God reminded me today that this life is not intended to be easy.  We are intended to grow, and the process of growing almost always involves discomfort and being stretched.  "Consider it all joy then when you face trials of any kind, because you know that testing of your faith produces endurance." I was praying … Continue reading When hard things are hard

I recently heard someone say that if you hear God speaking to you, if you feel that prompting from the Holy Spirit, then you must act immediately.  It doesn't work to plan to respond, or resolve to do it.  Get up and do it.  Putting it off becomes habit, and in fact becomes disobedience, and … Continue reading Our action, God’s power

In my previous post I talked about whether we believe God or not. I made the comment that if we understand truth and grace, our lives will reflect that belief. The problem is that we don’t really believe that it's true. We don't understand the importance of truth, or the depth of grace.  I've continued to … Continue reading Is it really true?

One of my kids is going through a phase in which he needs to decide if he values truth and integrity or not. He has somehow gotten the idea that it isn't quite lying if you just bend the truth, maybe twist things just enough to make it come out the way you want. Where … Continue reading “Sort of” following

Yesterday in church we sang a song that starts with these words: “Take not your spirit from me” (Take Me Higher by Lincoln Brewster). My first thought was “Of course he won’t. He doesn’t ever take his Spirit from us.” Then I realized that reaction is too quick. Not wrong, exactly, just incomplete. There are … Continue reading Take not your Spirit from me

Some people are hard to love. Sometimes people do things that hurt us, and they aren't ever going to be sorry. Sometimes people aren't responsive at all when we try to reach out to them. Sometimes people do things that make them unworthy of love, or unworthy of respect. What is the right thing for … Continue reading The path to grace