… and it will be given

I just wasn’t feeling it.

Overflowing cup - Luke 6:38It had been a long day in the middle of a very full week. Youth group loomed on the calendar horizon, an unwelcome commitment on this particular Wednesday. As an introvert, large group gatherings tap everything in me, so going ‘empty’ isn’t a great way to begin an evening of ministry. And 60 middle and high schoolers (whom I’ve come to genuinely adore) are a tougher crowd than most.

I’d love to tell you that I prayed for God to enable me to pour into those adolescent lives for two hours last night. I should have. Sadly, the thought didn’t even cross my mind. Read More

In my hand

They were so little.

I watched my daughters, mere toddlers, playing near each other in the family room on the carpet, each with a toy of her choosing.

My youngest asked my eldest for the bauble she was currently enjoying. This was an unwelcome request, so eldest daughter searched the sprawl of toys in orbit around her. She selected one and handed it ever so sweetly to her younger sister. One might expect me to have been proud at that moment, delighting in the so-called sharing that had just taken place.

But I wasn’t.  Read More

Comparatively Speaking

In my personal study early this week, I read about the tongue and what our speech reveals about our hearts:

The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
— Luke 6:45 ESV

Later in the week:

That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse.
— Galatians 5:25 MSG

And then I conversed with a woman who has recently launched a non-profit organization and is seeing God at work in and through her ministry; it is bearing much fruit. I genuinely rejoice with her at God’s blessing; I thrill in the knowledge that lives are being changed in most tangible ways as a result of her obedience.   Read More