We live in a world of fingers crossed behind our backs. In politics, it increasingly seems like you're rewarded for your ability to double-speak. But the problem isn't just untrustworthy politicians. We all have a tendency to waffle on our promises. Sometimes plans change and we need to back out of commitments, to be fair. But we need to press through the inconvenience of tight schedules and conflicting...

I lost one of my mentors last week. He played a large part in my theological studies and training. But more importantly, he inspired me with his faith in Christ and his compassionate heart. Those things impacted me more than anything else he taught me. His life remains a testament to me and others who knew him—a challenge to stay wholehearted for God and finish life strong. Caleb...

What’s it like to live in a relationship where one party is committed but not the other? Many (if not most) of us have experienced that, at some point; it’s sad, to say the least, and even worse when the commitment is intended to last a lifetime. But it happens in our world. And it happens all the time to God. He’s always faithful, but sometimes...we’re not. If we don’t commit...

I met a man named Jack when I was working at the hospital last summer. He was in his early 80s and was struggling with a slow recovery from heart surgery. When I entered his room, he asked me to sit down and began sharing his story. His first marriage had ended when he was a young man, and he'd blamed God for his loss. In the years since, despite remarrying, he'd never quite gotten...

We live in a culture centered on getting and not giving. We're consumers. What makes us happy is getting the thing we want, as quickly as we can get it. From fast food restaurants to Amazon.com, we have created...

Fear can protect us from hurting ourselves. It keeps us from driving too fast on the freeway, walking too close to the ledge of a tall building, or gambling too much in a high stakes poker game. At its worst, though, it keeps us from acting boldly in situations where we need to take a risk. It keeps us from making investments that can lead to success. It causes us to hide our true selves out of fear of rejection by others.

We live in a society caught in the grips of anxiety and depression. Young people are more prone to thoughts of suicide than previous generations. Recent studies struggle with locating a cause, and end up adopting such lame conclusions as greater competitiveness, perfectionism, and controlling parents. Clearly, something is broken in the world today. Opioid addiction is ravaging America;...

We're all in search of hope. We want to believe things will work out in the end, that our dreams will come true. In the middle of disaster, we long for reassurance that the world will be set right. We want to know that our life has a purpose and that we will experience true love before our time runs out. Like an approaching storm, the future can hold...

On July 4, we who are in the United States celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It's a declaration of freedom, of a sort. Freedom is highly prized in the world today—not only in the United States but everywhere. We sometimes think of freedom in connection with independence—i.e., freedom from the control of another.

Truth no longer means what it did a few generations ago. Western culture has developed a disdain for absolutes—the conception that there is something behind the beliefs we hold dear. Morals have become a matter of preference. Religion is treated as mere opinion. Science now defines...

I have faced difficult times when my plans have unraveled and fallen apart around me. I remember one time I sat alone, feeling abandoned. Where was God, I wondered? I reached out in desperation but couldn't find him. The thought struck me that he had wandered away, that he didn't care about what I was facing. I wanted to pray but it seemed like a waste of time. It was easier to...

Things in the past can enslave us. Mistakes we have made, experiences we cannot forget, things that have been done to us. Bitterness and disappointment can consume our thinking, robbing us of joy and hope. Images burned into our consciousness, like pornography or sexual perversion, can cause us to relapse into patterns of sin. Anger...