rebelling against low expectations
Have you ever believed a lie? Maybe when you were young your older siblings told you that the moon was made of blue cheese and you had no reason to disbelieve them, right? Or maybe they said a nickel was worth more than a dime, since it was bigger. Doesn’t that make sense? Just like we believed those silly lies until a sensible adult, most likely our parents, came to the rescue, we also believe...
I believe that God is moving in our generation. I see a lot of my peers taking seriously the call to follow Christ with all their hearts. We do not want to waste our lives but are passionate about glorifying God by doing hard things. Although, like every generation, there is a lot of wickedness and apathy among us, I do not believe wickedness needs to define our generation. I think we can and...
A while ago, I wrote a short article about whether or not Christians should stand up for their rights. I knew it was not exactly what most Americans idealize, but I was still surprised at the “push-back” I received from it. Let me be clear: I am not anti-American in the least — in fact I am extremely grateful for the blessings God has given us Americans. God has blessed us with wealth, ability to...
Politics are tense these days. Have you noticed? Most of the tensions are centered around whether or not man has a “right” to something. It’s those decades-old arguments: “We have a right to own guns!” “We have a right to have abortions!” “We have a right to free speech!” “We have a right to religious freedom!” and so on and so forth. These ideas are ingrained into Americans as immovable...
I don’t know about you, but it is easier for me to believe in God than it is to believe God loves me. This hesitation to rest in His love causes me to live under a constant pressure to perform — to prove myself to God and to others. But Christ came as a mediator between God and man to reconcile us to the Father and take away that pressure to perform. Every day I must remind myself that God the...
Last fall, I had to make a decision. Being the first year after my Mom’s fatal car accident made 2013 one of the toughest years of my life, as you could imagine. When grieving loss such as the death of a loved one, or even a lost career, a divorce, a cross-country move, chronic or terminal illness or any kind of major loss or change, the regular pains of life intensify. Last year my family and I...
Want to do hard things? Want to succeed at life’s toughest challenge? Learn to forgive. Even the most talented people have limited impact until they learn the basics of forgiveness. But what does forgiveness mean, exactly? Is it merely saying “I forgive you”? Does it mean forgetting as well? We can try to squeeze it into a simple definition by saying: forgiveness is the continuous state of a...
“Sing for joy in the Lord, O you righteous ones; praise is becoming to the upright. Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre; sing praises to Him with a harp of ten strings. Sing to Him a new song; play skillfully with a shout of joy, for the word of the Lord is upright, and all His work is done in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the loving kindness of the Lord...
Take a deep breath in. Now breathe out. God is active in your life. Breathe in, again; breathe out. God is active in your life. Breathe in, breathe out. God is active. Every single breath that you breathe is a gift from God — a deliberate act of God’s will to give you yet one more breath of life, and another, and another. God is not done with you. Look all around you. There is life! Look up at...
“I just feel so dead. I am so torn up inside. Worthless. Believing lies [and] feeling incapable of believing truth. But I just have to. I am desperate. Angry. I need God yet I feel extremely angry at God. I feel hopeless. This battle never ends. I just want to die.” I penned these words in my journal not two years ago, not nine months ago, but yesterday and they expressed what I wanted to scream...
rebelling against low expectations
