Butterflies of the Unknown: Adventure Is for You Too
Skipped something you wanted because nobody would go? Annie F. Downs on going anyway and the world that opens. Set aside for Rapt readers.
Be Extravagant in Love
Love, when it follows Jesus, rarely stays safe or measured. It risks reputation, comfort, even misunderstanding. Nicodemus came in secret, then stepped into the light. A woman poured out what others called waste. Both saw something worth everything. Extravagant love doesn’t calculate return. It simply gives — because it has been given to first, more generously than we ever deserved.
Courage to Be True: Moving From Shame to Wholeness
For years I hid behind a practiced smile. I longed to be loved but feared being known. Rejection felt deadly, so I performed, pleased and pretended. Shame taught me to hide. But God doesn’t heal who we pretend to be. He meets the real us — wounded, afraid, still in process — and calls us his own. Courage begins there: trusting our identity isn’t defined by our past, but secured in Christ alone.
When the World Shakes: Climbing Toward Steady Light
When the world trembles and my courage hides, I light a candle and ask my heart if it’s ready. I hear: surrender. I remember: idols won’t hold. So I breathe, unclench and let Love lower my center. Do what’s before you, he says. Fill your heart till it spills. Be loved, be loved, be loved. Hope descends like a rope ladder; I climb, eyes up, into his steady light.