What if the people we influence learn how to behave, but never learn how to come to Jesus? What if they remember our advice, admire our values, and follow our example, yet never meet the Savior we claim to represent? That possibility breaks my heart. It also makes me examine my own. I recently heard [...]
What if the biggest problem with our busy lives isn’t what we forget, but what we keep deciding can wait? We say God comes first. But sometimes prayer can wait. Serving someone can wait. Generosity can wait until we have a little more. Meanwhile, the urgent things get our attention, and the eternal things get [...]
It’s easy to talk about the love of Jesus until someone says something that makes you want to have the last word. Yesterday, that someone was me. I had a relational conflict, and instead of responding with patience and self-control, I let my emotions do the talking. I wanted my words to reflect Christ. In [...]
Sometimes the hardest thing God asks us to surrender is something we once would have gladly left behind. In 2010, I read Tramp for the Lord by Corrie ten Boom. One account stayed with me: a single missionary who left her home and possessions to serve in China. Her greatest fear was becoming a grain [...]
My friend Rick’s life changed on the drive home from a West Virginia ski trip. His ten-year-old daughter, Emily, had broken her leg. She rested in the back of their SUV with her mother, Joni, and little brother, Gabriel. Thirty minutes from home, Rick was imagining his children attending Christian camp someday. That is his [...]
Have you been holding on to the hope of something for so long that you sometimes wish your dream would die so you could be relieved of longing? If you're like me, you've wrestled with a desire or two for years and there are times your heart has sometimes felt worn out from waiting. Which [...]
Discomfort and reward often go together. I experience this every time I write. A blank page sits in front of me, and I have to fill it. Behind every word is a quiet prayer that somehow I will have something worthwhile to say. Sometimes the process feels hard. Sometimes I wonder where the words will [...]
Early in my Christian walk, I went through a difficult season when I began questioning is God really in control. I had trouble trusting Christ, and because I struggled to trust Him, I also struggled to believe He was truly in control of the things that mattered most to me. My job.My purpose.My relationships.My finances. [...]
Years ago I hiked a popular mountain in North Georgia. As I huffed and puffed my way along the sun soaked, leaf covered trail, sticks and leaves crunched beneath my feet. Somewhere along the way, my thoughts turned toward children. Children are curious about everything. If a child had been hiking with me that day, [...]
Most days in Southern Colorado feel wide open and bright. The kind of days where you roll the top down, breathe deep, and enjoy every mile. The road stretches out in front of you, clear and easy to follow. But then there are the other days. Snow moves in fast. The sky turns gray. The [...]
