rebelling against low expectations
“This might hurt, but I’m just speaking the truth in love.” It’s the quintessential excuse for telling people who constantly get under your nerves everything that’s been festering inside of you for the last three months. This Christian cliche (often referred to as “tough love”) is derived from Paul’s exhortation in his letter to the Ephesians. “To equip the saints for the work of ministry, for...
We’ve been given the greatest gift imaginable–the love of God. But many Christians, including myself, struggle with accepting so great a gift. We feel like we’re not good enough. Or, maybe we think we’re good enough sometimes, but after we commit certain sins, we’re unworthy for a while. That is a lie. If we’re unworthy sometimes, we’re unworthy all the time. Nothing we do could makes us...
If you were accused of doing something you didn’t, how would you react? Once upon a time, I’d have fought the accusation. But something happened several months ago that changed my opinion. In October, my class put on a skit. We needed a mop bucket, so we got permission to use the janitor’s. After we performed the skit, we returned the bucket to the janitor and didn’t give it another...
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2) As believers in Christ, we’re called to a higher standard than this world, to live transformed by the gospel. The sad reality is that many people who call themselves Christians aren’t being...
Recently, we’ve published quite a few articles on TheReb about faithfulness in the small things. Different teen authors have tackled the idea of what it means to be faithful in the everyday services which are no less important or less glorifying to God, but can nevertheless feel mundane or even boring. You could call it a rebuke of society or culture or the unrealistic expectations placed on...
You walk into the local library, and take a deep breath of that musty and adventurous scent of books you love so much. You begin thumbing through a selection of Christian Fiction, and a title catches your eye. You slip it out and glance over the back cover. Mystery, intrigue, adventure. It looks exciting, so you tuck it under your arm and weave back through the shelves with your prize. Then, you...
When I was around eleven or twelve years old, I had an idea. I’d heard what people said about teenagers–and they weren’t good things. I couldn’t believe teenagers–even so-called Christian teenagers–would act the way people said they did. But then I started to see it for myself. I was shocked and horrified. And so I had this idea, this ideal promise that I made...
Shasta felt like he was dreaming. For as long as he could remember, he had always had an odd longing to go to the north. Beyond the small grassy hill that marked the border of his little world, curiosity called to him. He could never explain why, but he wanted to go there desperately. And now, here he was, saddling a friendly, talking horse named Bree, soon to run away with him “to Narnia and the...
Do you ever feel like you’re somehow lower, or serving God less, simply because you aren’t in a third-world country, or you haven’t started a 501(c)3, or you aren’t in a band changing the world with your music? Do you ever get discouraged with your daily little job, and you look over and see someone in the mission field getting all the glory, and somehow start feeling unspiritual for simply...
It’s easy for me to sit here and say I’ll follow God, and be willing to give it all for him. But when the rubber hits the road, it’s incredibly hard. Life is messy. We don’t live in a neat little world, where if something goes wrong, we can just move on, forget, heal, and all our problems eventually fade away. This is real life. One thing is crucial for those who are suffering right now to...
rebelling against low expectations
