Terminally ill at 34—and more alive than ever

Categories: It's About Trust

Scott Blakeman was 20 years old when he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. It came out of nowhere. Scott’s vision had been fading in and out, but he thought it was stress related. If only. An ophthalmologist ordered an MRI after discovering Scott’s optic nerve was badly swollen. But his eye wasn’t the problem: there was a fist-sized tumor in his brain. Scott returned home after getting the news and went to his room in a daze. When his dad came in and asked Scott if he was OK, Scott said yes, but his dad knew it wasn’t true….

A lesson from a waiter who saved a man’s life

Categories: Loving Your Neighbor

The other day, a friend and I went to lunch at the State Farmer’s Market Restaurant, and when I stepped inside, I noticed a sign taped to the wall. On it was a picture of waiter Brian Stewart, and it said something about him being a hero for saving a customer’s life. I didn’t get a chance to read it, but I wasn’t going to leave without hearing the story. Brian is hard to miss in the sea of customers eating country cooking and sipping sweet tea. He’s tall and lanky, with long braids that complement his long arms. (There’s…

Where’s God when I’m waiting on the next Big Thing?

Categories: It's About TrustTags: · · ·

Here I go again — waiting on God to provide the next Big Thing. This time it’s something different though. Fourteen years ago, I was waiting for God to provide a wife. Twelve years ago it was a new job. Three years ago, it was physical healing. A year ago, it was selling my house. This year, I’ve got another Big Thing, and it’s driving me crazy. I don’t want to wait. I want things to come easier than this. Enough with the cliffhangers. Let someone else dangle from the edge. I’d like a happy ending now. I have great…

Held hostage in the Middle East: the Maurice Graham story

Categories: This and That

At 4:45 a.m. in Kuwait City the sounds of gunfire began rattling through the streets outside the apartment where Maurice Graham and his family lived. It was August 2, 1990, and Saddam Hussein, the president of Iraq, had ordered an invasion of Kuwait. The Grahams had moved to Kuwait that summer so that Maurice could serve as a pastor at a large Christian church in the capital. Their apartment was located on the church grounds; and unfortunately for them, the church was across the street from the parliament building, which was a central target during the attack. There was nothing…

We found treasure in the sand (and celebrated like angels)

Categories: It's About TrustTags: · ·

This week my family and I vacationed at the beach under the blazing sun, playing in the sand, jumping over the waves of the ocean, building sandcastles, and making sure to apply plenty of sunscreen. It was a challenge for my 11-year-old daughter, Giselle, for whom eyeglasses are a necessity. They’re essential for her to see clearly but the beach is the last place she needs to bring them. It’s too easy to lose them in the endless acres of sand or while playing in the crashing waves at high tide. When we got back to the parking lot yesterday,…

Jen Hatmaker quits “church” and invites you to join her

Categories: ChurchTags:

I quit being part of a church for a few months when I was in my mid-twenties. I had been a regular churchgoer my whole life, so it wasn’t something I (or those who knew me) expected. It happened after I moved to a new city and started looking for a church. Every time I’d visit one, I felt lonely and lost in the sea of congregants. And I found no comfort in the familiarity of the services — if anything, it felt too familiar. I had the evangelical liturgies memorized — from the call to worship to the benediction….

What God showed me when my son thought he was going to drown

Categories: This and That

My two-year-old son clung tightly to my neck as I tried to lower him onto the wet sand where the ocean waves were gently rolling. “You’re going to be fine,” I said, trying to pry him off my neck, but he wouldn’t let go. Instead, he started screaming. No matter how much I tried to convince him, he obviously had it in his head that the ocean was going to swallow him up if his feet even touched the wet sand. So, I finally gave in and walked away from the water and onto the dry sand with my son’s…

These four words from a widow got me thinking about death (again)

Categories: HeavenTags: · ·

I try to avoid tragedy stories on the news — stories of families dying in house fires, freak accidents during wedding receptions, a mother drowning trying to rescue her child. Sometimes I can’t help myself though — I’m that guy slowly passing the scene of a horrific accident on the side of the highway, subconsciously hoping to see something shocking. Recently, I was scrolling down my newsfeed and saw a headline that caught my attention: “Air Force Training Crash Kills 2, Including Newlywed Pilot, 24.” I couldn’t help myself: I clicked. There weren’t many details about the accident, which was…

My family finally went back to church — here’s what it was like

Categories: This and That

“Joshua, we need to go to a church this Sunday,” my wife said four weeks ago. We had moved to a new town right before the coronavirus hit and we hadn’t gotten much of a chance to visit churches; so for the most part, we had informal Sunday services with our kids in the living room. It was special in its own way but it wasn’t the same as gathering with other believers in person — not to say we didn’t try. After the Covid restrictions eased up and churches started meeting again, we visited one church that met in…

Looking for God outside the in-crowd

Categories: Loving Your NeighborTags:

In seventh grade, the worst 15 minutes of my day were the first 15 minutes. It was the moment when I got off the school bus and faced the challenge of finding a group of boys to hang out with until the bell rang. It was a high stakes game of fitting in and I was usually losing. Outside the building were circles of kids standing around talking, reflecting their places in the social hierarchy. There was the popular crew, the druggies, the “trashy” kids, the smart girls, the “band nerds,” and the handful of African American kids in our…

I caught a glimpse of Heaven through Scripture, a C.S. Lewis quote, and a viral video

Categories: Heaven

The most vivid picture I’ve ever had of Heaven was in a conversation with my dad when I was ten years old.  Dad was talking about how lovely it would be to see my two siblings who died in a plane accident when I was a toddler. Dad’s imagination caught fire and he began painting a picture of what it would be like to see his children in Heaven: blazing light and unbridled joy — images of Dad and the kids flying through space and shooting sparkling stars out of their hands. Dad’s colorful description of Heaven whipped my brother…

Christmas was hijacked by laundry detergent — but there was still reason to hope

Categories: It's About TrustTags: · · ·

It was a box of laundry detergent than undid Christmas of 1988 for the Rogers family. Dad thought it would be a great idea for us to trek into the woods behind our house and cut down our very own Christmas tree. As a ten-year-old boy, it seemed like an awfully adventurous thing to do, but looking back, I suspect Dad was just trying to save money. By the time we dragged the scraggly pine tree home, there was no doubt we’d gotten what we paid for: a sentimental experience that ended when Dad propped the pitiful tree against the…

Desperately trying to save my daughter’s Lego house (and her innocence)

Categories: Parenthood · This and That

“Daddy, please don’t make us take our Lego houses apart,” pleaded my ten-year-old daughter. Her little sister joined in. “We worked so hard on them, Daddy.” Their pleas were understandable. These were no ordinary Lego houses. They were three-story, multi-room mansions — custom built homes made of hundreds of stray pieces from Lego sets they’d collected over the years. But we were moving and there was no way to pack the Lego houses without them being crushed. While the thought of making the girls tear down their mansions made sense to my head, my heart was torn. They had combed…

50 encouraging Christian quotes

Categories: This and That

I’ve been collecting quotes over the years, many of which I’ve shared in blog posts or via social media over the years. At different points of my life, God has used these quotes to inspire, correct, and challenge me. I figured I would share 50 of them here so you can benefit from them too. Enjoy! God never made a promise that was too good to be true. — Dwight L. Moody The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the…