rebelling against low expectations

TagFear

What If? Letting Go of Our Obsession With Tomorrow

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What if? Few phrases in English are so full of possibility, fear, and anticipation. What if I finish that project? What if I don’t? What if I achieve that goal? What if I fail? What if everything somehow goes right? What if something terrible happens tomorrow? Tomorrow—it’s all in the future. And with all of tomorrow’s possibilities come all its fears. Tomorrow everything could be wonderful...

The Girl with A Broken Compass:  A Poem

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There is an image that has stayed with me over the past few years. An image of a girl whose face is streaked with tears. In her hands she holds pieces of shattered glass and a tiny little arrow, all of this is red from the cuts upon her skin. It is all that is left of her compass. The girl had clutched it far too tightly within her sweaty palm, so as she stumbled on, watching for the coming dawn...

Life Preserver: A Promise for Those Passing Through Deep Waters

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“It’s time.” I swallowed those dreaded words, trying to accept them. Process them. Shifting in a wooden chair across a small metal table from the veterinarian, I nodded, and stroked Darcy’s soft black ear. I’d just spent the last twenty minutes explaining how my sweet Mr. Darcy had rapidly declined in recent days. Kidney disease had stolen his appetite and caused his body to reject what little...

Gospel Hope For Our Darkest Nights

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Night is supposed to be a time of rest. However, for those struggling with anxiety, insomnia, or grief, the night may be anything but restful. It can feel dark and endless. At times life itself might feel like an endless night; the narrow road feels too perilous to travel much longer, and our path grows so dim we fear we might fall. You Are Not Alone Dear friends, take heart. This darkness is not...

When the World Is Just Getting Worse—How Should Christians Respond?

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It’s what makes me stop watching the news for weeks at a time: Catastrophes, loss of freedom, flourishing of evil. You get the picture. It’s all over the media. Yes, of course it’s true that bad news gets more response than good news, and that gives the media reason to focus on the worst parts of the world. But even with that knowledge, it’s very easy to feel like the world is getting worse. And...

3 Things To Remember When You’re Afraid to Step Out of Your Comfort Zone

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Are we willing to follow God outside our comfort zones? I recently went on my first missions trip, and while it wasn’t anywhere exotic (just my home city), God taught me a few lessons about following him to new places. For context, the camp I volunteered with has several sign-up options: sports teams, home-repair teams (which I did for three years), and kid’s ministry teams. I was hesitant to...

Healing Takes Courage, Too

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The knight stands, trying not to tremble. Sweat trickles down his back and drips from his hair. He’s breathing hard, his feet planted firmly on the ground. His sword and shield are raised, ready for another attack. But the attack never comes. He peers over the lip of his shield; no fire blasts his face, no claws reach out for his already bleeding body. The dragon lays still upon the ground. What...

My Brave Isn’t Your Brave: Understanding Courage and Mental Health

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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...

Watch His Face–Where the Christian Looks In Troubled Times

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The bus was just four yards away. They were so close! But between them and the vehicle stood a chain link fence topped with a coil of barbed wire. A Nazi soldier guarded the only gate. So close and yet still so far away! Havilah bit her lip until it bled. When she didn’t it quivered. Her hands trembled too, so she tucked one into her pocket and Martha squeezed the other tightly. “Take a deep...

When You Step Out, Keep Your Eyes on Jesus

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The waves rose higher, beating against the boat. Wind whipped around them, stirring up the surface of the sea and tossing them back and forth. They strained against the waves, but it wasn’t any use. Suddenly, on the horizon, a figure emerged. Fear gripped their hearts . . . Does this story sound familiar? Most of you have probably read it first in the book of Matthew. “But the boat by this time...

rebelling against low expectations

The Rebelution is a teenage rebellion against low expectations—a worldwide campaign to reject apathy, embrace responsibility, and do hard things. Learn More →