Never give up on anybody. Including yourself. Sometimes, you do need to remove yourself from certain people’s lives for your own well-being and safety, but you can still keep them before the Lord in prayer. Even when someone you love is thousands of miles away, you can still keep them near through intercession before the throne of God.

Before you scoff at miracles, remember that you are one. You may not believe that a miracle can happen for someone you love, but also remember that the reason you’re still here and seeking God is the miraculous grace of God.

At the end of the day, no matter how good or bad, it’s helpful to remember that God’s mercies will be new in the coming morning just as they have been every morning up until now.

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but no one ever saw the error of their ways by being shamed and called names on social media. No one ever said, “That passive aggressive post really helped me to see how wrong I was, so I’m now doing a 360 and changing my ways.”

You are responsible for you. You and you alone will stand before God to give account about your life and how you lived it. You are not called to govern someone else’s life. You can point to what you believe is right in a loving way, but you can’t make other people live by your standards of right and wrong.

I read that people don’t like to be told that they’re wrong or ignorant. It’s better to show them that they may not be seeing the bigger picture or that they don’t see all the pieces yet. I still think that you have to earn the right to speak into people’s lives by how you live with integrity and invest into their lives consistently.

When someone else acts or speaks in a way that bothers or offends you, I recommend first taking the matter to God in prayer before you post about it on Facebook. Then ask yourself what it was that bothered or offended you so much, or whether you’re really upset about something else entirely. Then you can approach the other person in a spirit of love and humility. It’s better to confront in person rather than over text or social media.

It always helps me to remember that I’ve done plenty wrong in my life, and that I have been forgiven much through the blood of Jesus, so I should be equally as forgiving to others.

“Life is dessert – too brief to hurry…’Where ever you are, be all there’ is only possible with eucharisteo. Slow down and taste life, give thanks, and see God. Simplicity is ultimately a matter of focus. Eucharisteo keeps the focus” (Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are).

I was never a morning person. Up until recently, I was a night owl. Now I find that I can’t do early mornings or late nights anymore, but I can rock 2:30 pm-4:30 pm like nobody’s business. Anything past 10 pm these days ends up with my brain doing the automatic shutdown for the night. I can’t think of anything but crawling into my comfortable bed.

But I had a good night at a Mexican restaurant with some friends from Kairos. And those quesadillas were mighty tasty. Even as tired as I am, I give thanks for good food and friends and God’s graces. Above all, God’s graces.

“They say time is money, but that’s not true. Time is life. And if I want the fullest life, I need to find fullest time… the busyness of your life leaving little room for the source of your life…God gives us time. And who has time for God?Which makes no sense.” (Ann Voskamp).

Do you know how to spell love? You spell it T-I-M-E. That’s right. You make time for who and what you love. Always.

If you think you will automatically have time for the people you love, you won’t. That’s why you have to make a deliberate and intentional choice to MAKE time for them. That’s what love is, after all. More than a feeling, love is a deliberate act of the will.

If you love God, you will make time for God. You will cut out something else from your schedule to create margins in your life to seek God in earnest. I like how someone else said that you must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life, especially your spiritual life. And if you belong to God in Jesus, isn’t all of your life — your work life, your home life, your love life — essentially spiritual?

Remember, you will always make time for what and who you love, whether it’s a hobby or a career or a cause or a person. Always. You can tell where your heart is by your checkbook and your calendar. May your heart be filled with such a transforming love for God that it changes both you, your checkbook, and your calendar.

“Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is beauty, admire it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is too precious, do not destroy it.
Life is life, fight for it” (Mother Teresa)

At work, I have my go-to coffee mug. It’s a giant Death Star mug that holds a ridiculous amount of coffee (or for me, a ridiculous amount of coffee-flavored sugar milk). It gives me that false sense of confidence that life is beautiful and wonderful and that everything is going to work out perfectly just like in those 80s sitcom where all problems are resolved in less than 30 minutes.

It also helps me with adulting. I’m able to keep my eyes open, form complete sentences, and wear pants, all thanks to the magical mixture of coffee beans and hot water.

Since tomorrow is Friday, I’m throwing all caution to the wind and having TWO cups of coffee. I too like to live dangerously.

This. Just this. I will never stop reminding people of this: we are too prone to engrave our trials in marble and write our blessings in sand. How forgetful we are of the goodness of God, especially in seasons of night when all we can see are the trials.

The Israelites were as forgetful as we are. That’s why God commanded them to lay up stones for monuments as reminders of His faithfulness in the past. That’s why God had faithful men record these events in Holy Scriptures so we could remember the stedfast loyal love of God all throughout history.

A few years back, I took on a challenge to write down at least 1,000 things I was thankful for, no matter how seemingly insignificant or small. I went above and beyond, because I kept remembering more and more tokens of God’s generosity to me and my gratitude kept growing. I challenge you to write down five things you’re thankful for during the next week. After that, you can stop or you can keep going as you bring to mind all that God has done for you.

The more grateful you are, the more you will see God around you and the more you will have reason to give thanks and the more you will grow into the generosity of God, but you will never outgive or outlove God.

“What we call ‘being in love’ is a glorious state, and, in several ways, good for us. It helps to make us generous and courageous, it opens our eyes not only to the beauty of the beloved but to all beauty, and it subordinates (especially at first) our merely animal sexuality; in that sense, love is the great conqueror of lust. No one in his senses would deny that being in love is far better than either common sensuality or cold self-centredness. But, as I said before, ‘the most dangerous thing you can do is to take any one impulse of our own nature and set it up as the thing you ought to follow at all costs’. Being in love is a good thing, but it is not the best thing. There are many things below it, but there are also things above it. You cannot make it the basis of a whole life. It is a noble feeling, but it is still a feeling. Now no feeling can be relied on to last in its full intensity, or even to last at all. Knowledge can last, principles can last, habits can last; but feelings come and go. And in fact, whatever people say, the state called ‘being in love’ usually does not last” (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity).

“Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always ‘me first,’
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end” (1 Corinthians 13: 4-7, The Message).

Ultimately, love is not a feeling. It is an act of the will. It is a deliberate choice to seek the good of someone else, often at your own expense. Jesus is the supreme embodiment of what love looks like, eventually laying down His life for His beloved, us. Love is more than something we feel — it’s something we do. Love is a verb.

It’s not the end of the week. Alas, it’s only Monday. But what I’ve discovered is that God’s office hours aren’t like most university professors. It’s not Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 3-5 pm. God’s doors are always open and He is always ready to receive His wayward and willful children back.

You don’t have to wait until the end of the week to realize that you’ve made a mess of things and need a Father’s embrace. The Heavenly Father stands just as ready to welcome you right now as He has ever been — 100% willing.

Someone posted on Facebook recently about how God is constantly evolving, and since we’re made in His image, that means we should be okay with us constantly changing. I agree with the second part. Not so much with the first.

I believe that God is the one unchanging constant in a world full of turmoil, chaos, and upheaval. He’s the one rock I cling to in a sea of shifting sand. If I strive to keep Him at the center, He will keep all the pieces of my life in orbit from flying apart.

For something to evolve means that it has room to improve, not one who is all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-loving. To me, that’s making God in my image rather than me being in His. I would classify such a deity as a god with a little g rather than God. Such a being would not be one that I’d want to serve or to trust with my life.

In the Bible, all God’s promises are staked on His character. If His character is not static but in flux and changing, then none of His promises are sure. There is no certainty of heaven or even of good ultimately triumphing over evil. There is no guarantee that all the wrongs will one day be made right or that we will ever see our lost loved ones again. There is no reason to believe that throughout all our lives God will still love us or keep us in His care and never leave us or forsake us.

One of God’s name that He has chosen to reveal Himself by is I AM. That speaks to permanence and unchanging. That is the God of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob. That is the God who became incarnate in the person of Jesus. That is same God from the garden of Eden in Genesis to the heavenly city in Revelation. That is the God I believe in.

Though I may not always understand His ways, I can trust His heart. I may not be able to fathom His actions, but I know everything He does flows from an unchanging and constant character of goodness and love and holiness. I can speak the words of Job, “Though He slay me, I will hope in Him,” because I know He will always act and speak for His glory and my good. Always.