I often dream that I am tagging along behind Jesus, longing for Him to choose me as one of his disciples. Then, without warning, he turns around, looks straight into my eyes and says “Follow me.” My heart races and I begin to run toward him, when he interrupts with “Oh, not you, the other guy. Sorry.'”— Mike YaconelliToo many times in my life, I have shouldered a task, believing that I was the only one who could get it... Read more
My grandfather was a gardener extraordinaire. But he was no lightweight. He was a salty man, rough and tumble, his character formed on the high seas as a member of the merchant marines. He had been in fights in every port and knew how to bang a few trashcans. But the man knew how to garden. There’s an amazing transformation that happens to a person when they take seed to soil. It’s a perfect picture of hope and faith, work... Read more
She might be only 20 years old, but Pompano Beach, Fla., store manager Nayara Goncalves has the heart of a lion. A man walked into her store and pulled out a gun. Instead of screaming, she calmly said, “I’m going to talk to you about the Jesus I have.” (Watch the ABC News video here) The man reasoned that he need money for his rent, as he faced evicition. But Nayara continued to share her faith with the masked man.... Read more
You can’t have that out in plain sight,” the woman said to me. Her hair was pulled so tight it tugged on her eyes. “Someone might get offended.” She then whirled around and walked away, her clackety-clack shoes echoing against the tile floor. What offended her was the book with an obviously Christian title in my hand on the way out to lunch. Shocked as much by her bold intrusion into my reading habits as I was by her pronouncement,... Read more
Justin David Buzzard is a pastor in the San Francisco Bay Area. He wrote an interesting post about how he has built his ministry by doing to the places where the men of his church work. He calls it “the most important thing he has done in his ministry.” “It showed them that I care about their callings, how they spend 50+ hours of their week, and the people they work with,” he writes. Pastor Buzzard admits that it he... Read more
We live in the generation of Right Now. We want everything quickly — Instant credit, fast food, instant news. We’ve been raised on 30 second commercials and 140-character status updates. We simply don’t have attention for anything that takes a long time. Watch how people fidget in the grocery store line, at the Post Office, or at a red light. We are an impatient people. But discipleship is a long endeavor, not a quick fix. Character growth with God is like... Read more
“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world” C.S. Lewis Please, share with a friend if you feel moved. Read all past issues at http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davidrupert Read more
In this life, we are all really fellow farmers, working toward producing good crops. We might not be in the fields, but we are in the factories and office buildings, retail stores and homes, putting out a product. Metaphorically, none of us wants bad fruit. Nobody wants the bad produce of a harvest gone wrong. I have spent a lifetime building my character, disciplining my thoughts and trying to make the right choices, but still, I don’t always turn out the best... Read more
Like you, I’ve been knocked down many times in the past. With the wind pulled out of my sails, all progress just stopped. So I floundered. Wondering. Waiting. Wasting days, months and years. It seems like I’ve spent half my life, sitting around, waiting for instructions. I’ve called it “recovery mode,” but really I was just feeling sorry for myself. That’s no way to live. I read about Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus. He had been furiously opposed... Read more
We all hear voices. That’s why therapists, counselors and clergy have no shortage of work. We hear voices from our past: Teachers, preachers, and parents told us what to do. They weren’t always nice about it. Then there are the voices from cynics, critics and doubters whose disbelief in us still rings in our ears. And then there are the voices calling out our names today. Somewhere in the din is the voice of God. I heard it. Not just... Read more
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