Praying for the Impossible
What’s on your heart that feels too big to pray for? Grief and loss often leave us hesitant, yet impossible prayers open the door to God’s unexpected grace. As a loving Father, he listens, cares and answers in his perfect way. Today is an invitation to trust him again — bring him your hopes, no matter how audacious, and watch what he might do.
Who Are Your Enemies?
Who’s the hardest person for you to pray for? Jesus’ command to love our enemies calls us to face those who’ve hurt or frustrated us with kindness and mercy. Moving beyond resentment isn’t easy, but every choice to forgive and show love brings us closer to living as God intended. This path transforms not just others, but also ourselves, inviting us into a deeper, faith-filled life.
Life to the Full
Listening to God’s voice can transform everything. Israel, once an orphan on the streets of Tijuana, found his life’s purpose through an unexpected encounter. His story reveals how hearing God shapes our identity and leads us toward a life of meaning and fulfillment. Are you open to hearing him? God’s voice invites us into the fullness of life we were made for — if we’re willing to listen.
All Shall Be Well
Life brings about chaos, and it's easy to get caught up in the overwhelm of it all. But there's a simple reassurance worth remembering: ‘You know this is all going to be okay, don’t you?’
New Tool for Your Bag: Psalm Scrawling
By learning to write our own psalms, we gain a new tool for our faith-life tool bags. Writing mine allowed me to notice and give voice to my fears, hopes and gratitude.
Fire in Our Bones
I know I’ll soon have more time to focus on Jenn and our relationship. What will that look like? I’m not sure. I’m also not exactly sure how to move from being an on-the-scene-type dad to more of an over-the-phone- and Thanksgiving/parents-weekend/Christmas/summer-type dad. Moreover, while I know I’ll also have more time for my friends, I don’t know what that should look like either.
The Tomatometer’s Top 10 Recent Faith-Based Movies
Christian cinema has sometimes struggled to find mainstream acclaim, but a new wave of Faith-based films is surging in quality and winning over popular critics.
You Will Get Unstuck. Me, Too.
Jesus loves us too much not to help us face our disordered attachments, our coping mechanisms and addictions. So, to stay at his side, to match his stride, we must begin to face our deep hurts.
Who’s at Your Table?
More than money and opportunity, the people in our lives — our family, friends, colleagues, even our casual acquaintances — are among the most precious gifts God will ever give us. Do you know that?
Walk Slow, Go Easy, Love Well
Maybe we can take a deep breath and slow down a bit, knowing we have eternity to experience all the things we want to experience and accomplish all the things we want to accomplish. Maybe we can take a deep breath and notice more of God’s presence in our world. And maybe we can learn to walk slow, go easy, and love well.
Weary From the Road?
Our human hearts ache so dearly for home. We pour out our lives looking and looking for it, trying to locate a place we know in our hearts we’re made for. But we remain vagabonds until we begin to view even our physical abodes as no more than temporary refuges providing respite from the pilgrim’s road — guest houses along the way — places where we live for a while and love a lot but are never our final destinations.
How to Experience God Outdoors
We can learn a lot about people by what they make — especially what they make for others. We can grasp the depth of their affection by the effort and care they take in the making and the beauty and utility they infuse into what’s made. When we go outdoors, into God’s own creation, we learn about him — and sometimes encounter him, too.
What Role Does Confession Play?
Scripture is clear: Confession is normal and necessary for followers of Jesus. It’s something many of us did spontaneously when we began following him. But it must be an ongoing thing for us, too. Why? Because we will sin anew. It’s inevitable. Therefore, we will bear new shame and want to isolate our hearts. And thus, we’ll need healing anew.
Should Community Be a Non-Negotiable?
We are meant to be together, to do life together, to be united with God and our brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.
What is Listening Prayer?
In Scripture, God spoke to Elijah by his “still small voice.” By telling this story, God seems to be revealing a preferred way of communicating with us, too—today.
Memory vs. Imagination vs. Wonder
Memory and imagination are necessary but not sufficient. with too much of either, I can become numb to wonder—the wonder of a present moment.
Bonus: A Third Way to Find Meaning
Our sufferings are always preparation for callings—which are, at the highest level, to join Jesus in his work of healing, restoring, and redeeming this world.
A Second Secret to Finding Meaning
What makes work meaningful? When we love and serve by the power of the Spirit and for God’s eternal purpose of restoring and redeeming the entire world through love and kindness.
Road Map Toward a Meaningful Life
We're built to love. We're created by God to love the precious family, friends, and acquaintances he's put in our lives. And if we're not doing well this thing we're created to do, we violate our nature.
Why Do We Take Time To Worship God?
I've struggled with worship. For much of my life, it was the part of any church service when my mind was most apt to wander. But then, finally, some friends taught me how to worship.