Old Year’s Night-This Year, There Will Be Fire

New Yearโ€™s Eve portends a year of hopeful questions. Old Yearโ€™s Night is the last day of an answering year. In every case, the answer is the same. If it didnโ€™t kill you, no matter what it was, you will never fear it again.  Old Yearโ€™s Nights prepare for New Yearโ€™s Days by way of …

Exhaled (a reboot)

And then, I exhaled. Iโ€™m committed to learning to breathe deeply. This is more than a metaphor. I am a shallow breather. According to people who teach meditation,   When we breathe in a shallow way, the body remains in a cyclical state of stressโ€”our stress causing shallow breathing and our shallow breathing causing stress. This …

Morning Devotional 3.21.26

โ€œThere remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters Godโ€™s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.โ€โ€ญโ€ญHebrewsโ€ฌ โ€ญ4โ€ฌ:โ€ญ9โ€ฌ-โ€ญ11โ€ฌ โ€ญNIVโ€ฌโ€ฌ Sabbath rest. This is …

Morning Devotional 3.19.26

โ€œSurely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.โ€โ€ญโ€ญPsalmsโ€ฌ โ€ญ23โ€ฌ:โ€ญ6โ€ฌ โ€ญNIVโ€ฌโ€ฌ So why should we worry? What if we spent a portion of the time we devote to worrying to being joyful?More time for laughter.More time for praise.More time …

Morning Devotional 3.17.26

โ€œHe who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, โ€œMy refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.โ€โ€ญโ€ญPsalmโ€ฌ โ€ญ91โ€ฌ:โ€ญ1โ€ฌ-โ€ญ2โ€ฌ โ€ญESVโ€ฌโ€ฌ When things get tough, you need shelter and rest. Psalms 91 reminds us of the sacredness of refuge …

Morning Devotional 3.12.26

โ€œTherefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,โ€โ€ญโ€ญRomansโ€ฌ โ€ญ5โ€ฌ:โ€ญ1โ€ฌ โ€ญNIVโ€ฌโ€ฌ We have peace. I am living through the longest sustained tumultuous period of my adult life. It is the hardest thing Iโ€™ve ever doneโ€ฆand yet, I am, for the greater part, at peace. God who …

Morning Devotional 3.9.26

โ€œIn the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, โ€œGod opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.โ€ Humble yourselves, therefore, under Godโ€™s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on …