rebelling against low expectations
There are some things we love that are too big for us. The sea and the sky, the waves and the stars, the pearls below and the planets above–these two have always been my loves. They’re close and familiar to me; they feel of warm soles slapping against grey boardwalk planks, and of neck upstretched to see it all spread out at night. Yet they’re far and distant too, both ever stretching out of...
When I first started driving, I remember a day when I glanced in the rearview mirror for a second too long. A friend was following me in her own car, and so I glanced in the rearview mirror to make sure that she was still behind me. Well I must have glanced for a split second too long because when I looked back ahead of me I realized that I was merely inches away from hitting the curb, which I...
Something my youth pastor always tells us is to preach the gospel to yourself every day. You may be thinking, “But I already know the gospel. Why do I have to preach it to myself?” While preaching the Gospel to ourselves may sound unusual, it’s actually vital to our spiritual growth. But what does that even mean? Preaching the gospel to yourself can be done in many ways. It could mean...
Editor’s Note: Throughout the years, TheReb has published thousands of articles, each challenging and encouraging Rebelutionaries to do hard things and seek God. But among these posts, some have especially resonated with you, our readers. So over the next few weeks and months, we’re bringing back these classics, reposting our most popular and well-read articles every Thursday. May they encourage...
As we grow up and life changes, there’s still a part of us that looks back to when we were without much responsibility, and to think to those times as the ‘good old days.’ We tend to think that once we pass a certain age into adulthood, those innocent days are over. We envy little children that don’t seem to have a care in the world and secretly wish we could still be like them. But the good news...
This past summer I went on my first missions trip to Kentucky. It was the most amazing, challenging, and spiritually growing week of my year. The lessons I learned during those seven days have stuck with me as I have continued to think about them and how they will affect my life now. Here are just three of the things God taught me during that one week in Kentucky. I NEED TO BE WILLING TO BE...
“Father, make of me a crisis man. Bring those I contact to decision. Let me not be a milepost on a single road; make me a fork, that men must turn one way or another on facing Christ in me.” – Jim Elliot The desire of Jim Elliot’s heart was that people would come into contact with the living, loving God when they met him. He wanted people to see Jesus in and through his life. He longed that...
“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 was born into a culture that coddles teenagers, so I forget that many of the people God used for his purposes were my age. Daniel was a youth when Nebuchadnezzar captured him. His three friends–Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego–were likely teenagers when they refused to exalt the king’s idol. I’m eighteen and I’ve never been kidnapped. I’ve never been forced to defy my God. I’ve never...
As a Christian and a young woman, I am an ardent and dedicated pro-lifer. I’ve seen all kinds of debates regarding ‘women’s rights’ and feminism. I’ve seen the pro-choice tweets and posts that try to justify abortion. But on this point I am determined–the rights of the unborn and innocent need to be protected. Yet, I can’t help but be a little disappointed in how we’re trying to go about...
rebelling against low expectations
