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Thinking of Giving up on God? Read This First
I vividly remember the day I decided to turn away from God. I decided that if he wasn’t going to be faithful to me, I was done living for him. Maybe you can relate. Maybe you’re thinking of giving up on God today, too. You’re not alone. The day I gave up on God, I blamed him for my pain, and I was angry about it. Giving Up on God Like me, maybe you’re facing a heartbreaking loss, and you wonder why God seems silent. The instant your life went off the rails, God seemed to leave you alone in your despair. Maybe you feel forgotten, and you’re not sure where…
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God Is Enough for Every Storm You Face
It’s easy to assume we have fear, grief, or suffering figured out, only to stumble into a different kind of storm and realize how many layers of understanding still wait to be peeled back. In these times, we need to know that God is enough for every storm. There are layers to hope as well. Just when you start to believe in a deeper kind of hope, life often throws you a harder curveball than you ever expected. You find yourself desperate for a deeper sense of understanding. Hope in eternity feels too far away, and you need hope in something here and now. You need hope that’s more palpable…
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3 Ways to Cultivate Joy when You’re Struggling in Life
It had been the longest winter of my life – the winter of counting down the weeks, the days, and the hours until my health returned. I spent it mostly staring at the dead landscape out the sliding glass door – beige earth folded under ribbons of grey sky that felt dismal and bleak. I’d been trying to cultivate joy by looking to the future, but the discouragement of my illness was like a black cloud blurring my view. You might not be stuck on the couch with a long stretch of illness, but I imagine you have your own brand of discouragement lingering low. Discouraging seasons take all shapes…
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When You Feel Broken: 4 Ways to Find Hope
When you feel broken inside, it’s not easy to find hope to hold onto. I’ve lived through some broken seasons, broken in a thousand different ways. I invite you to join me on a difficult day, and we’ll talk about where to turn in these moments. When You Feel Broken It’s a grey March afternoon, and I drive down the Interstate feeling numb. I’m on my way to a doctor’s appointment that will offer glimpses into our family’s future. Our unborn child has a heart defect. Today, a pediatric cardiologist will determine how serious the defect is and offer a prognosis. I’m terrified. A Psalm comes to mind, and I…
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10 Refreshing Bible Verses for the Weary and Burdened
The translucent breath of heaven lingers on the morning window panes, and the burdock lifts barbed hands toward a grey sky. Sometimes this season of darkness leaves us all feeling just a little too threadbare. We crave light and warmth. If this is you today, I invite you to soak in these refreshing Bible verses for the weary and worn. 10 Bible Verses for the Weary and Burdened As I prepare my heart to walk through this season, I’m reminded of the burdens our little family faced throughout past winters. Our past few winters have been difficult. We have faced struggles that often felt beyond our strength. We have faced blustery…
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One Word to Help You Navigate Holiday Sadness
The burning bush blazed crimson, and I vividly remember the year when suffering marked our family’s holiday celebrations. I was alone, ill, and stuck on the couch. For the first time in my life, the joy of the holiday season was replaced by deep and lingering holiday sadness. I didn’t want the lot that had been assigned to me. I had prayed and believed for health, and I’d fallen into a stretch of sickness that was more intense than anything I’d ever experienced. Aside from a short half-hour in the mornings, I was forced to lie completely motionless and drown in my haze of illness. After a month on the…
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How God Uses Brokenness in Your Life to Touch Others
The sun rises salmon over a row of spindly pines, and I stare out the window with an ache in my abdomen. We’ve walked through our fair share of challenges throughout the past months, and I feel a little too weak – a little too broken – to do anything other than sit in this silence and ponder it all. I’m thinking about how God uses brokenness to shape us to the image of Christ when a message appears on my phone. A new friend who lives on the other side of town wants to get together for coffee. She tells me she doesn’t know much about God and that…
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The Lie You Might Believe if You’re in the Refining Fire
The yellowing leaves on the fringes of the property line remind me of an October years ago when the bottom fell out. The first full month of autumn felt like a journey into a refining fire that went on without end. First, the puppy died suddenly. Then, there was a serious health scare, followed by the loss of another precious pet dog that had been a part of the family for four years. We all stared at each other and wondered how in the world God saw fit to take them both in two short months. When we prayed it wouldn’t get worse, it did. We faced life-long diagnoses, thousands…
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4 Gifts Hidden in Your Pain and Suffering
The tangerine glow on the horizon marked the first sunrise after a bleak winter of pain and suffering. I drew back the curtains to watch the fiery light rise in the east. It had been overcast for weeks that felt more like months that felt more like years. The state of my soul had been equally bleak for however long it actually happened to be. The Valley of Pain and Suffering We’d been in a valley of pain and suffering for far too long. It was a long valley with foreboding walls on both sides. I was afraid it was a box valley, a canyon with walls on three sides. …
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Easter Encouragement: Let God Lift Your Head
We go to the woods on a cool spring morning. The first bulbs are climbing through the earth to speak secrets known only to those who live long through dark winters. We’ve known dark winters here. We’ve wept over broken ground and shattered dreams, and we need a dose of Easter encouragement this year. As our children search earthen hollows for plastic Easter eggs, I think of the empty tomb. I think of the mystery of healing from brokenness and the miracle of life from death. Easter Encouragement As we search for the eggs, I remember Jesus’ words from the cross: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what…
