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She Was There Before Anything Changed

  Chapter 1: The Courage It Takes to Show Up Unfinished At 8:40 on Sunday morning, a man sits on the edge of his bed with one shoe on. He has been invited to a small gathering after church, and he wants to go. But the last few weeks have been rough. His back hurts, his energy is low, and he is tired of explaining why he cannot keep up with everybody else. The hardest part is not putting on the second shoe. It is deciding whether he can face another room full of people who seem to be doing fine. I think about that ordinary decision when I read Luke 13:10–17. In the YouTube message about Jesus and the woman bent over for eighteen years, we consider what happened when He noticed her. Here I want to stay with a different part of life: the choices we face before we have any reason to expect things will improve. That question belongs alongside finding courage to keep going through a difficult season. What does faith look like when you cannot bring your best self into the room? Luke tells...
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When You Feel Shut Out of Life, Faith Gives You a Way Forward

  Chapter 1: The Day You Realize You've Started Pulling Away A man sits in his truck outside the grocery store, watching people come and go while trying to decide whether he has the energy to walk inside. Six months ago, he was working full-time, making plans with his family, and enjoying the ordinary freedom of getting through a day without thinking about his health. Now, every trip requires some consideration. His body doesn't cooperate the way it once did, and even simple errands leave him tired. What troubles him most isn't always the physical difficulty. It's the uncomfortable realization that he's gradually stopped accepting invitations, returning phone calls, and making plans. He hasn't intentionally abandoned his relationships. He's simply begun withdrawing because explaining his limitations has become exhausting. I wonder how many people recognize themselves in that experience. Sometimes suffering changes our circumstances, but other times it quietl...
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When You've Apologized but the Damage Is Still There

  Chapter 1: The Hard Work of Becoming Someone Different You finally gather the courage to apologize to someone you hurt. You've thought about the conversation for days, rehearsed what you wanted to say, and promised yourself that you wouldn't make excuses. But when you finish speaking, the other person doesn't respond the way you hoped. They still seem angry. They still remember what happened. And as you walk away, you begin wondering whether anything you've done to change will ever be enough. That is one of the hardest parts of taking responsibility for our mistakes. We want forgiveness to bring immediate relief, but sometimes the consequences of our choices remain long after we've sincerely admitted that we were wrong. This is one reason I've been reflecting on what Jesus teaches us about forgiveness and the woman caught in adultery, an encounter recorded in John 8:1–11. In the accompanying YouTube message, we experience this encounter through the woman's...
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The Permission Bartimaeus Never Needed

  Chapter 1: The Moment You Stop Waiting for Everyone to Understand The cashier tells you that your card has been declined, and suddenly you become aware of everyone standing behind you. You know there should be enough money in the account, but perhaps a payment came through earlier than expected. You try the card again, hoping the transaction will go through. It does not. Now you have a choice. You can quietly leave the groceries behind and figure something out later, or you can ask the cashier to set a few things aside while you check your account. Neither option feels good. What makes the moment difficult is not simply the money. It is the embarrassment of having other people witness your struggle when you would rather keep it private. I think about moments like this whenever I return to the story of Bartimaeus calling out to Jesus for mercy in Mark 10:46–52. Bartimaeus was a blind man who begged beside the road near Jericho. He heard that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by and be...
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When Another Try Feels Like Too Much

  Chapter 1: The Phone Call You Keep Putting Off The phone number is written on the back of a grocery receipt. A man has carried it in his wallet for eleven days because he needs to ask whether the bank will give him more time. Every morning, he tells himself he will call after work. Every evening, he finds one more reason to wait. It is not the conversation that frightens him most. It is the possibility of hearing another no, then having to walk into the living room and tell his family nothing has changed. Sometimes a person does not need another speech about being brave. He needs to know how to take the next step when hope has already cost him so much. That is one reason the account of the woman who suffered with bleeding for twelve years matters beyond the moment of her healing. My companion video, the woman who touched Jesus’ garment and found healing, explores what happened when she finally reached Jesus. Here I want to sit with a practical question that comes before that mome...
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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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