Long-distance runners have many choices to make when it comes to how they run their races–conditioning, diet, and training to name just a few. But when it comes to the race itself, PACING IS THE KEY. How hard a runner goes out of the starting blocks, and the level of speed early in the race, will largely determine when the runner feels the tape kiss his chest at the finish line. If a runner...

Have you ever had a week where you were crushed when your expectations crashed? Where your idea for how something should go was obliterated? Where your stomach cried out through its piercing ache? This week was that kind of week for me. A week full of excruciating emotional pain. A week that is finally limping away as this Friday yawns against the sun’s rising warmth tapping my shoulder.      All...

Avocados must be harvested every day of the year to satisfy the stratospheric demand. What is not harvested on any given day must be harvested the next day with that day’s harvest. Miss two days and on the third day there are three days of volume to harvest. It’s the law of COMPRESSION. What isn’t done today is pushed to tomorrow and forced into a new, compressed schedule.    com·pres·sion...

When Jesus died and darkness suffocated the land, his followers wondered if their Messiah would rise and rejoin them as he had promised. But for me today, I woke up on this Holy Week’s Sabbath Saturday CERTAIN that he would return. Because HE DID! It is no surprise that his followers were uncertain of his return as he lay in a temporary tomb after completing his mission for mankind. By all outward...

It’s tough to look at Good Friday as a celebration with all of the pain and cruelty Jesus endured on a deadly timber atop Golgatha. All of the optics—at least on the surface—scream bleakness, futility, and hopelessness. But we celebrate anyway because God made these three days that changed the world forever to be a victory march to life.    Though we may be tempted to sugar-coat the Easter...

It’s Holy Thursday and my attention is locked on God’s SERVICE-DRIVEN LOVE. Holy Thursday is yet another opportunity to reflect on the incredible gift Jesus gave us by dying on the Cross. To right our wrongs. Heal the fractures in our soul. And, of course, to pay the ransom for our sins.    But there is so much more.    On this day in this glorious Holy Week, Christians around...

I released control to the dentist. I released control when the plane took off. And I released control when the roller coaster barreled down the track. But I did not release control to God. During this time early in my faith walk, I released nothing. Not the possessions. Not the thoughts. Not the succeed-at-all-costs credo.    And then I read this:    “…whoever wants to be my disciple...

There aren’t many things worse than being BETRAYED. And, in almost every case, the pain transcends the act itself because it brings a passenger along for the ride—feeling vulnerable to being hurt. Betrayal is a TRUST-BUSTER. And the closer we are to the betrayer, the more it hurts to be betrayed and have our trust bond broken.    Jesus knew all about betrayal. The fall of Judas could have...

Godly regret is an all-consuming sadness that pays a visit and pervades our soul when we fall short of the Lord’s standard. It drops a repenting believer to their knees and uncorks a flood of tears tinged with grief.   Real regret, Godly regret, is GOOD because the pain it triggers becomes a “REPENTANCE ALERT.”    That alert should prompt us to ask these questions: Does my repentance...

Holy Week is an opportunity to take our faith beyond the blessing of celebrating the death and resurrection of Jesus on Easter. An opportunity to remember the deity and humanity of Christ. An opportunity to reflect on his character. To make the most of those opportunities, each day during Holy Week I will post a blog to prepare our hearts to receive Christ on Easter Sunday.    This week...