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When Fear Starts Making Decisions in Your Name

  Chapter 1: The Story Your Fear Tries to Tell First A father is packing his daughter's lunch when a message appears from her school: “Please call me when you have a chance.” There is no explanation, only the teacher's name and a phone number. He puts the sandwich down and reads the message again. His daughter seemed quiet at breakfast. Maybe she is having trouble in class. Maybe another child has hurt her feelings. Within a minute, he is considering whether to leave work early, how to question his daughter, and what he will say if the teacher has been unfair. He has almost no information, but his fear has already started making decisions for him. That familiar rush of imagined trouble is one reason I keep returning to Peter walking toward Jesus across the stormy water. The account in Matthew 14 is not merely about an extraordinary miracle. It helps us recognize what happens when a real threat begins to occupy so much of our attention that we lose sight of the next good decisio...
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The Small Steps We Take After Giving Our Worries to Jesus

  Chapter 1: The Door You Still Have to Open She had been sitting in her parked car for ten minutes, watching strangers walk into the community center carrying casserole dishes and folding chairs. A neighbor had invited her to a supper for people who were new to town. She wanted to go, but her hand kept returning to the ignition. For months she had asked Jesus to help her feel less alone. Now, instead of suddenly feeling brave, she was facing an ordinary doorway she would have to open herself. I think many of us know that feeling. We ask God to change something, but when a small opportunity appears, we hesitate because it doesn't look like the answer we imagined. That's one reason I wanted to explore what Mary's response at Cana teaches us about prayer and action in the accompanying YouTube conversation. It also builds on the joy Jesus brought to an ordinary wedding celebration, where a family faced an embarrassing problem and Jesus cared about what was happening. In John 2...
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The Invitation That Brought Happiness Back Into the Room

  Chapter 1: The Text You Almost Didn't Send The message has been sitting on your phone since Tuesday. A neighbor is having a small gathering on Saturday and has asked whether you can come. You type, “Sounds good,” then erase it. You have yard work to finish, bills to sort through, and a dozen reasons to stay home. More than anything, you've gotten used to keeping to yourself. It's easier not to make plans than to explain why you've been so quiet lately. But what if showing up isn't one more demand on your time? What if it's one of the ways God brings some happiness back into your life? That's the part of the wedding at Cana I keep coming back to. Before Jesus changed water into wine, He accepted an invitation. He went where people were gathering to celebrate a marriage. In my companion video about how Jesus brought joy to the wedding at Cana, I talk about what His first miracle reveals about the heart of Christ. Here, I want to explore something we can put ...
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A Promise Kept Before Breakfast: The Everyday Work of Raising Strong Children

  Chapter 1: The Question Before the Car Starts At 6:47 in the morning, a child is standing near the kitchen counter with one shoe on and the other in their hand. Breakfast is getting cold. Somebody is looking for a car key. The day already feels crowded, and the child asks a question that sounds almost too small to interrupt it: “Are you coming today?” Maybe there is a school presentation, a game, or an activity they have practiced for weeks. The child isn't asking for a speech about love. They want to know whether someone will be there. That is the everyday question at the heart of a Christian father's message about showing up for his children: when our children reach for us, what can they reasonably expect to find? I know that question has different answers in different households. Some parents work shifts they cannot change. Some are raising children by themselves, and some are trying to keep the lights on while making decisions that would exhaust anyone. I would never redu...
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