My hub and I are not yardwork kind of people. In fact, we despise yardwork. A few years ago when we would look out into our backyard (more like weed jungle) all we would feel was despair. It was time consuming, hot, and exhausting work to try and remove the jungle and then keep it from returning. I understand how it feels to be overwhelmed by a task and, on top of being overwhelmed, to… … Continue reading
A few years ago, my friend Gabe Lyons and Dave Kinnamon wrote unChristian, a sobering commentary on Christianity’s decline in the West due to departure from the biblical vision to engage a secular world with grace and love. Similarly, Philip Yancey wrote in What’s So Amazing about Grace: When I ask people, “What is a Christian?” they don’t usually respond with words like love, compassion, grace; usually they describe a person who’s anti-something. Jesus was… … Continue reading
Inside Out has quickly become the movie of the summer for adults and children alike. For those of you who haven’t seen it, this may have a few spoilers so take that as caution. I don’t want to ruin the movie for you. This is one of the most creative, brilliant movies I’ve seen in a while. There are 5 “personalities,” Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust and Fear inside the mind of a little girl, Riley.… … Continue reading
You’re about to take a leap into the next phase of life. You have a beautiful plan, dreams you can’t shake, and people backing you. The big moment comes and… Nothing happens. This was me the month after I graduated college. I had done everything “right.” Good grades, great resume, friendships and connections in my chosen field, etc. Even so, internships fell through at the last minute. Employers who praised me in the interview brushed… … Continue reading
“Let us stand and welcome one another into the Lord’s house today.” If you grew up in Baptist church like I did, you are well aware of the time during the church services when you are asked to rise from your seat and greet visitors. You would usually turn to the person next to you or behind you and shake their hand politely and say welcome and then sit back down when the pastor prompted… … Continue reading
Maybe you’ve noticed: Everybody’s ticked off about stuff. All the time. Slate.com even named last year the “Year of Outrage”, complete with a handy, interactive calendar that lets you pick any day of 2014, and it’ll tell you what everyone was ticked off about on that very day on Twitter. A few weeks ago, I released a book called Unoffendable, and it’s about anger. It’s about “righteous anger”. It’s about Jesus, too. And that’s the… … Continue reading
A young man came online searching for help. He was so overwhelmed by his parents fighting he was looking for ways to help their marriage and his family, even though he was only 13. He was reluctant to click the “Chat Now” button, but he mustered the courage and began a conversation. He said that within 5 minutes he felt cared for. A few minutes later and he was asking questions about faith and the… … Continue reading
https://soundcloud.com/waymedia/no-easy-answers-in-the-face-of-evil#t=0:15 The Bible doesn’t avoid what happened last night, so I know God doesn’t avoid what happened last night. Is the book of Psalms, David grapples with, “God, where are you?” “Why is this happening?” “Where did you go?” “How come you didn’t step in in this situation?” I actually draw peace from that, even though I’d like things to be tied up in a bow. Some people will do that to you. They’ll just… … Continue reading
There’s evil in this world. There are bad people and they do bad things to good people. It shouldn’t happen and we all grieve when it does. But inside of this you still have to be mindful of the fact that evil doesn’t win and it doesn’t own this. It can be redeemed, it can be reclaimed. Obviously that doesn’t make the pain any less for anyone going through this who has lost friends or… … Continue reading
It certainly wasn’t my plan. I was going to have the perfect little Christian family. I grew up as a preacher’s kid. My parents listened to Focus on the Family on the radio, and I did, too. I went to a Christian high school and eventually Evangel College in Springfield MO. After that, I took my first full time Christian radio job. Oh, I was so sure that I had it all figured out.… … Continue reading
