Every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing either into…
Jesus Starts at the Bottom
Jesus Starts at the Bottom Picture a woman who is about to rappel down the side of a tall cliff. Before taking off down the rock’s face, she will first make certain that the rope is long enough to reach the bottom. If the top of the cliff is one hundred feet high, she is…
Remain Silent at the Right Time
Joshua had commanded the army, “Do not give a war cry, do not raise your voices, do not say a word until the day I tell you to shout. Then shout!” — Joshua 6:10 When God brought Joshua and the army of Israel to the city of Jericho, their cause seemed hopeless. The large walls…
We See Impossible… But God Makes All Things Possible
Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’ — Matthew 19:26 My friends Bob and Karen had been saving for years so they could finally go on a real vacation alone together. (I teased Bob more than his wife about how their three-night honeymoon at…
Revelation Is About Relationship
It is in the context of our relationship with God and others that we experience love. Not only that, but love gains its power when it is shared. Out of love God created man and woman for each other. He proclaimed, It is not good for the man to be alone. — Genesis 2:18 In…
Kill the Spider: Balderdash
Editor’s Note: In Kill the Spider, Carlos Whittaker deals with problems, bad habits, harmful thought patters (cobwebs) all the way down to the root issue (spider) in order to finally kill it and find freedom in Jesus. In this excerpt, he shares about his experience at a week-long therapy camp. * Remember how I told…
Upside Down
Just so you know, I wish I could take away every disappointment that nips at the edges of your happiness and sits heavy in your heart. Big and small. A past hurt or a present heartbreak. I wish we could get together in the comforts of my white kitchen with dishes in the sink and…
The Secret Beliefs of Judgmental Christians
I would have made a good Pharisee. I was a good rule keeper. I was a good boy, a good teenager, a good college student. Not only was I good, I was good at being good. And when you’re good at being good, you get good at judging all the not-so-good people. And as you…
Choosing Peace Over Chaos
When we first moved into our current home, I was less than impressed with the overall architecture and aesthetics of the space. It took me a little while to gather my emotions and settle in to the fact that the only way I’d truly be at peace would be to turn lemons into lemonade and…
Adulting: When You Feel Like a Failure
I hate failure. I don’t care what all the business and leadership gurus say about the secret to failing well or how to fail forward or that failure is the secret to success. Let’s have an honest talk about this. Failure sucks. Nobody likes to lose. Nobody sits in the middle of the shambles of…