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Recently, I embarked on a new sort of journey. One I had previously never known or experienced. I began my first committed relationship for the purpose of marriage. During that relationship, I experienced such a wide spectrum of emotions and grappled with my view of myself, God, and others. As I look back over that short journey, I cannot help but see several lessons the Lord taught me along the...
Last Christmas, I had a moment of real exasperation. I mean, yes, I could see where people were coming from. After all, I’ve heard the Christmas story countless times. So often that I keep thinking I should finally memorize Luke 2. Since I’ve heard it so often, memorizing that passage should be a piece of cake. But even though I’ve listened to it, read it – yes, even acted it out – a total of at...
Love. We see it everywhere. Honestly, sometimes I’m not sure if love is the cute movie version with all the flutters or if it’s that passionate feeling that comes across when watching weddings. There is romantic love, family love, friendly love, and for Christians, there should be loving your enemy. But what is love? Do we even know? We hear the word so much in songs, movies, and books it’s hard...
I sat there with my notebook and pen in hand, ready to write down all the advice I was about to get. “What can I be doing now as a teenager to prepare for vocational ministry?” I was ready for practical advice – books to read, skills to acquire, conferences to attend. But what I got was much better… “Learn how to walk with God and live a life of holiness. Don’t get so caught up in ministry...
One windy, chilly night in November as my dad worked on our cars in the driveway, we reminisced about Christmas memories. I talked fondly about three things I loved as a child: Fresh Christmas trees, cutting sugar cookies into festive shapes, then baking and decorating them with red and green sugar crystals, plus a cake to celebrate Jesus’ birthday complete with candles, if I remember right. My...
My schedules and planners say I want to know my future. Don’t we all? We want to know what’s going to go on. We want to know what we are supposed to accomplish. What should I do once I graduate? What friends should I hang out with this week? Should I pursue a writing career, or an engineering one? Should I accept this job in Colorado, or move with my family to Florida? Should I begin this new...
There is a plague sweeping our culture today. A plague that brings thousands to their knees. It’s taking hold of more teens and young adults than we know, and it is devastating. If you don’t suffer from it, you may not see it as a plague at all, but it is. And it has a name: Anxiety. I assure you, you know people who battle it every day. Some of you may say, “Everyone feels anxious sometimes...
In the midst of my health struggles, it took a movie quote to shake me from my despair and remind me of the core of Christian hope. It came from the movie Return of the King. Faramir is comforting Éowyn, who can only see death and despair in both her own future and the future of the world. The scene goes like this: Éowyn: The city has fallen silent. There is no warmth left in the sun. It grows so...
Can I be completely honest with you? I don’t have this thing called being a Christian all figured out. I struggle. I sin. I rebel. Yet somehow I’m still loved. I’ve felt captivated by the very presence of God, so close as if I could touch Him, and I’ve also cried as I asked, “God, where are You?” I’ve run—both toward Him and from Him, and ask myself again, “why do I do the things I hate to do?”...
Where do you start when you want to understand a verse, passage, or chapter of the Bible? There are a lot of things you could do to help you understand it. But the most important tool—other than prayer—comes before all of those. That tool is context. The Importance of Context My mom once said that every verse you study lives in an environment. If you were going to study an animal—say, a species...
rebelling against low expectations
