I couldn’t believe it. I’d crossed the Atlantic Ocean only to be stuck in a car with someone extolling the brilliance of my worst enemy an ocean away. My whirling thoughts obliterated the breathtaking beauty of the surrounding Alps. Unsafe people live, work, and worship among us. We think if we can escape their presence and any reminders of them, we’ll have peace. My experience in Switzerland reminded me peace doesn’t come from distance from them but from closeness with Jesus. Continue Reading
A Sure Foundation {Recharge Wednesday}
One by one. Ever so carefully. We stacked the pieces with fingers crossed. The tower stood tall, having occupied me, a teenage helper, and several nursery kiddos for most of our time together. All it took was one wide-eyed, deviously grinning four-year-old. He slipped through our grasp, and, with one swift kick, it all came tumbling down. Months. It took months to build those set pieces. Weeks and weeks with entire evenings dedicated to planning, painting, and assembling before the Continue Reading
A Test and Cure for Spiritual Arthritis {Recharge Wednesday LINKUP}
Light shone through the panel, highlighting the x-rays and problems of my lower back. You see, sporting flip flops while jumping to worship songs (and the Hokey Pokey), alongside 1500 students, proved harmful to my adult body. And a friendly competition on the conference stage with other youth directors when I out jumped them all? It only added to the problem. So, three days later, my back went out. I needed help just to walk. Thus, I required complete dependence on my family. Yet, I Continue Reading
When God Is Near, You CANNOT Sink {The Atlanta Journal-Constitution}
“Immediately, Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” New Testament: Matthew, Chapter 14. It was the miracles of miracles at that point. Jesus’ first mass miracle took place in Decapolis, where he fed 10,000 to 15,000 people with two fish and five loaves of bread. I can only imagine the excitement as the multitudes watched the fish and bread multiply before their eyes. “Yahweh Jireh,” (in Hebrew — God, the provider), fed the hungry in Continue Reading
When Faith and Feelings Collide {Recharge Wednesday LINKUP}
A snub and a rejection on the same day sent me sprawling. I sat down with my journal and dumped my hurt feelings. Usually, the lies I’m believing quickly surface when I do this exercise. God provides relief when I ask for His perspective. But this time, my feelings didn’t budge. The evidence supporting my injured emotions felt more reliable than the truth I knew. That night as I slept God reminded me of a story concerning Elisha and his servant. The king of Aram was angry with Elisha and Continue Reading
When It’s Not Over {Recharge Wednesday LINKUP}
“The end,” the story says. To successfully conclude the plot of a story, you must wrap up the loose ends. At the end of a person’s life, there is a service to conclude their time on earth. When you get sick, one of the first questions you ask the doctor is “when will I will be better?” After a tragedy occurs, there is a point in which restitution is expected, a point at which an "end" is reached: the check arrives, the new house is moved into, the perpetrator goes to jail. This looking Continue Reading
