Today, my family and I were out in public when my youngest daughter suddenly said, “I need to go potty, I need to go potty, I need to go potty.” After a brief negotiation between my wife and me over who would take responsibility for hunting down a bathroom, I took my daughter by the hand and walked a couple of blocks until I found a potty – but it was too late.
Last week, I posted a status update on my Facebook page asking the readers of the blog to pray for a miracle for Wanda Harrison, the wife of my friend Kevin. She had unexpectedly suffered a brain bleed that left her in a coma and without much hope for surviving. I concluded the status update by saying, I know that it’s hard to figure out how to respond to status updates like this one. Nobody wants to ‘like’ bad news. So here’s an idea: if you will join me in a simple prayer for God to do a wild miracle…
After aggressively saving for a while, my wife and I just purchased a home that was totally remodeled. When the inspector was going through the house, he warned us that during the course of the first year, the new structure would settle, leaving cracks in the walls. Then a friend who purchased a similar home warned me that no matter how good the house looked, I would find all kinds of things wrong with it during the first year. Despite getting this advice from an experienced home inspector and a trusted friend, my internal reaction in response was, My house is going to be different.
It’s so hard for some of us to say no. But saying no is one of the most self-respecting things we can do. We can’t be available to everyone; we can’t say yes to every need; we can’t show up for every invitation.
Today, I was with my family at Chic-fil-A, and my two-year-old daughter was eating a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich that my wife had in her purse. After my daughter finished her fries, she asked if she could dip her sandwich in her ketchup. “That’s gross – no,” I said.
In his book Run With the Horses, Eugene Peterson tells a story of seeing an adult swallow teaching its chicks to fly. Three young swallows were perched on a dead branch that stretched over a lake, and what happened next must have been terrifying for the little chicks:
Let’s be clear about one thing from the start: I have no doubt that my dad meant well. I was 10 years old, and Dad thought it would be a great idea for us to trek out into the woods behind our house and cut down our very own Christmas tree. At first, it seemed like a splendid idea, but then we dragged home a scraggly pine tree that looked like something from a very special Christmas episode of Little House on the Prairie. Dad rigged it up onto this wooden box in the back yard and prepared to haul…
Last Monday, my friend Paul Perkins was standing on a street corner in Washington, DC, breathing hard and feeling very annoyed. He had just run after a taxi, which he was afraid was carrying his keys, but the driver didn’t stop when Paul ran after him.
Four years ago, you came down the aisle to meet me with a calm, glowing, otherworldly confidence. And although I didn’t know what I was getting into, I knew it was good – very good. I was right.
I was in my thirties before I realized what a weird game we played at the church Christmas dinner of 1987. It seemed ingenious at the time though. Someone took a large goblet, pressed play on the tape deck, and passed the goblet around the room. The 19 or 20 people of our little church were expected to drop money in when it passed by. The object of the game was simple: when the music stopped playing, whoever had the glass got to keep all the change.
Sometimes you run across a story that demonstrates God’s love in a way that a theological explanation never could. Today, I’m featuring one of those stories from guest writer Evan Bell. If God’s been nudging you to take a risk, to give more than you thought you had to give – read this article. You may just walk away with the courage to follow Him down a path that will change your life forever.
Six days ago, my wife quite valiantly delivered our baby girl into the world. I was there cheering her on, like I knew what I was doing. But in reality, I felt like a helpless spectator on the edge of my seat, watching every cliff-hanger of every good TV show ever, times one thousand. I sat there on my metal stool, with my hands outstretched, ready to catch our baby, wide-eyed and trying to hold myself together.
Joshua Rogers 