Nearly 100 percent of teens use one or more social media platforms, despite over 40 percent admitting that the constant onslaught on images often leads to a negative view of their own bodies. Combine this phenomenon with the heightened rates of anxiety and depression among teens, and you’ll find that much of the groundwork is laid for an eating disorder.[1] Negative body image is a key component...
I was recently on a panel with John Piper. After I shared a handful of stories about what God is doing around the world, he turned to me—half amused, half amazed—and asked, “Darren, where do you get all these stories?” I answered, “You have to talk to people.” Why have I personally made it my mission to tell stories of what God is doing around the world? Acts 15 records the most important meeting...
In many Sunday worship services, there’s a moment when you’re invited to a time of silent confession of sin. And maybe, in that moment, there’s something that is recent enough, “live” enough, that you haven’t quite forgotten it yet: The unkind, irritable words you spoke in the car on the way to church. The wave of resentment that crashed over your heart when you saw someone across the room just a...
This seems provocative—fear is not a sin—but it is not intended that way. Instead, it’s a natural way to understand Scripture. God is pleased to give us both his words and his heart, his words and the tone of his words. It is important to understand both. His words can be wrapped in his grief or his anger, yet even then he always invites us to come to him. His words to the fearful come from a...
The best college basketball player in the country in 1993 was Indiana University’s Calbert Cheaney—and I was a HUGE fan. Little did I know God would use Calbert to give me a glimpse of glory at an impressionable age. I was fifteen-years-old and in love with the game of basketball. My sister Julie was a senior at Indiana, where Calbert was breaking scoring records. Because Julie and Calbert were...
