When life overwhelms, it’s natural to try to get away. Escape holds a powerful allure amid hard times. In every season, a myriad of pressures, challenges, regrets, and disappointments plague our lives. These trials and tribulations often provoke us to cry, “I’ve got to get outta here!” Even though we have many good reasons for trying to escape, as Christians we have even better reasons to depend...
#Stoptheclock This is the hashtag I added to an Instagram post of my daughter during her high school senior year. On one hand, it was simply a futile plea; on the other, it was an expression of my utter disbelief and grief over my daughter soon fleeing our nest. How did eighteen years fly by so quickly? When children are young, that age sounds like an eternity away, and then poof! the years are...
“Worry is carrying a burden God never intended us to bear.” Author unknown What’s the biggest worry in your life right now? Are you worried about your financial circumstances; whether you will have enough to pay the mortgage, to retire, or just to buy the necessities of life? Perhaps you’re worried about your children: their friends, their grades, their behavior, or their future? Health issues...
Do you remember the first morning you woke up and knew for sure that you were a Christian? For some it’s a gradual realization and for others (like me) who searched far and wide for satisfaction and purpose, coming home was a never-to-be-forgotten, all-at-once relief and joy. That’s how I picture Easter Monday for Jesus’s followers. The Monday after Resurrection Sunday—the first morning they woke...
On the day of his resurrection, Jesus appeared along the seven-mile-long road to Emmaus and greeted two disciples on their journey from Jerusalem. Luke tells us, “They were kept from recognizing him” (Luke 24:16). The two men were discussing the events of the day, trying to make sense of the death of their rabbi. Devastated by the events of the crucifixion and perplexed by the women’s report that...
