strength
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We have a strange habit of explaining away the things that should stop us in our tracks. I have carried a needle full of Hepatitis C into my body. I’ve looked down the barrel of a gun. My heart quit beating at twenty-seven. We speak about miracles as though they belong to another century. As…
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If you’re grieving, you’re not failing at anything. You’re just human in the rawest possible state, stripped down to what can’t be argued with or managed or optimized. There are days when the heart doesn’t feel “broken” so much as shattered early and quietly, like something cracked in childhood and you only learn later how…
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Introspection — what better way to start a week. Question: Do you easily call out the deception in your abuser(s) or do you deny what you see? One of the easiest ways to stay outside of healing and freedom is to deny what you see. As children, if you came through childhood sexual crimes, you…
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There are phases of life with Christ, and they do not look like what you expect. At first, everything feels big and loud and full of emotion. You feel called, inspired, changed overnight. You want to fix everything, learn everything, do everything. The world feels wide open. Then He starts narrowing you. Not to punish…
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Prudence doesn’t get clicks. Prudence is slow. Quiet. Unimpressive. It looks like saying no when everyone else says yes. It looks like leaving early, staying faithful, keeping your mouth shut, doing the long, boring work of healing when nobody is clapping for you. Nobody goes viral for self-control.Nobody gets applause for breaking a generational pattern.Nobody…
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We’ve turned “God loves you” into “God affirms everything you do.” That isn’t love.That’s abandonment dressed up as kindness. Real love corrects. It sharpens. It refuses to leave you as it found you. A good father does not stand by while his child walks toward harm, nodding in approval so he can feel gentle. He…
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I used to think God’s plan was a treasure map I had to decode. If I just suffered correctly. If I just hustled harder. If I just proved I was exceptional enough, the sky would split and hand me my assignment. That was pride dressed up as devotion. I wanted a dramatic calling. Something that…
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Life isn’t random to me. It’s a training ground. I’ve come to see that God designed it to shape my character, not to keep me comfortable. Every day puts choices in front of me. Some are obvious, most are small. None of them are neutral. Each one trains my will. I either move toward the…
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Heroin was the obvious lie. Perfectionism was the respectable one. Same mechanism. Different costume. One numbed the pain. The other anesthetized it with achievement, productivity, and praise. Both promised relief. Both demanded everything. The needle and the calendar were never enemies. They were accomplices. People like to call that growth. It isn’t. It’s substitution. Perfectionism…
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I’ve learned the hard way that a person is shaped by what they aim at…not by what they survive. Not by what they intend. By what they move toward, day after day, quietly, stubbornly. When I was young, survival was my goal. Not consciously. Instinctively. I aimed at soothing my wounds, protecting myself, dodging pain,…