Common grace is God’s generosity toward all humanity, believers and non-believers alike. It’s what allows for cultural achievements, artistic beauty and the wisdom we find in the world around us.

My favorite way to start a conversation with God is simply this, ‘Hi,’ and then pause. Rather than fill the space with noise and opinion, I want to be open to his direction. I want to turn where he wants me to turn. 

Efficiency is portrayed as the consummate modern virtue. Get up early, go to bed late, multitask, double-book, manage your time and juggle more. We’re masters of efficiency, but we’ve lost our souls.

The Holy Spirit is seeking to project an endless reel of the glory of Jesus onto our hearts so that we live for him in the increasing complexity and mess of life.

God doesn’t sort out the mess by pressing a button or pulling a lever upstairs. He comes down to the place of sorrow, shame, sickness and death and takes the worst of it upon himself.

The path of spiritual growth in the riches of Christ is not a passive one. Grace is not opposed to effort. It’s opposed to earning. People are more active than when they have been set on fire by the grace of God.

If you want to connect deeply with God, you first have to connect deeply with yourself. Do you find that idea jolting? I did the first time I encountered it. It challenges the way I’m wired.

The Holy Spirit gives each one of us a particular spiritual gift or set of gifts, which can be used in a range of ministries that serve others in the Christian community and beyond. Do you know yours?

When the fathers of the faith encountered God, they would build an altar so they would remember — remember their encounter with God, remember the place where everything changed.

We live in a time of the 24-hour new cycle, social media, information excess and compassion fatigue — a time when sometimes unknowing is better than certain kinds of knowing.

God will accompany you and speak to you as you travel and explore and have adventures. Be eager but patient, too; you will hear his voice and sense his presence more clearly at some times than at others.

“God has very high aims for you and me. His aim is that each one of us becomes the kind of person he can empower to do what we want … that is what life is about.”

Your life is not a series of random events. Your family background, education, and life experiences—even the most painful ones—all equip you to do some work that no one else can do.

Becoming aware of—and living out—the Christian liturgical year allows followers of Jesus to enter into communion with him in a way that touches body, mind, and soul.

My agenda is frequently different from God’s. He must be the initiator in my spiritual walk. He knows what I need to hear. When I go to the woods, I go to receive.

We cannot create spiritual renewal by ourselves, but we can “prepare the altar” and ask God to send his Holy Spirit to change our hearts, our churches, and our communities.

How do we make decisions that are good for ourselves and for our communities when conspiracy theories, doctored images, and false claims pervade the news and information we consume?

Seth Kaplan, researcher at Johns Hopkins who studies fragile states around the world, argues that rebuilding social capital—including faith congregations—can address social problems.

In a culture riven by crises of miscommunication, we suffer unnecessarily in our families and even in our body politic. Maybe it’s always been this way. But it certainly seems worse today.

For many, the relationship between birds and Christianity does not stray further than the dove and olive branch on a banner at church. However, for Christian birdwatchers, the link is alive.

When music encounters religion, the art can be transformed and may reveal God in astonishing beauty—like the earliest Gregorian chants through Bach and Mozart.