ldquo Where is my faith mdash even deep down right in there is nothing but emptiness amp darkness If there be God please forgive me rdquo The author of those words might surprise you Mother Teresa Beloved and renowned as a tireless servant of the poor in Calcutta India Mother Teresa quietly waged a desperate war for her faith over five decades After her death that struggle came to light when portions of her journal were published in the book Come Be My Light What do we do with our doubts or feelings of God rsquo s absence Those moments [... more]

I didn rsquo t notice him at first I rsquo d come down for breakfast at my hotel Everything in the dining room was clean The buffet table was filled The refrigerator was stocked the utensil container packed tight Everything was perfect Then I saw him An unassuming man refilled this wiped that He didn rsquo t draw attention to himself But the longer I sat the more I was amazed The man was working very fast noticing everything and refilling everything before anyone might need something As a food service veteran I noticed his constant attention to detail Everything [... more]

I set my phone down weary of the constant bombardment of images ideas and notifications that the little screen broadcasted Then I picked it up and turned it on again Why In his book The Shallows Nicholas Carr describes how the internet has shaped our relationship with stillness ldquo What the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation Whether I rsquo m online or not my mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it in a swiftly moving stream of particles Once I was a scuba diver in [... more]

The morning commenced like a track meet I practically jumped out of bed launching into the teeth of the day rsquo s deadlines Get the kids to school Check Get to work Check I blasted full throttle into writing my ldquo To Do rdquo list in which personal and professional tasks tumbled together in an avalanche-like litany ldquo Edit article Clean office Strategic team planning Write tech blog Clean basement Pray rdquo By the time I got to number eighteen I rsquo d remembered that I needed God rsquo s help But I rsquo d gotten that far before it [... more]

Recently I found myself someplace I rsquo d seen in movies and on TV more times that I could count Hollywood California There in the foothills of Los Angeles those enormous white letters marched proudly across that famous hillside as I viewed them from my hotel window Then I noticed something else down to the left was a prominent cross I rsquo d never seen that in a movie And the moment I left my hotel room some students from a local church began to share Jesus with me We might sometimes think of Hollywood as only the epicenter of [... more]

ldquo ARRRGGGHHHH rdquo I yelled as the repair truck cut in front of me That rsquo s when I saw the message ldquo How rsquo s My Driving rdquo And a phone number I picked up my phone and dialed A woman asked me why I was calling and I vented my frustration She took down the truck rsquo s number Then she said wearily ldquo You know you can always call to report someone who rsquo s driving nicely rdquo Oh Her tired words instantly punctured my smug self-righteousness Embarrassment flooded me In my zeal for ldquo justice rdquo [... more]

Over the last several decades a new word has entered our movie vocabulary the reboot In cinematic parlance a reboot takes an old story and jumpstarts it Some reboots retell a familiar tale like a superhero story or a fairytale Other reboots take a lesser-known story and retell it in a new way But in each case a reboot is a bit like a do-over It rsquo s a fresh start a chance to breathe new life into the old nbsp There rsquo s another story that involves reboots mdash the gospel story In it Jesus invites us to His [... more]

Recently my wife and I were cleaning our house before having guests over I noticed some dark stains on our white kitchen tile floor mdash the kind that required getting on my knees to scrub But I soon had a sinking realization the more I scrubbed the more I noticed other stains Each stain I eliminated only made the others that much more obvious Our kitchen floor suddenly seemed impossibly dirty And with each moment I realized ldquo No matter how hard I work I can never get this floor completely clean rdquo Scripture says something similar about self-cleansing mdash [... more]

I was sitting in my chair one morning years ago when my youngest came downstairs She made a beeline for me jumping up onto my lap I gave her a fatherly squeeze and a gentle kiss on the head and she squealed with delight But then she furrowed her brow crinkled her nose and shot an accusatory glance at my coffee mug ldquo Daddy rdquo she announced solemnly ldquo I love you and I like you but I don rsquo t like your smell rdquo My daughter couldn rsquo t have known it but she spoke with grace and truth [... more]

I was drifting off into an impromptu nap when it hit me From the basement my son ripped a chord on his electric guitar The walls reverberated No peace No quiet No nap Moments later competing music greeted my ears my daughter playing ldquo Amazing Grace rdquo on the piano Normally I love my son rsquo s guitar playing But in that moment it jarred and unsettled me Just as quickly the familiar notes of John Newton rsquo s hymn reminded me that grace thrives amid the chaos No matter how loud unwanted or disorienting the storms of life might [... more]

The careers of most National Football League players are remarkably brief just years on average according to statista com Then there rsquo s Tampa Bay Buccaneer and former New England Patriot quarterback Tom Brady In he began his twenty-second season at the age of forty-four How Perhaps his famously rigorous diet and exercise routine have enabled him to maintain his competitive edge Brady rsquo s seven Super Bowl rings have earned him the title of G O A T mdash greatest of all time in the NFL But it rsquo s a title he never could have achieved apart from [... more]

When I was shopping for engagement rings I spent many hours looking for exactly the right diamond I was plagued by the question What if I miss the best one According to economic psychologist Barry Schwartz my chronic indecision indicates that I am what Schwartz calls a maximizer in contrast to a satisficer A satisficer makes choices based on whether something is adequate for their needs Maximizers We guilty have a need to always make the best choice The potential outcome of our indecision in the face of many choices Anxiety depression and discontent In fact sociologists have coined another [... more]

Our family was planning to get a puppy so my eleven-year-old daughter researched for months She knew what the dog should eat and how to introduce it to our new home mdash among myriad other details nbsp nbsp nbsp Turns out puppies do best she told me if they rsquo re introduced to one room at a time So we carefully prepared a spare bedroom I rsquo m sure there will still be surprises as we raise our new puppy but my daughter rsquo s delight-infused preparation couldn rsquo t have been more thorough The way my daughter channeled her [... more]

ldquo ESCAPE rdquo the hot-tub store billboard blared It got my attention mdash and got me thinking My wife and I talk about getting a hot tub nbsp someday It'd be like a vacation in our back yard Except for the cleaning And the electric bill And suddenly the hoped-for escape starts to sound like something I might need escape from Still that word entices so effectively because it promises something we want relief Comfort Security Escape It rsquo s something our culture tempts and teases us with in myriad ways Now there's nothing wrong with resting or a getaway [... more]

ldquo Daddy will you read to me rdquo my daughter asked It rsquo s not an unusual question for a child to make of a parent But my daughter is eleven now These days such requests are fewer than they were when she was younger ldquo Yes rdquo I said happily and she curled up next to me on the couch As I read to her from The Fellowship of the Ring she practically melted into me It was one of those glorious moments as a parent when we feel perhaps just an inkling of the perfect love our Father [... more]

In a TV commercial I saw recently a woman casually asks someone in a group watching TV ldquo What are you searching for Mark rdquo ldquo A version of myself that doesn rsquo t make decisions based on fear rdquo he responds soberly mdash not realizing that she was just asking what he liked to watch on TV nbsp Whoa I thought I wasn rsquo t expecting a TV commercial to hit me so profoundly But I related to poor Mark sometimes I too feel embarrassed by the way fear sometimes seems to direct my life nbsp Jesus rsquo disciples [... more]

Recently my car needed work The mechanic rsquo s shop was close a mile from my home So I decided to just walk home But as I shuffled along next to a bustling thoroughfare I noticed something Everyone else was moving so fast nbsp This isn rsquo t rocket science Cars go faster than pedestrians Zip zip zip As I ambled home I had a realization We rsquo re so used to moving fast All the time Then another realization I often expect God to move just as quickly I want His plans to fit my speedy timetable nbsp When [... more]

The praise song drifted downstairs at on a Saturday morning I didn rsquo t think anyone was awake but my youngest daughter rsquo s scratchy voice proved me wrong She was barely conscious but there was already a song on her lips My youngest is a singer In fact she can rsquo t not sing She sings when she wakes up When she goes to the school When she goes to bed She was born with a song in her heart mdash and most of the time her songs focus on Jesus She rsquo ll praise God anytime anywhere I [... more]

We were almost home when I noticed it the needle of our car rsquo s temperature gauge was rocketing up As we pulled in I killed the engine and hopped out Smoke wafted from the hood The engine sizzled like bacon I backed the car up a few feet to find a puddle beneath oil Instantly I knew The head gasket had just blown I groaned We rsquo d just sunk money into other expensive repairs Why can rsquo t things just work I grumbled bitterly Why can rsquo t things just stop breaking Can you relate Sometimes we avert [... more]