God Gives

Babylon was loud. Powerful.Conquering.Full of expansion and development. Ideas were moving fast.Systems were growing.The future looked impressive. And still— A king was restless.A dream lingered in the air.The future felt uncertain. And into that moment— “God gave Daniel understanding in all visions and dreams.”(Daniel 1:17; 2:19; 2:27–28) God gave Daniel what was needed when it […]

Stand Out Before You Stand Up

There’s this thing that happenswhen you go along with the crowd. You become…the crowd. And the crowd,if we’re being honest,isn’t usually aiming high.The crowd wants comfort.The crowd wants approval.The crowd wants safety in numbers. But here’s the quiet truth beneath all of that: If you always go along with the crowdyou will never be better […]

Peace on Earth

There’s this line tucked into the story of Daniel—blink and you’ll miss it. “But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself…”(Daniel 1:8) Resolved.Set.Convicted.A spine of steel. But then—watch what he does with that conviction. He doesn’t storm the palace.He doesn’t protest and yell at the people walking by the palace gates.He doesn’t post a […]

Christmas Changes

I had lunch with a good friend today, and one of the things he asked me was, “What are some of your Christmas traditions?” Instead of listing traditions, I ended up telling him what we actually do each year. On Christmas Eve we spend time with my mom and dad. Christmas Day is always at home with […]

Random Christmas Musings

So, here we are at the Christmas season. Each night my neighborhood gets more festive than the night before as people put their decorative lights up in preparation for Christmas. We (as well as many of you) are shopping for gifts. Our goal is to be done with shopping by December 13th so we can […]

Mary’s Rhythm

It was probably an ordinary day for Mary. She was a faithful happy lady, engaged to be married to a faithful and happy man… life was good. She must have been going about her normal daily task when she had a visitor with a message that changed her life… and ours. A message that changed […]