It’s like sitting in your living room in a poorly-built apartment building when the neighbor upstairs drops his heavy work boot on the floor, scaring you half to death. And you hold your breath … waiting for the other shoe to fall. Some people live their entire lives in that negative, anticipatory manner. And […]
Archive | Fresh Heart for a New Week
RSS feed for this sectionDiscipline of Delay
This isn’t a devotional about a slow God. It’s about our impatience. We tend to treat everything in our lives as broken pipes and God as a 24/7 plumber with an open schedule and a very fast van! And what is your story? Does God jump when you snap your finger? Almost never, […]
Friends
“Just as lotions and fragrance give sensual delight, a sweet friendship refreshes the soul.” Proverbs 27:9 New Living Translation “You use steel to sharpen steel, and one friend sharpens another.” Proverbs 27:17 New Living Translation Life can be cruel or comfortable. It can be zestful or draining. There are joys in life, but […]
The Truth About Traveling
When I travel I tend to be a “eyes-straight-ahead-don’t-dally-keep-moving-just-get-there” kind of guy. As opposed to how I golf, my driving tendency is to go straight and get it done. That leads to the recent 20 straight hour, 1313 mile trip from ‘here’ to ‘there.’ I have friends, however, who look for any and every chance […]
The Fountain of Youth?
“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” Psalm 103:2-5 […]
The Purpose of Worry
There is no purpose to worry … it serves no useful good. Joanie woke up this morning with the look of someone who fought gallantly with her pillow all night and lost convincingly. We have been packing for what we trust will be our ‘last move’ (No … not that ‘last move. We’ve been […]
Hysteria or History?
Is your walk with God based on history or hysteria? By ‘history’ I mean do you have an observable history and track record of God’s love and faithfulness in your life that you look back on to draw courage and assurance at any time? Like David in the Book of Psalms, do you cry out […]
‘Almost’ Isn’t Enough
When is almost enough? Hardly ever. ‘Almost’ means coming up just short before the next payday. It means hitting the wall at mile 25 in a marathon. It means losing being salutatorian by getting a B+ instead of an A in your last class. ‘Almost’ gets you second place instead of first. It finds […]
The ‘How Long?’ Question
Sitting by the hospice-provided hospital bed in the living room of friends, the wife looked at her failing husband as he fought life’s last battle … and asked a question she knew did not have an obvious answer: “He’s ready to go, but why does God delay?” Why, indeed. Throughout Scripture we find the […]
Sticking Out
The most embarrassing experience to this point in my life (can’t wait to see what I can pull off in the years ahead!) occurred as a band member in high school. The eighty members formed two parallel lines diagonally from a corner of the end zone about a third of the way toward the […]