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What was your first thought this morning? Not your second. Not after the coffee. The first one. I’ve been sitting with that question, and I think the answer reveals more about us than most of us are comfortable admitting. I was visiting family recently, and I wrote this in my journal. I noticed, as I watched them, their thoughts, their plans, how they roll in the morning, their habits and so on. As they talk, they share what’s in their heart. And that’s true for all of us. Yo

Are you a doer or a listener? Sit with that before you answer. Because most of us want to say doer, it sounds better, it feels better. But the honest answer might be more complicated than that. There are two kinds of people in every room. The first reads something powerful, feels something stir, maybe reposts it with a fire emoji and “This is so good!!” - then scrolls to the next thing. Nothing changes. They are living their spiritual life off of other people’s breakthroughs,

ARE YOU LIVING THE WRONG KIND OF LIFE (5 minute read) What is a life worth living? What kind of life should you be living? What type of perspective should you have as you live life? Could you be wasting your life? People seem to be living a few types of lives. One, where things are good and they live like this is all there is. They might be a bit bored with life. Maybe, it’s too comfortable and they have more than they need. Two, those not content, fighting and scratching for

What do you actually believe about HELL? Is it real? Could God really send people to a place where they gnash their teeth in pain for eternity? What do you really believe about Heaven and Hell? This belief, believe it or not, is the most important decision you will ever make in your life. It’s not your spouse, your career, having children, or buying that next car. It’s Heaven and Hell. Most of us have made a quiet, mostly unconscious peace with Heaven. It sounds right. It res

What are the benefits of following God? People who don’t follow and love God do fine - right? So why follow? Following God restricts us from fun. Isn’t it better to live your own life? Have you ever looked at someone who wants nothing to do with God and thought, their life looks a whole lot better than mine? Be honest. Because if you have, you are in very good company. The writer of Psalm 73 beat you to it. A man named Asaph. He was a man of God, looked at people who ignored

Let me ask you two questions right out of the gate. How good are you at waiting? I’m terrible. Genuinely, embarrassingly bad at it. Okay, second question. How good are you at consistency, at staying at something over the long haul, even when nothing seems to be changing? Now that I’m good at. And before you think I’m bragging, let me stop you right there. For me, that’s not a compliment. That’s a confession. Because the same stubbornness that kept me consistent also kept me g

How faithful are you in the small things? Do small things even matter? Not the big, visible moments everyone sees, but the quiet, daily details nobody applauds or notices. The ones nobody grades you on. Because I want to suggest that those small, invisible, nobody’s-watching moments may be the most telling thing about who you actually are. No, not always, but there’s some truth here - stay with me please. Let me start somewhere you probably didn’t expect. A bird’s nest. In De

What kind of worshipper are you? Here’s what you worship - what you fear losing the most. What do you most fear losing? Not the answer you’d give in a room full of people who might be watching. The real answer. The one that keeps you up at night. The one that, if it disappeared tomorrow, would genuinely wreck you. Because your real object of worship is rarely on your lips. It’s written on your calendar. It shows up in your bank statements. It’s revealed in that sick knot in y

What do you think of yourself when you do something good? What makes it good? How should we evaluate our own good efforts? It doesn’t sound like a deep question, but it really is. It digs beneath the surface and gets into our heart, our motives, our intentions, the why behind what we do. To be honest, I don’t think about this much until I read something like Deuteronomy 9:6. And if I’m really honest? I tend to think I’m a pretty good guy. I think I do good. But if you want th

What would you call the good life? How hard are you working to live the good life? What is a good life? I personally think of two things, one what happens to me when I die. And two, how should I live life now, preparing for death, but still enjoy life as it is today. What’s this look like and are you and I doing it right? I think we stay busy, stay distracted, fill our lives with enough noise that we don’t really stop and think of the popular question: “What is life?” So here

Could you go forty days without food? Actually, could you do any new habit for forty days? Why forty days? Stay with me and I’ll explain. Forty days - that’s exactly what Jesus did before He preached one sermon, healed one person, or performed one miracle. Luke 4:2 tells us plainly: “He ate nothing during those forty days.” The number forty is not random in scripture. The flood came for forty days before the earth was reset. Moses fasted forty days on Mount Sinai before recei

How familiar are you with John the Baptist? Who was he, really? What was his purpose in life? How important was he, and what does he and his words have to do with you today? Actually, his words are, or should be life changing. Let’s look at it. Jesus said John was a big deal. In Matthew 11:11 Christ said, “I tell you the truth, John the Baptist is greater than any other person ever born … “ Jesus looked across all of human history, every prophet, every king, every person who

What do you need to get ready to mature - grow - change - and finish well? What does “finishing well” look like to you? It’s my entire mantra - “You Finishing Well”. To make it more spiritual, what if Jesus walked into your life today, not as a concept, not as a belief, but as King? Would He find a clear path… stay with me on this - let’s look at the thing that needs to change in your life. How familiar are you with John the Baptist? Luke points us back to Isaiah and introduc

Is there a realm outside of what we see? Is there an unseen world operating alongside this one, right now, while you go about your ordinary day? One of the most deceptively simple moments in all of Scripture quietly answers that question. In Luke 2:15, after the angels announced the birth of Jesus to a group of shepherds, the text says they “left them and went back to heaven.” No explanation. No distance described. They were present, and then they weren’t. They didn’t travel

Here’s an interesting question: When is it good to do the right thing externally, even if you don’t feel it internally? Choosing to eat well when you’d rather not, being kind when you’d rather not - those choices have real value regardless of how you feel in the moment. But I want to go beyond that, because I think there’s a version of “doing the right thing” that God finds deeply troubling. In fact, it causes you and I to erode and diminish. Noone wants to do that … It may a

What kind of outlook do you have? Do you complain? Are you pessimistic and unhappy? Or are you happy — even when things aren’t perfect? These seem like shallow questions, but our emotional wiring drives our outlook more than we realize. Our dysfunctions, the things we worship, our forgiveness, our hope, all of it affects our attitude every single day. And honestly, I think what we love drives it more than anything else. If you love yourself and always want your way, when thin

Are you covering your bases, or have you actually surrendered your life to Jesus Christ and to God? I guess I'm speaking to us professing Christians. Why did you accept Christ? And how is it changing and growing you? I bring this up because I read today in Proverbs 9:10: "Wisdom begins with respect for the Lord, and understanding begins with knowing the Holy One." (Proverbs 9:10 NCV) So what does this level of wisdom look like in practical ways? Let me start with a quick stor

How much of your life are you spending on people who have zero intention of actually listening to you? How do you feel when others poke fun of what you believe or disagree with you? Some feel they need to debate every detail when they disagree. So today, that’s who I’m talking to. King Solomon once said: “If you correct someone who makes fun of wisdom, you will be insulted. If you correct an evil person, you will get hurt” (Proverbs 9:7, NCV). Solomon isn’t just giving advice

When you sin, what actually happens to you right now, in this moment, not in some future judgment but in your actual daily life? Most of us think about consequences like punishment or maybe we lean on grace or expect some kind of divine discipline. But I want to suggest something different. The real consequence of sin is separation from GOD. And here’s the problem. If you’ve never been truly connected to GOD, how would you even recognize what it feels like to be separated fro

If you could look better, would you? If you could make more money, would you? If you could have your cake and eat it too — would you? My nephew Jay Owen, honestly one of my heroes, recently wrote an article about AI. He said something that stuck with me. AI increases capacity and productivity, but it’s also creating burnout. People are working more without being asked to. So why are they doing it? Because it creates a buzz. A high. It makes us look good, sound smarter, feel s

What do you do when God doesn’t show up the way you expected Him to? I know someone who was once a strong believer. Or at least it seemed that way. Honestly, I think he never really experienced the Holy Spirit. He knew the Bible, but maybe he didn’t really know God. And in his mind, God didn’t meet his expectations. Now don’t judge him. This is the majority on the wide road that Christ spoke of when He said: “Enter through the narrow gate. The gate is wide and the road is wid

What is your daily routine that has almost become sacred? Is it the gym? Eating breakfast with your family? Reading your Bible? Maybe it’s TV, scrolling your phone, talk radio, or listening to the news every morning. Whatever it is, that daily practice is setting your sail. It’s orienting your trajectory for the entire day. Here’s something I’ve learned: What you do every day becomes who you are. In Exodus 29:38, God gives this instruction: “Every day from now on, offer on th

What are you hanging onto “just in case” something goes wrong? It’s like keeping a candy bar in your purse. Just in case. The moment you and I start hiding something, something’s wrong. If you have nothing to hide, you hide nothing. Jacob had a life-changing encounter when he wrestled with God. Got a new name. Israel. New identity. New future. But Scripture still calls him “Jacob” here. He wasn’t living his new identity. God was moving him forward, but old crap was still in h

What have you learned about yourself in moments when you had nowhere to run and no one to blame? I think we all dislike these times of pain. QSome even hate it. But pain is a great teacher. And you know what else is a great teacher? Being alone. If you don’t resort to your screen, TV, or some bad or lazy or addictive habit, being alone can allow feelings and thoughts that you and I should be wrestling with to actually soak in. Some of my best epiphanies arrive when I’m alone.