There is a question worth sitting with for a moment before reading any further. When Jesus tells His disciples in Mark 9:35 that whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all, what do you instinctively think He means?Most of us, if we are honest, land somewhere in the neighborhood of philanthropy. We think of giving generously, volunteering our time, meeting the needs of the poo...  Read More

There is a moment in Mark 9 that stops you cold if you read it carefully enough. A desperate father has carried his suffering son to Jesus, watching the boy convulse and foam and fall into fires and water, always on the edge of destruction. The disciples have already tried and failed to help. The scribes are arguing. The crowd is restless. And this father, exhausted and barely holding together, sa...  Read More

There is something about mountains that stops us in our tracks. Whether you are standing at the base looking up or perched at the summit looking down, mountains have a way of making human beings feel appropriately small. You have to lift your eyes to take them in. Something in that posture — head raised, gaze extended upward — prepares the heart to receive something larger than itself.It may be no...  Read More

There is a question that cuts through every distraction, every excuse, and every comfortable assumption we carry about our lives. It is not a question about career or family or finances. It is a question about eternity. And it was asked by Jesus of Nazareth on a dusty road heading north toward Caesarea Philippi roughly two thousand years ago. The question has never stopped being asked. It is being...  Read More

There is a particular kind of wonder that comes with seeing the world clearly for the first time. Imagine spending years looking at trees and seeing only vague, shapeless masses of green, and then one day discovering that trees have individual leaves — each one distinct, each one detailed, each one part of a larger and more beautiful whole than you ever knew existed. That kind of moment does not l...  Read More

There is a moment most of us know well. The phone rings with bad news. The diagnosis comes back worse than expected. A relationship fractures. A career collapses. Or perhaps it is something smaller but no less real — a temptation that has followed you for years, a conflict that will not resolve, an anxiety that will not quiet. In that moment, when the pressure mounts and the mind races, what do yo...  Read More