]
As the father of two young boys, I hear the same words almost everywhere we go. At a restaurant. In the church lobby. Walking through a store. Someone smiles at my boys doing something funny or sweet, then looks at my wife and me and says, “Enjoy them while you can. They grow up so [...]
This morning, God gave me an “Ouchie-But Praise Be”—a truth that both stings and heals. One reader once described it as a cross between an “ouch” and a “praise be”: a word from the Lord that is exactly what you need to hear, even when it isn’t exactly comfortable. Lately, I have been navigating a [...]
Clyde Beatty was a boy from Bainbridge, Ohio who ran off to join the circus. He started as a cage cleaner. The kind of job no one notices. The kind of beginning that feels small and forgettable. Beatty stayed in the cage, but not as a cleaner. He rose to fame as one of the [...]
In his book Visioneering, Andy Stanley writes: "In many ways I feel that I am a product of a vision my father cast for me as a child. Early on he would say to me, 'Andy, God has something very special for your life. He is going to use you in a great way.' His [...]
Time is our most valuable resource. It is limited and passes quickly. Our time is not our own. We must steward our time in the same way we steward our money to glorify God. Stewardship is taking care of something another person has entrusted to you. Managing your time well is stewarding the time God [...]
I have a guitar that hangs on the wall of my living room. It was a gift from my husband a few years ago and I love it. It’s just a shame that I don’t know how to play it. For years I had yearned to pick up the guitar again. I had been a [...]
My friend Mike Ashcraft released a book titled My One Word: Change Your Life with Just One Word. As a pastor, Mike noticed that as every New Year rolled around, people in his congregation would make multiple resolutions to change. Usually, these resolutions would be forgotten by the end of January, and the next January [...]
