Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Anything

flooded houses and car
In June 2001, Tropical Storm Allison dumped 20-40 inches of rain on the Houston area in just a few days. Thousands of houses were flooded, including the homes of some of the couples in our “newlyweds” Sunday school class. Our class of mostly 20-somethings descended on those houses hauling out furniture, ripping out carpet, and tearing out drywall.

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Utterly Insignificant

miscellaneous grains of pollen, colorized
Isaiah 40-45 is one of my favorite stretches in the Bible. When I’m feeling down, this passage picks me up. It paints several pictures of who God is. And those pictures are big, which is why I love it. Because when God is big, everything else seems small.

Wednesday, February 28, 2024

The Importance of a Balanced Diet

a plate representing a balanced diet
Man cannot live by broccoli alone.

A diet of nothing but broccoli would lead to malnutrition. A healthy body requires a variety of foods to get the vitamins, minerals, proteins, and fats that the body needs to operate properly.

A healthy mind and soul needs variety as well.

Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Pulling Weeds

a hand in work gloves pulling weeds in a garden
As we read the scriptures, we will come across boring parts. In the Old Testament, we find long lists of numbers. In both Old and New we find genealogies. In the epistles we find sections that seem like filler, where the author is basically saying hi from everyone here to everyone there. It’s natural to want to skim or even skip over those parts.

Don’t. A little effort can sometimes find some powerful truths hidden in those passages.

Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Good Medicine

girl getting a bandaid after getting a shot
My thirtieth birthday brought me the gift of a chronic stomach problem. I’d taken the day off from work, but I woke up feeling bad, and it only got worse as the day progressed. But stomach bugs happen, and I fully expected it to last no more than a day or two and then life would get back to normal. I was wrong. That was the new normal.

I struggled with that condition for years. I spent most of 2006 nauseous. Finally they found a medicine that helped. It didn’t cure it, but it made the symptoms manageable. Ten years or so later, the doctor wanted to wean me off the medication and see how it went. By God’s grace it went well. I still have the occasional flare up, but nothing like the way it began. So the medicine worked. How do I know? I got better.