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Sometimes we go through seasons when doing hard things is invisible to those around us—it’s inward. Perhaps it looks bleak, even. Like a winter with cold, hard ground where growth seems impossible. Yet, gradually, spring comes and earth softens and seeds take root. Growth happens underneath the ground—buried and invisible to the naked eye. I’ve found this to be true because my life hasn’t...
As a senior in high school, I was sitting in a room full of teenage girls in a small group Bible study. I was one of the oldest, single, and the majority of the younger girls were dating – most as young as fifteen. Those who weren’t dating admitted feeling inadequate as a result. This troubled me, and it still does. I’m still single – never been on a date. But God has me right where...
The origin of the first living cell is one of the great mysteries of science. Charles Darwin theorized that the first life arose spontaneously in a warm little pond—and this idea seemed somewhat plausible as long as scientists believed a cell was a simple, jelly-filled blob. Today, however, we know that every cell is a miniature factory filled with organelles and protein machinery, all...
To the human eye it may seem that the bigger you are, the stronger you are, the more daring you are, the more widely recognized you are, the braver you are. The ones we look to in the world and call brave know who they are and tell us how to be like them. But what if there are people out there braver than these? What if they face dragons just as fearsome, but those dragons are cloaked so the...
“Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” — C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory Like most...
As I climb up the last steps of childhood, pushing through the final blocks of high school final exams, I have often found myself asking the question, “What am I going to do now?” The journey so far has been like trekking up a hill where the horizon on the other side is endless with opportunities and new things to discover. I’m now at the point in my life where I get to stand back and...
What does it mean to live in simplicity? Should we live in simplicity? When we approach this topic of simplicity, many people will have different ideas of what it means. Some think simplicity is about decreasing one’s possessions and physical needs. Some think it’s about getting back to meditative practices. Others might think it’s about only focusing on the core things and not letting themselves...
“But I don’t want to eat it,” whispered my younger self to my dad who was sitting next to me. On my lap sat a bowl of the later branded ‘chicken poop soup’ in all its grotesque congealed glory. The chunks of chicken intestine were not cleaned, so paired with the cooked feces, it radiated a wretched odor. “You have to,” dad whispered back, spooning some for himself. “It would be disrespectful not...
Suddenly, I was wide awake. I stared at my bedroom clock. 1:30 AM. Again?! I had fallen asleep just two hours ago, and now I was wide awake. Was my body playing a cruel joke on me? I lay awake for hours, finally dozing off for a little bit before I had to get up at 6 am to get ready for work. As I dragged myself through my day, I desperately hoped that my struggle with insomnia would end soon...
“So, what do you want to do after high school?” I asked my co-worker as we sat at the edge of the courtyard, our backs against the cold concrete wall. It was a hot summer day and cooling off in the shade was the perfect thing to do after a Wednesday at day camp. The last few children that hadn’t been picked up yet scampered around, playing four square or catch. “Well,” she said, “I want to be a...
rebelling against low expectations
