Men don't exactly have it easy in this society, there's a lot of pulls in different directions, to be who someone else says they should be. To be who someone else needs them to be. Each of those paths leads to a false freedom, an empty promise for fulfillment and identity. Men, you will only be free to the degree you comprehend you are loved.

Our society places a high value on trust. We teach it to our kids, we strive to be trustworthy people, and some of the most popular pins on Pinterest are quotes about protecting yourself from people who break your trust. It's a fragile thing, that's why we talk about it as something that is earned and broken so quickly. Trust is easily shattered, sending shards of brokenness in places we won't find for years to come.

There's one thing we all have in common on this side of heaven. No matter where we are in our journey, we contain both spirit and flesh. We are a mix of heaven and earth, like water and oil slamming up against each other but never mixing. We often feel at war with our own selves, and we are not alone.

Mothers are designed to love. God in His mighty omniscience granted this overwhelming capacity to love unconditionally, knowing He had already designed us to be born as babies who mostly just cry and poop and bring a lot of pain. I don't know how you can explain a mother's love without mentioning God.

It's a necessary part of relationship - I would argue you can't be in authentic relationship without practicing forgiveness. If it's so common and so necessary, why oh why is it so difficult?! Why do so many of us struggle with this task of forgiveness?

The thing about grief is, the only way over it is through it. We all will face grief in our lives, on more than one occasion. It's the nature of this world where our enemy is active and we await the return of our King. I'm no expert, but I'm currently grieving a loss and have been seeking God's heart during my journey. There's a few things He wants us to know.

With consistency, the need for control only grows until it suddenly is controlling you. The more you focus on producing a specific outcome, the further away you get from the throne of God. The problem with control is, it leaves no room for faith.

The things that we ask for are often good things. Things we want because of a deeper need. The problem is, our world spins fast and leaves us with little time to dig deep in our prayers and we are left with a few minutes to address what's most troubling us. The deep needs that plague us bubble up into immediate wants. We want health, wealth and success.

There is a night and day difference between giving up and standing still. There is only one thing that God asks of you when you hit rock bottom. Stand still, and soften your heart to Him. He is more than capable of fighting for you, and wants to accomplish much through this pain. What your enemy intends to destroy you, God will take advantage of.

One of my kids was having a rough day yesterday and heading into a tantrum. He was half way up the stairs when I saw the legs and arms start to flail, and frustrated noises bubbling up inside of him. I swooped that little body in close, and hugged him tight. I temporarily removed his freedom and forced him to receive a hug. The arms & legs relaxed and he melted into me. What felt like punishment to him at first was actually a loving discipline.

Sometimes we are alone because of the brokenness around us and in us. The messiness of relationships with others takes its toll, and we choose to protect ourselves by pulling back. We've been hurt one too many times, and we retreat into the safety of aloneness.

There’s a lot that happens in the unseen world while we worship through song. I don’t think we will understand it all this side of heaven, but we can note that it is powerful. The great and True story of the battle of Jericho shows how God used song to topple the walls of the city. Worship is a weapon of spiritual warfare, and should be used as such. 

Our culture is not great at communication. With all of our technology and improvements, we’ve lost the essence of healthy communication. We’ve stopped listening, and for the most part we’ve stopped caring. Our communication is fast, easy, and one sided. You no longer have to engage with someone to communicate.

It seems that this God of ours knows something about the waiting that we don’t, and it’s an opportunity for us to exercise our faith. I can’t begin to determine His reasons in your life or mine, and I don’t even want to. I love the wonder and mystery because it gives me a chance to be small, and to let God be big. 

The rhythm of life is sometimes too loud, too fast, too harsh. For others it is too sparse, the rhythm has silent rest sections that last too long. I'm going to propose a radical idea here: we're supposed to follow a constant holy rhythm. God established this rhythm from the beginning, and let me throw this out there - I don't think He was actually tired on Sunday after spending a week creating. 

Sometimes the letting go is forced upon us by circumstances, and sometimes it takes courage for us to initiate. At some point in life we find ourselves on either side of the coin, and the best we could do would be to trust God's hand in it all, and let Him teach us the art of letting go.

There's an appreciation for this item that is visibly broken and made whole again. It's this liquid gold filling the cracks that speaks to a process of restoration, redemption, and humility. The imperfection testifies to the process of healing. 

The reason he is important is that the references in Hebrews tell us that Jesus is a priest in the Melchizedek order (not levitical). There are a few differences between the two - levitical priests are born into their role, Melchizedek was chosen specifically for his. Levites were priests but not political rulers, Melchizedek was both priest and King of Jerusalem. But there's a more subtle difference in that small bite of scripture…

If you've been in the church for any amount of time you know that loving Christians is hard. It is much easier to love Jesus, and the homeless man on the corner, than to love the sinful brothers and sisters that are the church. But this is what Christ leaves his apostles with. In this conversation around the table, He could have told them any number of things to be famous for - but His desire is that we would be famous for loving each other well.

I wonder how many times I have prayed for God to show up and then walked right past Him. That's one of the questions I actually don't want an answer to! With an ever present God, we miss Him more often than not.