One of the most persistent lies the enemy uses to keep people from God is the idea that they need to clean themselves up first. Get your life together. Deal with the addiction. Fix the marriage. Resolve the anger. Stop the behavior. Then come. But this is precisely backwards. The entire trajectory of the gospel … Read more
Letting go of someone you love is one of the hardest things a human being ever does. It does not always involve a funeral. Sometimes the person is still alive and still present in the world, but the relationship as it was has ended or needs to end. A marriage that is over. A friendship … Read more
There is a particular kind of loneliness that comes from feeling unnamed. Feeling like a number in a system, a face in a crowd, a person whose absence would go unnoticed and whose presence registers as incidental. It is the loneliness not of being alone but of being unseen, of moving through the world without … Read more
The phrase “trust the process” has become cultural shorthand for patience during difficulty. But the Bible’s version of it is far more specific and far more demanding than the motivational poster version. It is not simply waiting for things to work out. It is trusting a specific person with a specific plan who operates on … Read more
Fake friendship is one of the most painful experiences in human life precisely because it looks like the real thing until it isn’t. The betrayal is not just the loss of the person. It is the loss of what you thought the relationship was, the accumulated trust and shared history that you now have to … Read more
Dancing in Scripture is not a peripheral activity. It appears at moments of the highest spiritual intensity: Miriam leading women in dance after the Red Sea crossing, David dancing before the ark of the Lord with all his might, the prodigal son’s return being celebrated with music and dancing, and the promise that the mourning … Read more
There is no loss quite like the loss of a mother. She was the first voice, the first touch, the first place of safety. She carried you before you existed in the world’s awareness. She prayed prayers you will never fully know and made sacrifices that were never publicly counted. And now she is gone, … Read more
Following Jesus is not a metaphor for being religious. It is a specific, demanding, daily orientation of the whole person toward a specific person who said specific things about what following him actually requires. He did not invite people to adopt his values or admire his teachings from a comfortable distance. He said follow me, … Read more
The mind is the primary battlefield. Not the marriage, the finances, the workplace, or the body. Those are where consequences appear. The fight begins in the thought life, in the space between stimulus and response, in the seconds before a temptation becomes a decision. The enemy understands this. He does not need to destroy your … Read more
Being taken advantage of is one of the most quietly damaging experiences a person can carry. It does not always look dramatic. Sometimes it is a person who consistently takes but never gives. Sometimes it is manipulation disguised as friendship. Sometimes it is exploitation by someone who knew your kindness and used it as access. … Read more