As we approach 2025, I want to present you with a counterintuitive challenge: What if your focus for the new year was NOT on achieving SUCCESS—by any definition–but on embracing SURRENDER? WHY? God values surrender over success. Obedience over excellence. Trust over triumph. It’s that simple. The relentless pursuit of worldly success can drain and enslave our souls. And sustain that chase...

This just in from our global online tribe: There are so many things to do in the Christmas season that I am wound up like the toys I just bought my kids. HOW CAN I FIND COMFORT THIS CHRISTMAS?” Let’s start with the FOUNDATION of Christmas before we get to COMFORT. Christmas is about the birth of Christ—the arrival of the prophesied Messiah, the Lord in human flesh, and the promise of HOPE for the...

Going “OFF-GRID” is circling the globe like a CAT 5 hurricane. Many of these “off-gridders” are motivated to escape the pervasive power of digital distractions and endless stream of screens loaded with messages cascading down from a distant and unknown cloud in the sky. The platforms are multiplying like rabbits. They will never stop coming and neither will the cacophony of noise raining down from...

As 2024 winds down, I find myself wrestling with a piercing question: Will Christ be my North Star in 2025? This isn’t a new metaphor. The North Star has guided travelers for centuries, offering a fixed point to navigate through uncertainty. But right now, as we prepare to step into 2025—a time of rapid change, cultural shifts, and digital distractions—the question feels more urgent. Maybe God is...

Would your faith increase or decrease if you knew your future? That’s a question I wrestle with during my year-end Faith Inventory each December. Reflecting on it this morning, I prayed: “Lord, I want my faith to be Spiritually Indifferent about the FUTURE so I can freely respond to your call on my life TODAY.” Here’s what Webster says about indifference: in·dif·fer·ent = having no particular interest;...

As 2024 winds down, do you find yourself looking back with a sigh, wishing some moments had played out differently? Maybe it’s a missed opportunity, a fractured relationship, or a word you desperately wish you could take back. Regrets are part of life on planet earth. But they don’t have to define us. This question came to me during my year-end FAITH INVENTORY as the calendar flipped to December over...

It’s THANKSGIVING 2024 and Christians across the USA are expressing gratitude to God for his countless blessings. That’s wonderful! But have you ever considered that Thanksgiving is not just a yearly event or obligation? It’s an invitation—a call to embrace a transformational lifestyle that glorifies God and fills us with JOY. For many, Thanksgiving feels like checking a box: “God is so good to me,...

Everyone wants to experience the spine-tingling and euphoric RAIN OF JOY in their life. Sounds easy, right? So what’s the problem? Why does the world seem, largely, joyless and incapable of finding its elusive destination? And why in the world do so many Christians struggle mightily to understand the meaning of joy and search unsuccessfully for the pathway to its well of wonder? I vividly remember...

I was flooded this past weekend with thoughts about UNCERTAINTY and RISK. But that is NOT a bad thing. In fact, I call this GLORIOUS UNCERTAINTY. And RISK is a big part of its story. It’s easy to be confused about God’s interest in our risk-taking. But taking risks in this context has nothing to do with our manufactured calculations or risky schemes. The risk that God promises to help us...

I often get asked, “Mark, how do I know when I’m genuinely sad versus when I’m wallowing in self-pity?” And lately, there’s a second question that comes along on the self-pity ride: “How do I keep from becoming cynical?” It’s no surprise these questions come up together—they both reveal a growing sense of defeat that so many believers wrestle with today. These mindsets—self-pity and cynicism—may...