rebelling against low expectations
Prayer is one of the key foundations of faith. Much of our faith, as Christians, hinges upon it, and without it, we are rendered completely unable to grow in relationship with Christ. A Christian’s spiritual walk involves prayer from the beginning to the end. From praying to first accept Christ to praying our last words on our deathbed, prayer is deeply rooted within the life of every...
What comes to mind when you hear the word hero? Do you see a man or woman with biceps the size of a soccer-ball flying through the air, cape floating behind them and fist leading the way? Or, do you think of someone who has had a significant impact on your life, such as a parent or teacher that helped you achieve or overcome something? It seems like everyone wants to be a hero. Everyone wants to...
You love me Jesus, it’s a mystery. You know my faults, You know my wrongs, and You still love me. As I scrolled through Instagram earlier this week, a post shared by one of my friends caught my eye. Clicking through to the original post, I pulled back in shock. Jon Steingard, known to me only as the lead singer of the Christian band Hawk Nelson, was renouncing his faith. While their most...
It’s just a phone number. I smiled as I slipped his phone back to him. “There. Text me,” I said. His smirk assured me that he would. I turned and walked out of the cafeteria. High school would bore me without guy-friends, I thought. It’s just a text. Sure enough, he texted me. I responded to him, of course. That’s just what teenagers do. Girls text guys, guys text girls. And boy, did I text. Not...
“I hate that guy!” “You’re a jerk!” “You know what I heard she did? It was just awful!” “I don’t want to deal with them again!” We’ve all heard these phrases from someone else in some form or another. Some of us have said them, or other phrases not on the list. I know I have. So often we take for granted the things we say...
It’s in our nature to work and have aspirations. Some of us are loud and outspoken about our goals, while others are quiet about it. Ambition and aspiration is in all of us–adults, teens, Christians, and non-Christians. There’s several common ones: Desiring a certain job/career. Aiming to be popular. Gaining wealth. But if these simple goals are left unchecked by the truth of the...
I don’t care if I get fired. I thought jokingly, I’ve got to get a drink. I had been bringing carts in from the parking lot for the past few hours–not exactly easy work in South Florida, where it’s in the 80-degree range, even during the winter. I was pretty thirsty. It had been a couple hours since my lunch break. By now, I felt parched. It might sound cliché, but the water from the Publix...
All the things I had planned to write don’t make sense anymore. I meant to talk about needing beauty in the midst of the cacophony of the world, full of the steady patter of cars and busyness and cement sidewalks—that chaos of busyness. But that’s gone now. I meant to speak of the longing for a great Something, a something that took the discordant notes of the Monday commute and mundane...
Right now, many people across the world are either quarantined or just simply avoiding going anywhere. We are hearing phrases like “social- distancing” or “self-quarantine,” which really mean that we are avoiding contact with anyone. Schools are online, businesses are either shutting down or running online, events are being cancelled, and everything seems to be quite a mess. Through all of this...
Have you ever seen a ship battle a storm? I know it feels like we’re weathering our own storm right now, but I want to focus on another aspect to storms. I’ve always wondered what a sailor would feel in the face of a storm at sea. Once, I heard a sailor remark, “In a storm, what you really hope for is that no one building the ship took any shortcuts.” That left me thinking. How often do we take...
rebelling against low expectations
