May you “be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might” (Colossians 1:9-11 NASB)
This week on the blog: Thunderstorms & Hardened Hearts
HOPE FOR THE SLOWLY SANCTIFIED | GLENNA MARSHALL
“Do you ever look at your life and think, ‘This isn’t who I thought I’d be by now?’ … Maybe you hoped that after all these years some of those things you really hate about your old self had stayed dead instead of resurrecting a thousand times over. How can I have walked with Jesus for such a long time and still be this version of myself? This old man-new man business is harder than I thought it would be.”
BETTER THAN SCROLLING YOUR PHONE IN THE MORNING | JOHN PIPER
“We jolt awake, grab our phone, silence the alarm — and there, lying in bed, phone in hand, we face our first decision of the new day. Do we shut off the screen? Or do we start scrolling? …And while scrolling social media may seem like a harmless indulgence, we all know it’s an unhealthy way to start the day, like eating chocolate for breakfast. So … what’s a better approach in these moments just after we wake up in the morning?“
I REMEMBER A DIRT ROAD | MELISSA EDGINGTON
“A road makes a great metaphor. I doubt any concept in the history of the world has been more often taken figuratively than the idea of a road. Even Jesus proved the allure of the metaphorical road. Today we often speak of life as a journey or our big decisions as paths. We talk about coming to a fork in the road where choices must be made. … I have to tell you, God has set me on some wild paths lately.”
LEARNING TO COMFORT WHEN WE CAN’T FIX THINGS | LEAH KRISTIE
“It’s not surprising, but a lot of crying happens in counseling programs. I remember the first time one of my professors gestured to a fresh box of Kleenex in the center of the room and instructed us not to touch it—unless we were the one crying…. Through that box of tissues, my professor was teaching us to sit with one another in our pain—and not try to fix it.”
WHEN YOU’VE MESSED UP “TOO MUCH” | SUSAN NARJALA
“Sometimes, our lives feel like that plate. Not just cracked in one of two places. Not just chipped on the edges. But broken. Beyond hope. Irreparable. Irredeemable.”
