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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...
It was supposed to be over. The hurricane of chaos that formed in 2020 was supposed to dissipate as the sun rose on January 1, 2021. It’s what the media promised. It’s what our weary hearts hoped for to the point of delusion. But it wasn’t reality. When we awoke to a new year, racism still existed in the hearts of men. COVID 19 and its variants remained a present threat. And political upheaval...
A man stands at the edge of a gorge. Human bones litter the valley floor. Dry bones bleached white from many days exposed to scorching sun. As his eyes took in the sight before him, he felt sick by such death. As he looked on, a hand fell on his shoulder before despair took hold of his heart. He looked up at his Companion; the One who led him to this valley of death. “Son of man,” his Companion...
“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” (1 John 4:18) Follow your heart. Love yourself. Do what makes you happy. These phrases scream at us as we pass billboards, watch commercials, or view ads on social media. As a society, we’ve convinced ourselves there are quick and instant solutions to...
“You Christians always talk about God being like a father, but what does that mean?” her eyes searched mine, but they weren’t accusing. Just questioning. “What does it mean if someone is like a father?” My heart broke. While my earthly father is far from perfect, I never had the struggle of not knowing what a father is supposed to be like – the very struggle the girl sitting in front of me...
On August 8th, 2021, around nine in the evening, I received the call I had been dreading. My mom’s voice was shaky and quiet at the other end as she broke the news. Mema was gone. Our family had been waiting for her to pass away—we knew the end was near—for eight days. We said our goodbyes during visits to the hospice house where she was staying. My grief is still raw. It hurts to think about her...
rebelling against low expectations
