rebelling against low expectations
Do you ever feel like you receive so much insight and depth in your relationship with God, and other times, it feels so…dry? I grew up in Southern California, so I’m quite familiar with what it’s like to go through a drought, and what it’s like when the drought ends, and rain finally comes again. I often think of my spiritual life as being like that weather…sometimes it’s really dry and hardly...
The good life. What comes to mind when you hear these words? What do you picture? Maybe vacations, or smiles, or putting your feet up and taking a nap, or tons of money. I think of waking up each morning with a smile and loving words from others. Or maybe you’re also practical, and you think of the good life as being a place without any pain. No sickness, no death, no suffering. I also wish this...
I was reading The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer recently and came across a passage that resonated with me and stopped me in my tracks. Much of our difficulty as searching Christians stems from our unwillingness to take God as He is and adjust our lives accordingly. We insist upon trying to modify Him and bring Him nearer to our own image. The flesh whimpers against God’s inexorable sentence...
Everyone faces different battles in life. Some are forced to be fought out in the open for all to see. Others are concealed beneath the surface, in holes so deep no one can truly observe their depth or their pain. For me, the biggest battle of my life has been fought internally within my mind. I’ve struggled with chronic loneliness, fear, and anxiety for as long as I can remember. For years I was...
Are you struggling to fully trust God with your future? A major aspect of this is trusting him in your thought life so that you don’t entertain false imaginations about the future. What exactly do I mean by this? If you haven’t fully given your heart and life to the Lord, it can and often will affect your thoughts. A wandering heart doesn’t always stop at the red flags of bad thoughts or false...
We were on a trip around the East Coast. My brother and I were enjoying it all. The scenery, the food, and especially the history. But then my parents started feeling a nudge in their heart that we needed to move out there. What? It’s funny how we nod our heads to the things we’re taught until we’re waist deep in a circumstance where we actually need to use them. I always knew my hope was...
Does God exist? To many of us, the answer seems obvious. Of course God exists! But how do we know? Thomas Aquinas was a 13th century Catholic philosopher and theologian who had the same question, leading him to an intense study which produced perhaps his most famous work: The Five Ways — five philosophical arguments for the existence of God. These arguments give us a strong starting point for...
Kathy Ellefson lay on the hospital bed, giving birth to her fourth child, Aaron. But she had a horrible, inexpressible feeling something was wrong. When the nurse carried the baby boy over, she said he might have Down syndrome. Mrs. Ellefson was relieved! She had thought her baby was going to die. Instead he had Down syndrome, a genetic disorder where one has an extra chromosome, causing mental...
The author of Proverbs writes, “He who gathers in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who brings shame.” (Proverbs 10:5) Whether you’re a son or a daughter of the living God, resist the urge to slumber during harvest this summer. School’s Out For Summer Did you recently close the books on another school year? Well done. Graduating to the next grade is no small...
“Time flies.” We’ve probably heard that phrase a million times in a million different ways. I heard it consistently growing up, but I never understood what it meant. To a kid, time goes about as fast as a giant tortoise can climb Mt. Everest. At least, that’s how I felt—until my junior year of high school. It seemed that all of a sudden my calendar filled and chaos ensued. Every night...
rebelling against low expectations
