When I recently read Heather Holleman’s Elita Brown series for young readers, it reminded me of an article I shared a few years ago. I confessed that I used to feel like God played musical chairs. Do you remember the game? Everyone circles a row of chairs while the music plays, knowing there is one less chair than people. Suddenly, the music stops, and everyone scrambles. Someone always ends up without a seat.
I recently read Shannon Popkin’s book from Moody Publishers called Kinda Judgy, and I have to admit I was immediately convicted. I knew I could be judgmental at times. I mean, we all know that about ourselves, right? But I don’t think I had really stopped to consider how often it happens. As I read…
In the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus is quoted saying the following: In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again…
Every day, whether we realize it or not, we magnify something. We magnify our accomplishments, worries, disappointments, dreams. We might magnify our schedules, our opinions, or the judgments of others, or maybe even our fears.. The question isn’t whether we’ll magnify something. The question is what—or more importantly, Who—will become greatest in our eyes. That was the heart of…
There are seasons of life when we desperately want God to change our circumstances. We pray for healing. We ask Him to open doors. We plead for answers, and we long for relief. And sometimes He allows the circumstances to persist. Does that mean He’s aloof? Uninterested? Unwilling? Not at all. Instead, God is demonstrating…
Most of us don’t volunteer for the wilderness. We don’t ask for seasons of uncertainty, waiting, disappointment, or unanswered questions. We’d much rather skip ahead to the Promised Land than wander through the desert. Yet, throughout Scripture, God repeatedly chooses the wilderness as the place where He reveals Himself most clearly. That was one of…
What happens when we honestly confront our tendency to judge others—and ourselves? This summer at The Sublime Soirée Podcast from You’re Invited Ministries, we are thrilled to welcome author and speaker Shannon Popkin to the soirée table for a meaningful conversation around her powerful book, Kinda Judgy: Finding Mercy for Myself and Others in Six Stories of the Bible….
Oh friends, do you ever find yourself awake in the wee hours of the morning, thinking, processing, and mulling over the situations in your life? Last night was one of those nights. Throughout the day, a series of significant events left my heart restless. I finally got out of bed around 5 a.m. to sit…
As some of you have learned from reading our book or following our social media, our family has walked through a circumstance no one wants to experience, yet too many have. We lost our 25-year-old son, Noah, in June 2021 to the ravages of the fentanyl epidemic. The days, weeks, and months following his death…
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