I hate spiders—let’s be honest, none of us really like them.But when I think of the metaphor of my life leaning on a spider’s web, it is a picture of having confidence in the wrong things. No spider builds its web to last forever.They are not engineered to bear structural loads.They are temporary.At any point, a web could give.They were never designed to be a support structure.The picture is a war...  Read More

The question is this: Where do we turn when there is nowhere else to go?When we are down and out, messed up, fearful, and stressed, to whom do we look?When bankruptcy brings us to our knees, when the death of a loved one takes our joy away, or when our errors in judgment shipwreck our lives, how do we dig ourselves out of the difficulties we find ourselves in?An eternal view is what puts our earth...  Read More

Jesus was like Job, but even better than Job because He offers a life of hope to all. Indeed, it is the name of Jesus that has brought and still brings hope to generations of people around the world.What did Jesus say about life?Just before His time on earth ended, Jesus spoke to His closest friends about eternity.In this world, you will have trouble. It’s a statement that feels brooding. Clouds a...  Read More

Hold up your hand and measure the width—that’s your life.Breathe one breath and see how long it lasts—that’s your timeline.Hope must be connected to more than circumstances and troubles that resolve themselves here and now. If we measure life based on the time on our wristwatch, we will often struggle to live with hope.There is another clock we can look to that gives us a better measure of our liv...  Read More

"This is the Way, Walk in It"Isaiah 30:18-22Therefore the Lord longs to be gracious to you,And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you.For the Lord is a God of justice;How blessed are all those who long for Him.O people in Zion, inhabitant in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you.  Although ...  Read More

I looked at some of the other personalities in Scripture who endured the most scandalous downfalls and the most devastating crises.The result was dramatic.I found that God specialized in hard situations.God is most active, most at work, most powerful, and most strategic when the odds are stacked against people.Consider a few examples from Scripture:Adam hiding in shame in a gardenAbraham leaving f...  Read More

The hope that Job expressed was a resilient one. This resilience enabled him to flex under the pressure and not break. And, given time, it enabled him to bounce back and rebuild his life.When faced with unimaginable heartbreak, Job saw the great tests of life as a refining process. When gold is mined from the earth, the ore goes through a series of treatments that remove impurities.Eventually, all...  Read More

How much of our virtue is wasted worrying about the risk of being hurt, the dread of being alone, or the fear of failure?How many years of our lives does anxiety steal from us? I have wasted too much time fearing worst-case outcomes that only exist in my imagination. Would you join me in no longer allowing these false fears to hold us back?Anxiety is the emotional rehearsal of the worst-case scena...  Read More

As a child, I loved the tropical storms that hit the East Coast of Australia. As I lay in my room, I was captivated by the pounding rain and blue flashes of lightning I saw through the window. I was excited to feel my heart jump as loud claps of thunder echoed through the house.While it was fun at the time, I’ve grown up seeing the devastation that storms can bring. Sometimes, the vicious wind of ...  Read More

Let me ask you a pointed question: What if your circumstances don’t change? An even more difficult question to confront is this: What if your circumstances get worse?One of the most revitalizing, hope-building decisions you can make is to forge purpose from your pain.It’s easy to focus on the darker shades of the palette of life. But do we have a full appreciation of the true beauty and majesty th...  Read More

Are you facing challenges in your life that you can’t see a way out of?It may feel like dark clouds have appeared on the horizon, and they’ve set in for a long, cold winter. You don’t yet know how the financial stress will play out. You can’t see a way out of the emotional trauma that has gripped your mental health.What if hope could exist within our mess? Our pain? Our reality right now?A practic...  Read More

Colossians 3:20Children, be obedient to your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing to the Lord....  Read More