It’s interesting that most of what I spend my time worrying about ends up not coming to pass. I’d say probably 90% of those possible worst case scenarios that keep me up at night never happen.

Further, most of what I worry about isn’t anything I can really control. Me getting worked up over certain stuff won’t make it go away or help in any way. All it does is steal my joy in the present.

All the time I spend in worry and anxiety could be better spent in prayer.

I get that sometimes it’s hard to pray when your stomach is in knots. But every time your thought leads to a worry, you can turn that worry into a petition. You can say, “Lord, you know how I’m feeling and what I’m thinking right now. Here’s where I am. Meet me in the middle of my worry and give me peace.”

I’ve learned the hard way that the worst way to handle worry is to tackle it alone. The best way is to find people to confide in who will help share your burdens. Even the very act of sharing your worries makes them less scary and makes you less anxious. Even if you feel you’re worked up over something you think is stupid or trivial, sharing it makes it seem less overwhelming.

Plus, the more you immerse yourself in God’s word, the less those anxious thoughts have room to take root and take hold of your mind. But above all, pray. Let God take your burdens instead of you pretending you don’t have them to seem more spiritual. God already knows.

I’m “borrowing” this from a friend’s social media post. It’s a great answer to the question of why anyone would bring up children in these times:

“Don’t feel sorry for or fear for your kids/grandkids because the world they are going to grow up in is not what it used to be.

God created them and called them for the exact moment in time that they’re in. Their life wasn’t a coincidence or an accident.

Raise them up to know the power they walk in as children of God.

Train them up in the authority of His Word.

Teach them to walk in faith knowing that God is in control.

Empower them to know they can change the world.

Don’t teach them to be fearful and disheartened by the state of the world but hopeful that they can do something about it.

Every person in all of history has been placed in the time that they were in because of God’s sovereign plan.

He knew Daniel could handle the lions den. 
He knew David could handle Goliath.
He knew Esther could handle Haman.
He knew Peter could handle persecution.
He knows that your child can handle whatever challenge they face in their life. He created them specifically for it!

Don’t be scared for your children, but be honored that God chose YOU to parent the generation that is facing the biggest challenges of our lifetime.
Rise up to the challenge.

Raise Daniels, Davids, Esthers and Peters!

God isn’t scratching His head wondering what He’s going to do with this mess of a world.

He has an army He’s raising up to drive back the darkness and make Him known all over the earth.

Don’t let your fear steal the greatness God placed in them. I know it’s hard to imagine them as anything besides our sweet little babies, and we just want to protect them from anything that could ever be hard on them, but they were born for such a time as this “ (Alex Cravens)

CarryTheLight

“Be thankful for the smallest blessing, and you will deserve to receive greater. Value the least gifts no less than the greatest and simple graces as especial favors. If you remember the dignity of the Giver, no gift will seem small or mean, for nothing can be valueless that is given by the most high God” (Thomas a Kempis).

There is no such thing as an insignificant gift from God. There are no small blessings or trivial graces. Everything that comes from God is good and everything that comes from God is worthy of your thanks, if only because it comes from the Almighty maker of heaven and earth.

So many seem bent on only seeing the curse. They only focus on the negative and what’s wrong with their lives and who’s treated them badly. They almost never have a spirit of gratitude. I do believe that if you only look for the bad, you’ll find it and nothing else, but if you look for the good, you’ll find it. If you look for God in everything, you’ll be most blessed because you’ll learn to see blessings in every detail of your life, the good and the bad.

It all starts with giving thanks for the smallest blessing.

“All sorts of people are fond of repeating the Christian statement that ‘God is love’. But they seem not to notice that the words ‘God is love’ have no real meaning unless God contains at least two Persons. Love is something that one person has for another person. If God was a single person, then before the world was made, He was not love. Of course, what these people mean when they say that God is love is often some- thing quite different: they really mean ‘Love is God’. They really mean that our feelings of love, however and wherever they arise, and whatever results they produce, are to be treated with great respect. Perhaps they are: but that is something quite different from what Christians mean by the statement ‘God is love’. They believe that the living, dynamic activity of love has been going on in God forever and has created everything else.

And that, by the way, is perhaps the most important difference between Christianity and all other religions: that in Christianity God is not a static thing—not even a person—but a dynamic, pulsating activity, a life, almost a kind of drama. Almost, if you will not think me irreverent, a kind of dance” (C. S. Lewis).

I don’t pretend to understand the concept of the trinity, but I do know that God didn’t create people because He was lonely. It wasn’t out of need that he made you and me. The Triune God had enough love and joy between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and was in perfect communion with Himself.

If anything, He created us out of an abundance of love that overflowed into something new. It’s a very little bit like when two people get married and the overflow of their love results in a baby boy or girl.

Love is giving, not taking. Love is sacrificial not selfish. If you want to know the true definition of love, look at who God is and what God has done. That is love.

It seems disheartening when I hear about yet another preacher who lost his way morally or got caught up in an ego trip or compromised his beliefs for the sake of acceptance and popularity. It seems as though there are so few people in leadership positions who are worthy of trust and respect.

But that’s what we do. We put people on pedestals. We elevate human beings to places and platforms that only God should occupy, then are distraught when these same people turn out to be fallible people who fail. But God never fails.

That’s why my hope for the present and the future rests in nail-scarred hands. Jesus is the only one who has ever lived and walked on this planet who has unfailingly shown Himself to be completely trustworthy in all matters. He’s the only one who makes a promise and keeps it every single time.

So once again, my hope is not in any preacher or politician or political party. My hope is not in any author or artist or celebrity. My hope was and remains in the One who is the same yesterday, today, and forever, in whom there is no shadow of turning or variation in character.

My hope is in Jesus.

I confess that I’m bothered where the devil says that you can’t withstand the storm and you’re supposed to reply that you’re the storm. Maybe I’ve been reading it wrong all this time, but it sounds more like a humble brag than faith.

I think about the Apostle Paul who did anything but boast about how strong he was. If anything, he boasted about his weakness. That’s not something that makes for a good social media influencer post. Boasting about actual weaknesses? But you don’t have any, right?

The classic Jesus Loves me song has it right when talking about the little children, i.e. us. “They are weak, but He is strong.”

That leads to another pet peeve of mine. How about how so many of the worship songs are focused on me? As in I’m going to lift my hands, I’m going to shout, I’m going to declare . . . It’s like the focus of the worship is my experience of worship and not the object of my worship, God.

Again, I may be nit-picking, but I’d like to sing a lot more about how what God’s up to. How God rescued me, how God fights for me, how God loves me daily even when I’m not very lovable, how God is worthy of every praise and every song for no other reason that He is God.

That’s why I have a growing appreciation for the old hymns. They had the right perspective. It’s not how I’ve got it all together and choose to have God be a window dressing in my life. It’s that I’m a big hot mess on my own and I need God and oh yeah, God’s not just a part of my life — God IS my life. God’s not a supplement to my strength — God IS my strength. God’s not just an option out of many throughout my day — God is my only hope at the end of the day, every single day.

I started a new series recently. More accurately, I watched a movie that will hopefully lead to a series down the road.

The movie is a modern retelling of some of Jesus’ parables in the context of the early church. The series will be more focused on the events from the book of Acts and is currently raising funds via the same kind of crowdfunding that has made The Chosen series possible.

So far, so great. The acting has been on point and the movie looked like it had a much bigger budget than it did. The parables are recognizable, even in their contemporary settings (and the parable of the talents has a clever twist that caught me off guard in a good way).

The early Church had it way tougher than the typical American church. They dealt with nonstop persecution from both the Roman government and from the Jewish religious leaders. They were a small minority with a radical message that turned the first century world upside down, and Satan threw everything he could at them to stop them in their efforts.

They were faithful regardless of the costs. Just about all of them made significant sacrifices, some up to the point of laying down their lives for the sake of the gospel. Yet to each and every one of them, anything they had to give up was more than worth it and they were able to rejoice even in the midst of their sufferings to see what God was doing in and through them.

Testament brings those struggles and sacrifices vividly to life in a way that makes me want to be more bold for my own faith. It will certainly challenge and embolden anyone who watches it.

You can watch the movie through the Angel Studios app, as well as catching up on The Chosen if you so desire. Both are more than worth your time.

From what I understand, these words were part of the last sermon that Charles Spurgeon ever delivered, shortly before God called him home at age 57.

Typically, the person’s last words indicate what was most important to him or her and what the hearers should take away as being that person’s chief priority.

In Spurgeon’s case, his last words were about the glory of Christ and how it was his desire that anyone hearing should come to faith in Jesus before they come to the end of their earthly lives.

I don’t know much about the life of Charles Spurgeon. I imagine he was far from perfect and had more than a few flaws and struggles, but I also imagine that the first words he heard after a lifetime of ministry were “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

May we strive to the same end as that of Spurgeon — so that everyone can know Jesus as we know Him, Companion, Faithful Friend, Brother, Savior, and Lord.

I had the opportunity to see episodes 7 and 8 of The Chosen season 3 tonight. More accurately, I was proactive and took advantage of the opportunity to see this amazing series on the big screen. I was not in the least disappointed.

I think this show captures the essence of the gospels better than any other film or TV series about the life of Jesus that I have ever seen. I love how it fleshes out not only the main character of Jesus but also the disciples and other followers. It makes the first century world come to life with a detail and authenticity previously unmatched on screen.

Does it take the place of the actual gospel accounts? By no means. It does supplement the Scriptural accounts and helps me to better visualize when I’m reading through Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. It reinforces what I’m learning from the Biblical eyewitness accounts.

It tackles head on what it looks like when you have unmet expectations and disappointments in matters of faith. It deals with what it feels like when it seems God heals everyone else but you or your loved ones. It looks unflinchingly into matters such as miscarriages and grief through the lens of the gospel accounts in a way that is far from trite or cliched.

I can’t recommend The Chosen highly enough. If you’re caught up, go see it in theaters. If not, start with season 1, episode 1 and watch the 24 episodes on The Chosen app that’s available for all smart phones and devices. I believe these last 2 episodes will be available to stream starting Tuesday.

Above all, dive deep into the gospels. Let the words marinate into your skin, your soul, your very being. Don’t just read the words. Do what they say. Don’t be just a hearer but a doer of the Word, as it says later in the Bible. The best gospel to start with is Mark, the shortest, but you can start with Matthew or any of the rest. Just start somewhere.

Just a forewarning before you read any further: you will probably need some tissues handy.

“This here, is my Dad.

My Dad and his very best friend – a dog named Sammy.

And this is a story – maybe my favorite story that I’ll ever have the privilege to tell – about love and friendship.

I, for one, can never say for sure why we were put here on this earth. But of all the guesses I could ever make – Love is the very best reason.

Sammy, the oversized, perfectly goofy 1 part Newfoundland/1 part Lab/1 part Birthday Clown mix, showed us all we ever needed to know about love.
In fact, he spent seventeen long and beautiful years teaching us and each and every tiny thing he thought we really should know about the subject.

Sammy went to work each and every day with my Dad. Dad is in the auto body business and is the hardest, most honest blue collar worker I could ever be lucky enough to have as an example. (It should also be noted that he is my favorite person in the world. A man who single handedly went up into the galaxy, past the stars, and hung the moon – just for me.) Sammy would lay happily on the garage floor, staying close throughout the long working hours – unwavering until the moment Dad could rinse the day’s oil, grease and engine fluid from his hands and turn the lights off to go home. Dad loves with a very, very full heart and he and Sammy were instant friends from the moment Sammy first walked into our home 17 years ago. I couldn’t have asked for a more incredible best friend for my Dad. I was so grateful to Sammy for filling my Dad’s life up with silliness and love and for keeping him company throughout all the years and adventures. Sammy took such good care of Dad for me – especially during times when I was far, far away living out wild dreams thousands of miles from home. I would miss Dad so terribly and then smile knowing how safe he was in Sammy’s care.

Lots of things have whirled and changed throughout the last 2 decades, but one thing always remained constant:

Sammy.

Standing in his well-worn spot at my Dad’s feet.

During health, happiness, joy and eventually sickness – Sammy held fast.

Fast forward to a January evening – just about a week or so ago. Sammy had been fighting hard, battling the cancer that had woven its way into his body early last year. He’d lost his eye and his tail to the terrible beast and was growing weaker with each passing day. I was in Florida on another big adventure and my cell phone began to ring. It was my Dad. When I picked it up, an eerie feeling passed over my shoulders, like something had shifted in the atmosphere. And somehow I knew.

Dad spoke.

He said:

‘Kaylee, tonight you should look for Sammy in the stars.’

And then, in one tiny moment, just like that, a piece of my heart went missing. A big Sammy-shaped hole in my chest formed right in that instant. Tears came fast and easy.

But, in that instant, as I was crying in the middle of this Irish Pub where I was having dinner in Florida – something struck me. This particular kind of sadness was profound. Because while I was intensely sad, I was grateful.
Grateful for all the years, the moments, the smiles. For the Winter mornings and the Autumn afternoons. For the forests, the valleys and the ponds we so proudly conquered. For the happy long rides in the car with our cheeks gloriously flapping in the Summer wind.

And in those last moments of his life, Sammy taught us just a few remaining things about love that he thought we still had to learn:

Love knows no dimension, place or time.

It transcends the physical world, far past the reaches of our earthly capabilities.

Love is a flame of fire and light that will always be your beacon when all else seems to go dark.

And no matter what, love will always find you.

That’s the thing about love. You think it’s gone forever and then it sparkles right back through about a hundred different galaxies to get to you. Sammy’s love came thundering across the sky that night and right into my heart. Even though I couldn’t see him. I could feel him. Even though he was swirling through the stars on a very very big adventure to another time and place – he found me. He found me right there in that Irish Pub. And he made me remember his lessons of love.

Friendships don’t end – they dance on and endlessly on. Sammy was our dance. He was our universe and all the tiny stars within it. And he’ll always be the candle that lights the path on especially dark nights.

Our hearts sting with the pain of missing you. Our hands long to feel the curls of your soft black coat swirling through the spaces between our fingers just one last time. But our heads.. our heads know that we are the luckiest, most privileged people in the world for the impossible opportunity of getting to be loved by a soul so pure as yours.

We loved you Sammy, more than the physical limitations of nature and life would allow us to. And while your body is gone – your spirit lives on in our hearts. Your joy is in our blood, coursing through our veins, hot and electric with life. Your courage and bravery is in our bones – small pieces of you that make big pieces of us truly, completely and wholly better. And so you live on. Through endless generations of time.

When we wake to see your empty bed, or your leash hanging forlornly from the door – stained and frayed from years of of wild and amazing adventures – we remember. We remember the love that you gave us and the legacy that you left behind. To earn the love of an old friend like you is the greatest gift the universe could ever give us. And so you’re gone – and yet you remain. Right here. At Dad’s feet. Just like you always were.

You’ll run just as you did that first day we met you – scampering clumsily towards our feet, making our sides hurt with laughter. Yes, just as you did that first day we met you – when you promised us 17 beautiful years of laughter, kindness and adventure.

And now, you’ve taught us everything you thought we should know, so the lesson comes to a close and we must let you go.

Thank you for teaching us the things no one else ever could. Now,, run free and swift across the sky our sweet Sammy boy.

May Angels lead you in.

**I took this photo just a month or so few back when we found out that Sammy may not have much more time with us on this earth. Each and everyday I am so grateful that I got to the opportunity capture this precious moment between two old friends.”

I found this story on Dog Breath Photography on Facebook.