rebelling against low expectations
When was the last time you looked up at the sky? No, really. Think about it. When did you last stop what you were doing to tilt your head, gaze up, and admire wisps of clouds or an array of stars? How about the last time you said “hello” to a stranger or started a conversation with someone you didn’t know? If your answer is “not much lately” or “maybe sometime last summer” or “I just haven’t”...
Have you seen someone in a wheelchair today? Or someone who kept bobbing their head while flicking their hands without speaking? You probably haven’t. If you’re like most people, you didn’t notice them. Who are these individuals? They are people with developmental and cognitive disabilities. I don’t blame you for not noticing them. Most don’t. Who Have You Overlooked? It might be because you were...
Have you ever put the wrong key into a lock? The key goes in, but, try as you might to get it to turn, it will not open the lock. It can take a while to discover your mistake–some of us spend far longer trying to get it to work than others–but in the end, when the error is finally realized, we feel so silly! How could such a simple solution be so difficult to see? In our world today...
“So, who wrote this book then if no one was living?” she asked, eyebrows scrunched, freckled face questioning me. I smiled, chuckling to myself, “That’s a great question kiddo. There’s even some adults who have never asked that! The book of Genesis was written by Moses because God told him what to write. Have you ever heard of ‘God-breathed’?” “Umm, no,” she replied. “Well, let’s go to 2 Timothy...
“Tell the world these things we are going through in Nigeria.” A twenty-eight-year-old mother of three, Aisha was raped–just because someone saw a Bible in her home and assumed her husband was a pastor. Her story and plea on the Open Doors website broke my heart. We hear these horror stories every once in a while in our Christian circles when someone feels the need to remind us of how good...
I crashed the computer program in less than two minutes. I’m not talking about the kind of crash where you can just exit out of the program. I pushed the wrong combination of buttons, and the computer screen completely froze up. After initially panicking, I finally restarted the computer, desperately hoping it would regain its sanity. How did I end up in this predicament? Well, I was sitting in...
I was sixteen and had never played a game of laser tag in my life. They had an instructional video playing before the match, but there was one problem… My youth group was going up against a bunch of experienced kids, and they yelled through the whole video. I couldn’t hear, couldn’t understand. When they handed me my gun, I didn’t know how to use it. I asked my brother for...
If you have ever been a dedicated church member, I am sure you have witnessed church chaos or drama at one point or another, maybe even multiple times. My family and I have been a part of several churches where we fully dedicated our time, finances, and resources to serve the church. Unfortunately, during my teenage years we also experienced several messy break-ups with churches due to issues...
What would you risk to go to church? In the United States, this is a pointless question. There’s usually little or no risk at all. But in China, this is a question every believer faces. While China’s constitution supposedly guarantees religious freedom, this guarantee proves weightless. Chinese Christians have a long history of persecution—and it’s only increasing. Churches are shut down and...
It’s usually easy to live as a set-apart Christian teen on Sunday morning. We’re quick to conquer the church checklist: Wake up. Read Scripture. Go to church. Read more Scripture. Listen to a sermon. Talk to Christian friends (usually about Scripture). Check. Check. Check. But between the church doors and the safety of home, something happens. We’re assaulted by our culture. Singing Christ’s...
rebelling against low expectations
