rebelling against low expectations
Like a throwback to New Year’s, back to school season is a time of making new goals and resolutions. This school year…I’m going to wake up earlier. This school year…I’m not going to wait until the night before exams to study. This school year…I’m going to witness to my classmates and be a light for Jesus! Sound familiar? There’s something about the beginning of a new school year that feels like a...
Follow Me. Two words. Countless implications. Jesus commanded us to pick up our cross and follow Him no matter what. No matter our culture. No matter what our friends say or the world around us does. No matter our human inclinations and preferences. No matter anything. If we truly live out Christ’s command of “Follow Me” those two words can change our lives. Not only did Jesus tell us to follow...
Do we compartmentalize God? I know I have. We place Him in sections and corners of our lives, relegating Him to those areas and barricading the rest of our lives out of His reach. We condemn sin when we see it in the world, but have no problem being entertained by it on our TV’s. We believe our lives have God-given purpose, but don’t think twice about wasting hours on social media. We love...
When I was eleven, my parents gave me my own study Bible. I’d had other Bibles before, of course. I remember a children’s Bible with a picture of Jesus on the cover and I once had a mini pink Bible that I ruined when I accidentally dropped it in a mud puddle. But to me, this Bible symbolized adulthood. For years, the Bible has been an integral part of my life. I can honestly say it’s changed the...
What needs to be changed in my life? The other day I scribbled this question in my journal. I was struggling with several areas of my life, knowing I needed to change and desperately wanting to. But I didn’t know how. These struggles felt too deeply rooted, too ingrained into my heart and life to be altered. Besides, they weren’t that bad. Nothing everyone else doesn’t also battle from time to...
I’m tired of apathetic Christianity. I see it in the world around me. I see it in the church. But mostly, I see it in me. A reluctance to give Christ everything. A subtle complacency. Compromise filtering in. I see people claiming the name of Jesus on Sunday and living like the rest of the world Monday through Saturday. And then I look at my own heart on countless Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays . ...
My friendship with Sara Barratt is 100% virtual. We’ve never talked over coffee or met up at a conference or worshiped together in church. I met Sara in the Young Writer’s Workshop—a place where everyone shares a thrill for stories, words, articles, novels, and poems. Together, we write them. But as time unfolded and the YDubs community grew, I found more in Sara than a teenager who doodles words...
rebelling against low expectations
