As I wrap up my month of November and the writing competition of NanoWrimo, first one has been quite an experience let me tell you. Anyway, I have been honored to have my blog taken over once again this time by my friend with a voice like the angels, Jordan Fortenboher. Jordan is a wife, soon-to-be-mom, blogger, and singer-songwriter. Her goal is to share hope with the world by writing honestly about her struggle with anxiety and how God is carrying her through it. You can read more of her writing or check out her music (including her latest album!) at http://jordanforty.com. You can also connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28, NIV) Sometimes, really hard things happen. Over and over, we see both worldwide and personal tragedies, struggles, and hardships. It can be easy to think life is cruel, especially in seasons when it seems like we deal with trial after trial after trial. Those difficult seasons are often when we wrestle with deep tensions: Is God really good? Why do bad things happen? Is God really Sovereign? Is He intervening, even when it doesn’t look like He is? In the middle of my own struggles, I’ve found myself wrestling with those questions and begging God to reveal why He would allow bad things to happen. And the verse above, Romans 8:28, was starting to bother […]

Read More

It is not often that a topic keeps showing up no matter how often I ignore it. Lately however I have been hounded by the story of the prodigal. Anyone that knows a little bit about scripture has surely heard the parable. Unknowingly I had heard it but never fully understood it until recently. Growing up I was like many kids my age, a bit rebellious and all kinds of a know it all. After spending years having religion shoved down my throat, I began to stray. I got involved with what some would say (my mother especially ) were the rif raff or troublemakers. More than once I was called a prodigal or heard comments like “the prodigal son returns” after a late night or rowdy weekend. I thought it as an annoying term that my mom liked to throw around, never realizing we all are prodigals. We get so wrapped up in worldly things we begin to separate ourselves from our Father. Just as in the Bible we get so busy chasing our dreams, our jobs, our lives, we run from our Father. He patiently waits for our return, praying, hoping, longing for us to run back to Him. We feel we have gone so far astray that we no longer deserve His love, therefore we can never return. All the while if we just turn around he is waiting for us with arms wide open. Don’t buy the lie “it’s as good as it gets” Click To Tweet Wherever you are, no […]

Read More

It had been raining for two days straight with the New Year upon us and the coldest weather of the season moving in, all anyone wanted was to get home.  I walked my normal route out of the office to my truck, letting the day’s events fall out of my mind so I did not bring them home.  As I started to turn towards the lot where my truck sat waiting peacefully for me to get in out of the rain, something no someone caught my eye. He walked towards me in the rain, slowly, as if he was unsure whether to cross my path, turn down the side street or even turn around.  Instantly, as I have many times in the past in our city my mind started to prejudge, thinking of ways to avoid eye contact much less conversation, where is my wallet is it secure, I am out here by myself with this guy, what should I do?  Then it happened as it has many times before; he raised his head from under his rain jacket and with eyes full of hurt and pain asked me “can you help me?’” By general rule, I do not give to people on the street, at least not money for we all know where that goes right?  For some reason this time felt different, I casually replied, “Sure, let me see how much I have in my truck”.  He followed behind me, not too close to be intrusive, but enough to make known that he […]

Read More