Heart &amp; Emotions

The Stench

We prayed and prayed for his healing. He was young, healthy, married with children, and actively serving the Lord as a c...

Grief & Loss

Reflect: The Long Walk Home

Almost Here

"So much death. What can men do against such reckless hate?" As King Théoden looks out at the masses of orcs storming H...

Peace

When the Wine Runs Out

Sitting at Au Bon Pain in Harvard Square, I had to lead another Bible study. But I'd already studied the Bible with five...

Angered By Grace

In the spring of 2009, a student I discipled, whom I'll call Rob, went on a missions trip to Honduras. Unfortunately, on...

When You Feel Invisible

I was standing in the foyer of a massive megachurch, watching everyone else do what I couldn't figure out how to do. Eve...

Loneliness

A Rigged Game

Elisabeth Scott Stam, February 22, 1906 / "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain." Philippians 1:21. It's a short...

Radioactive

I visualized myself as being toxic, like a radioactive substance hidden in a glass test tube. Who would want to be assoc...

Community

When Everyone Else Is Panicking

I told myself I'd stop reading about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and get back to work, but that was at least an hour...

When the Storm Won't Stop

I gave up sleeping and grabbed my iPhone. 2:47 a.m. The morning couldn't come soon enough, even if I was dreading going...

Jesus' Guts

In a training video for pastors, the megachurch leader Josh Howerton advises them to set aside time to answer the questi...

Discipleship

Nowhere Else To Go

I showed up at the building to collect my items and say goodbye, but a security guard met me outside the front door with...

Not the Peace I Wanted

Christianity Today once reported that at a major missions conference, 8,000 people signed commitment cards indicating a...

Divisive Love

"I appreciate what you're doing, but I can't get involved. I hope you understand." I did understand. Our family had t...

Come and Drink

I went to the morning prayer meeting because I was running on empty. The grind of planning our annual summer conference...

Reflect: Found by Jesus

Assurance of Salvation

You're Not a Christian

Who am I to question someone’s faith? It’s the kind of accusation that abusive leaders use to destabilize and control. E...

Discipleship

The Wrong Parade

As I walked through Kelly Ingram Park in Birmingham, I looked up and saw The Foot Soldier. Ronald McDowell's statue show...

I Just Couldn't See It

"For five months I've perceived you as being arrogant to me. So I've been praying for you every day and trying to start...

Reflect: The Answer You Didn't Want

Comfort

The Benefit of Shame

A guy once told me about the time he was arrested for drunk driving. When they put him into the jail cell, he came face-...

Shame

DoorDash Jesus

For ten years after college, I worked as a campus minister. So, my income depended on the sacrificial giving of others....

The Guts of Love

When I was going through a tough season in my life, one friend kept reaching out. I felt weird pouring out so many compl...

A Thousand Friends

When I first started using Facebook, I was amazed that I could be friends with anyone. I made over a thousand friends, s...

Loneliness

Unusual Motivations

"I will have no right to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share...

Friendship

When You've Got Nothing Left

Before I turned 30, I broke out with shingles. My body was telling me something my pride couldn't admit: I was doing too...

Rest

The Word is With Us

My Mom said the rocks would be amazing. I believed her, but sitting in the car for hours made me wish I was back home. S...

God's Presence

The Life We Are Dying to Kill

I once got incredibly angry at one of my roommates because he wrote a blog with what I considered bad theology. I felt I...

Reflect: Living Water

Talk Is Cheap

An anonymous poster to an online forum wrote, "I am a new Christian. I sin a lot. I am such a bad person. I insult other...

Assurance of Salvation

When God Already Knows

"How's your week been?" I asked him. He started talking about the stress of his studies. It was safe terrain, and I knew...

Shame

The World He Loved

We love John 3:16 because it feels safe. It's an inspirational thought printed on bumper stickers and In-N-Out cups. But...

Going to Jesus

We were sitting at Flour in Boston because I couldn't resist their croissants. As I caught up with an old friend, I a...

Worship

Between The Door and The Rooster

My friends kept inviting me to hang out with them and Sam. They were patient and kind with him, whether he was depressed...

Stinky Feet

In seminary, I took a preaching class that required us to give mini-sermons in front of our peers. I agonized over every...

Humility

Out of Line

Christianity Today tells the story of a pastor who drives two members of his church to work every day. They're legal imm...

When Success Feels Like Losing

I watched my friend Nabeel Qureshi captivate a room for an hour, telling story after story. Afterwards, I saw the line o...

Not Me

From the Auschwitz death camp, the Franciscan priest Maximilian Kolbe wrote to his mother, "Do not worry about me or my...

Confession

I Don't Want To Talk To You

My wife and I were getting to know another couple at an event, and the early discussions were full of laughter. After th...

Rejection

Reflect: Plans for Jesus

God's Grace Is Enough

I remember staring at my phone, willing myself to pick it up, but my arm felt like lead. I needed to raise support to ke...

Finding Friends

We lived in an apartment complex next to one of Atlanta's largest churches. Every Sunday, we walked across the parking l...

Friendship

Holiness Happens When We Stop Hiding

I was twenty-four, running through a park near Waynoka Avenue in Memphis. Mile two, maybe three. The cold air burned my...

Community

Labor and Delivery

I crumpled into a corner of the hospital hallway. The harsh fluorescent lights illuminated the terror of birth. My wife...

Prayer

A Way Out of No Way

Growing up, I sometimes felt jittery when dinner ran late, or I had more homework to do. I wanted to turn on the TV and...

Sharing Faith

The Weight of a Fresh Calendar

A fresh paper planner smells like anxiety. It's the feeling that if you can just organize the boxes right, you can final...

Who Is Blind?

"This is the first time I've been able to sing a worship song since my pastor abused me." I didn't know what to say....

Healing

The Water That Doesn't Run Out

We were expecting a fabulous meal at the ski lodge's steakhouse. High ceilings, mahogany leather chairs, elegantly dress...

The Empty Seat

In seminary, I spent fifteen minutes a day memorizing Scripture. It seemed like the kind of thing a future pastor should...

When Outsiders Get It First

"I just called everyone on my phone and told them about Jesus." I was stunned. I didn't even know she was a Christian...

Sharing Faith

What Anxiety Gets Wrong About Tomorrow

After resigning from a ministry job as a whistleblower, I suddenly realized I was unemployed. We anticipated that our in...

The Warm Bread

At the Sunday evening service, as we sang another chorus of "How Deep the Father's Love for Us," I started to recoil ins...

When Nothing Has Worked

At one of the lowest points in my life, I'd been hurting for so long that I didn't know if the pain would ever go away....

Hopelessness

Convenient Amnesia

A best-selling apologist called me to talk about Ravi. He agreed that Ravi was a liar, a bully, and a predator. Then he...

Spiritually Lonely

During COVID, our church moved to live-streamed worship and Zoom calls for community groups. While I enjoyed the convers...

Loneliness

Mary

I was driving down a forgettable road in South Hamilton, MA. My creaky Ford Explorer screeched to a halt at a four-way s...

Hope

The God Who Flips Tables

The story about Jesus flipping tables is awkward. It's used both to rationalize posting rage bait online and to attack J...

Justice

Stars

In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis, the Narnians arrive at an island at the edge of the world, where they m...

Defending Your Faith Without A Philosophy Degree

After I came to faith, my family and friends often asked me difficult questions. The big discussions in my teenage years...

Apologetics

Written

In Barracks 28 of the Ravensbrück concentration camp, Betsie ten Boom coughed on a bed stuffed with fleas and lice. Corr...

Salvation

True Friends Might Wound Us

When I was fifteen, my grandfather asked if he could talk with me for a moment. I could tell from the tone of his voice...

I Didn't Feel Anything

I watched the worship band slowly develop the intensity of the opening song. With each repetition, they layered in drums...

The Holy Spirit

The Same Fire

I drive by the old RZIM headquarters at least once a week. Every time, I reactively grip my steering wheel tighter, look...

Repentance

The Exhaustion of Self-Creation

When Facebook first arrived at my college, I remember the rush to set up a profile so everyone could know who I was, wha...

Despised

A church consulting group produced a report on how to engineer church growth. They recommend using data analytics to und...

The Holy Spirit

You Already Have It

When I was a kid, my mom had a tradition in which we would go to the store with her and "help Santa out" by suggesting w...

When Disappointment Is Doubt

If any organization should have represented God well, it was Ravi Zacharias International Ministries. I worked there....

Doubt & Questions

A Beautiful Waste

When I graduated from Rhodes College, all of my friends were getting traditional jobs that came with salaries, benefits,...

When Prayer Feels Like a Performance

My friend and I met up in Bellingrath Chapel at Rhodes College, where we'd agreed to pray together for an hour. The sile...

Prayer

A Room Full of Fear

At the first managers' meeting of the year at RZIM's global headquarters in 2019, I gave a presentation called "The Fear...

Fear

Mile 24

As the starting gun cracked for the 2002 St. Jude Memphis Marathon, two of my closest friends and I jumped out at a 7:04...

Can't Lose

I've gotten angry that corrupt leaders so often seem to get their way. But that's because I had a short-term perspective...

Hard Times

He's Beneath Us

A Twitter friend won an award. I thought about posting "Congratulations!" but I was too jealous to celebrate. I thoug...

Worship

Reflect: Look at Jesus

The Debt You Could Never Repay

I was at Crunch, on the second rep of my bicep curls, and without warning, I nearly dropped the weights. "I just want to...

Forgiveness

I'll Pray For You

I recently contributed to two Meal Trains. One person had a baby, another is fighting cancer. I didn't know how to get a...

The Unlikely Disciple

The discolored, funky-smelling jerseys made middle school P.E. bad enough. But the worst part was when teams were picked...