A few months ago, my daughter, Caroline, curled up next to me on the couch after a day of school that had left her tired and frustrated. She began to tell me how she just wasn’t sure who was a real friend. We talked through it, and I wiped her tears as she let out a big sigh, saying, “I just don’t have a best friend yet.” And it made me want to cry because…

Hanging on the wall in front of my writing desk is a picture of our house in 1940. I (Lance) look at that picture and think, Seventy-five years ago the Lord was in this neighborhood. My neighborhood. Way back then, God was seeking to bring the same compassion, care, peace, and mutual neighborly love he is encouraging people to do by prompting us to write this book. It is no different in your neighborhood. The Lord got…

Sometimes there is just nothing to say. There are some things that happen in life that words won’t heal. There are some things that take our breath away that only silence can breathe life back into our lungs. They are the things of life that are beyond someone giving a kind word, a positive hopeful thought, a story of so and so who went through this and that and made it through, a good sermon,…

For a number of years during my commute to work, I would enter the highway at the same toll ramp almost every day. I would impatiently wait in the line of cars, wanting to get through the tollbooth as quickly as possible. As I waited to pay, I would see an anonymous hand reach out of the booth and go back in, then repeat this mechanical motion for each vehicle. Most commuters did not even…

Sandra and I have been meeting for a year–we meet once every three weeks or so. She is 23 and I am 63. Her heart to know Christ and help other women grow is what attracted me to Sandra as a discipler. Fresh off campus, she has a full-time job and is engaged to be married. My one-on-one time with Sandra is limited, so I know that when I’m with her I need to be…

I Corinthians 12:26 – “If one part [of God’s body] suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.” (NIV) Jase and I learned many years ago that having a child born with a cleft lip/palate was going to be a challenging journey. This was not something that could be easily fixed; it was going to have to be managed for the rest of her childhood and quite…