Two of our most basic, human needs are this: to be known and to be loved. But something’s got many of us convinced you can’t have both. So we expend lots of energy hiding those parts of ourselves that are unlovely. And we work really hard to succeed (at business, parenting, athleticism, ministry, Bible study, you name it) because we think it will make us lovely and so, worthy of love. The sad...
Your Date Is Here
It’s a risky thing to ask a girl out. I remember the fear as a twenty-something anytime I asked a young woman on a date. It felt like placing my heart in her hands for her either to hold or to crush. So like a lot of guys, I tried to minimize the risk, read the signals, pick up on clues and cues to get a good sense of what she’d say before I ever put myself out there. If it seemed like she...
Come Clean
It’s in our stories, movies, and legends. In Shakespeare’s MacBeth, Edgar Allan Poe’s Telltale Heart, Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables. We feel it in our bones. It’s in our DNA. When we’re guilty, we desperately want to come clean. Can you relate? Maybe you have a loved one who is struggling against being honest with her sin. Maybe you’re carrying something from your past that you’ve never told...
A Simple Practice for Those in Need of Mercy
Sometimes those of us who need God’s mercy most impede its flow. So instead of an outpour, we receive just a few drops. This is sad, but sadder still is when we then believe a trickle of mercy is all God wants to give us. Years ago, after telling a spiritual mentor about how I’d viewed pornography again, he recommended we go to God together so I could confess my sin directly to Him...
Chucking Megaphones
I’m guessing you’ve seen this before: A young kid shouting or singing through a cardboard paper-towel roll, projecting his voice through the house, when the inevitable happens. He slips over to his little sister, holds the make-shift megaphone to her ear, and, just for fun, yells at the top of his lungs. Sister cries, mom or dad rushes in, paper-towel roll goes in the garbage. In our individual...
Spin
I remember as a teenager taking a corner too fast on a snowy road in my step-dad’s car. The car spun out of control and slammed into the side of the street. My brother got out to assess the damage while I sat anxiously inside. Through the front windshield I read his lips: “You’re dead.” Sometimes life’s like this. We hit an icy stretch, we mess up, and we long to hear from a loving Father...
