Just Keep Walking [An Encouraging Word]
An Encouraging Word JUST KEEP WALKING I don’t know how long I walked along the shore. Probably minutes. Maybe hours. It felt like days. I was vacationing with my family in Sea Island, Georgia, and early one morning I decided to go exploring down the beach. A lazy surf gently lapped up and down a […]
Your Problems May Be Smaller Than You Think
An Encouraging Word YOUR PROBLEMS MAY BE SMALLER THAN YOU THINK Almost without warning, the stars disappeared. I was on my way up to a secluded cabin in the East Georgia hills for a few days of retreat, and as my little car puttered up the winding mountain road on a clear winter night, the […]
Grace is Greater Than You May Imagine
An Encouraging Word GRACE IS GREATER THAN YOU MAY IMAGINE “Yeah, Jesus will forgive your sins, but don’t expect Him to give you a car.” That was what the father of a young man I know told his teenage son one day during their visitation time. Apparently the man had experienced so much hurt and disappointment in […]
You Can Count on God to Come Through
An Encouraging Word YOU CAN COUNT ON GOD TO COME THROUGH I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in His word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning. (Psalm 130:5-6) A soft glow is beginning to appear on the horizon. It’s […]
God is With You in the Work
An Encouraging Word GOD IS WITH YOU IN THE WORK I found it amusing that my nose was running like a faucet, because it felt like my sinuses were stuffed with cotton. It was a Monday, and it was one of those days where the space around my eyes felt compressed, my nostrils were raw […]
Your Father Wants Good Things For You [An Encouraging Word]
An Encouraging Word YOUR FATHER WANTS GOOD THINGS FOR YOU Four minutes in, I discovered the truth: small children are terrible at picking strawberries. It was a couple of years ago, and I was with some friends who have small children, exploring a “U-Pick” strawberry patch on a sunny Sunday afternoon. The air was cool and […]
How “Foolishness” Can Set You Free [An Encouraging Word]
An Encouraging Word HOW “FOOLISHNESS” CAN SET YOU FREE “This is never going to work.” Have you ever noticed how in story after story, in movies and books and television shows, it’s the crazy, even foolish characters that save the day? A little hobbit and a rag-tag band of others take a journey into the […]
How to steal a miracle from Jesus
It was a great e-mail question, one of the best I’ve received in a long time. My friend Jared Easley has a gift for asking insightful questions and helping others connect with truth in creative ways. He has a way of drawing out great things from people, and here’s what he wrote to […]
Don’t Let Go of Wonder
The sky was ablaze with a spray of orange and gold, like heaven itself was breaking through to earth. The air was thick and still, filled with the wet-blanket silence of a humid Florida evening; that special kind of silence that settles when a rainstorm is just gearing up to go all out. And there […]
The Vine Does Not Define You
The dry, withered vine hung like tentacles from the branches of the aging pine. Once the vine had tried to seize control of the tree. It had threatened to overtake the pine and strip it of life until only the vine remained. Left unchecked, the vine would have grown so much that it would have […]
