rebelling against low expectations
A destructive, sneaky lie has been echoing in my head for days. Maybe you’ve heard it too. “Everything I do is worthless.” I’ve believed all my efforts–writing, piano, you name it–are garbage. Junk that deserves to be tossed out on the curb and thrown in a landfill. But, the truth is: my efforts aren’t worthless trash, and neither are yours. If you gave 100...
“I should be better.” “I should know how to respond to a friend’s pain in a way that helps, instead of my clumsy efforts to be logical.” “I should have the right words and skills, instead of being surpassed by beginners in areas I constantly struggle in.” It’s not wounded pride we feel as we watch those better than us. It’s not envy. We don’t want our friends to be less than they are; we just...
I was fourteen when God taught me a thing or two about real faith. It was a few months after I’d been baptised; my relationship with Him was growing and I was regularly aware of his presence in my life. I felt close to him. The change was so gradual I didn’t notice it at first. But one day I realised: I do devotions daily, but I don’t get much out of it anymore. And I can’t feel the Lord near me...
God got ahold of his life and he was never the same. God lit a spark in his soul, and his whole life blazed with passion for God because he knew his home wasn’t here. As he constantly said, “My home is in Heaven. I’m just traveling through this world.” He spoke to millions. Counseled US presidents. Befriended world leaders. And always his focus remained the same: the Good News. He reminded us...
I hear it all the time. “I hate to ask this, because I know there are bigger prayer requests out there,” or “I know this is really small, but…” I’ve been guilty of saying the same thing. My father recently put in for a job in Arkansas, over 600 miles from where we currently live. Thousands of emotions flickered through my mind as I processed this information. When I first heard about it, I...
How often do you pause and imagine the day you’ll stand before God? Do you close your eyes and imagine a world with no anger, no bitterness, no sadness, no loneliness? Can you taste the sweetness of freedom? Can you feel life overflowing the cup of your soul? When your heart will realize that the war it has fought on Earth, the battles won and lost, are all over and done with forever? That you...
“Stop suffering!” reads the words emblazoned across the front of a church building not too far away from my home in L.A. I can’t say I know the people who put those words up because I’ve never even stepped foot inside the building. I don’t know what denomination the church is a part of or the heart of the people attending it. I’m sure they’re good people with love and hearts even bigger than mine...
Usually, December is my absolute favorite month. I love the decorations, families getting together, seeing friends, and traveling to camp. Naturally, I look forward to this season every year; but this time I had been daydreaming about it since March. I had a concrete plan, (some events were polished down to the hour!) but God had something very different in mind. On November 26th, Honduras voted...
Why are you here? By that I mean, what’s your purpose in life – for what reason are you alive? To grow up? To obey the rules? To go to college? To work for a few years and then retire? To have fun until you’re too weak to go on? To die? Or as a Christian, to say the sinners’ prayer and then try your best to follow God’s rules? Is that why you’re here? Why are you here? Growing up, first in a...
I was anxious as I walked into the senior pastor’s office. As my dad and I sat down on a couch and Pastor Bart sat down in a separate chair, every second seemed to tick by like an eternity. Let me give you some background. In kindergarten, I had been bullied verbally– whether it was for being nerdy or for being seemingly socially awkward. See, I was introverted at heart because I had...
rebelling against low expectations
