rebelling against low expectations
I was depressed and scared. A list of my sins ran through my head, and I couldn’t let go of them. Condemnation gripped me as I thought of all the ways I had done wrong. I was covered by a cloud of gloom and sadness. My joy was gone. But God’s forgiveness is more than all my sins. His divine plan was forgiveness, to free His dear children from condemnation. All I had to do was embrace His grace...
There was once a boy named Joshua. Throughout his childhood he dealt with the consequences of divorce. His dad had left him when he was three, leaving his mom to raise both him and his brother while being a full-time teacher. When he was eight, Joshua’s dad came back into the picture, and the two met for the first time. He now began to live in two separate houses, traveling back and forth...
When asked what my favorite book was, I usually had no answer. That is, until I read The Hiding Place. God changed my life in many ways through the course of this book. I’ve read The Hiding Place multiple times, and each time I learned something new. What most affected me were the people. Throughout all the evil and pain, the ten Boom family continued to be wholly devoted to God, relying on Him...
Corrie ten Boom is known for rescuing hundreds of Jews during WW2 through her work in the Dutch underground. Telling this incredible story in The Hiding Place, she begins slow, with glimpses into her childhood, her life as a young adult trying to navigate her future, and the years preceding the Nazi occupation of Holland. What is remarkable is how the lessons from these times, as Corrie frames...
When Claire Culwell met her birth mother for the first time, she expected the overwhelming emotions that came with finally greeting the woman who had brought her into the world. She wanted to thank her birth mother for choosing life for her, and she expected the tears shed on both sides. But what Claire could never have expected was the impact that meeting would have on the rest of her life. “At...
“Judge not, that you be not judged.” The words Jesus spoke in Matthew 7:1 can be a hard message to live by. I want to be up front and honest with you: I’m not perfect. I am tempted to judge people for a variety of reasons, but maybe primarily because judging them makes me feel good. It makes me feel better about myself. When I judge people, I may or may not be accurate in what I think about them...
When someone apologizes to you, do you respond with the obligatory “it’s ok,” or take it a step further and tell that person you forgive them for the offense? A few weeks ago, I was in a disagreement with a friend. When she apologized, I sent her a text back that said that I forgave her. It feels strange when you’ve been conditioned to say “it’s ok” and just move on. Forgiveness is weird. It’s...
Honesty feels great. But it’s also unbelievably painful. This is probably going to be the most uncomfortable article I will ever write. So be it. I’m done with skeletons in my closet. I hope after this you will be as well. This is the story of my life. A lot of people assume that just because I was baptized at thirteen and have never gone to jail or done drugs, I have the typical “good...
She sat across from me, clutching the coffee mug tightly in her hands. This was supposed to be a normal conversation in a café, yet quickly became anything but. As her words and then tears began to trickle and then gush out, I quickly came to sit beside her, letting the torrential rain of hurt and grief flow out. When the storm had slowed, she looked at me with broken eyes. Her hurt is not mine...
Lately, I’ve learned a lot about myself. God has made me see the power I have in him, but I’ve also realized just how evil and corrupt I can be. It hurts to see the sin inside my heart. As Christians, our souls long to be to be free from the anger, lust, depression, addiction, and hatred in and around us. In a poem by John Newton called I Asked the Lord that I Might Grow, the narrator asks God to...
rebelling against low expectations
