Rethinking Christian Life

The Deal Breaker: Seeing God’s Hand in the Nevers of Life

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your…

Waiting, Pouring, and Trusting: Finding Your Refuge

When Healing Drags On: Remaining Faithful in the Process

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices! Psalm 37:7 ESV My gaze was drawn to them like a moth to flame and my heart flipped longingly – jealously. They were runners simply going…

Falling and Rising: How to Cling to God in the Dirt

Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. They collapse and fall, but we rise and stand upright. Psalm 20:7-8 ESV Trusting in God’s victory over death and this dark world doesn’t mean that we don’t get dirty from time to time. Since God’s…

Getting a Grip on Grace: How to Rest in God’s Goodness

The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. 1 Timothy 1:15 ESV There is a nagging tape that runs in my head. If people knew the depths of evil inside you…if they knew what you struggle with, the…

What Should Have Been: A Breakfast Mishap, Social Media and Choosing Laughter

I am a pretty good cook. I know my way around the kitchen well. So yesterday when I decided I would use my handy-dandy Tupperware Microwave Breakfast Maker, I figured it would be a snap. I forgot that although I cook well, I lack grace. So when I sloshed the contents of the microwave cooker partially…

Weakness and Strength: How to Let God Redeem Our Weaknesses

For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:10 ESV I hate looking weak and being a 5’3″ woman doesn’t help that perception. Maybe that is why I like martial arts so much. I feel strong,…

How to Keep Our Eyes on Jesus When We Fail, Again

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 1 Peter 2:9 Failure. It is a label I carry around in my heart and mind. One I plaster…

Emotions and Truth: How to Grow Kindness in the Middle of Frustration

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Ephesians 4:32 ESV Tears stung my eyes and anger burned in my chest. I felt wronged and hurt. The hurt gave birth to anger and frustration. All I wanted to do was lash out. My mind reeled with what to say…

The Day After: How to Carry the Wonder of the Resurrection Every Day

I hope you enjoyed my lent devotions. I will be posting three times a week for the foreseeable future. I hope you are challenged, encouraged, and strengthened in your faith as you journey with me through Rethinking My Thinking. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go…

Obedience, Running, and Calling

“So don’t throw away your confidence, which has great reward. For you need endurance, so that after you have done God’s will, you may receive what was promised…But we are not those who draw back and are destroyed, but those who have faith and are saved.” Hebrews 10:35-36 and 39 CSB I’ve been silent for…

A Season of Silence: Experiencing God’s Peace

“Silence is the perfectest herald of joy: I were but little happy, if I could say how much.” -William Shakespeare Much Ado About Nothing Words have been hard for me lately. Silence is easier. I wasn’t so full of joy I could not share like Claudio in the above quote. The big emotions – all of…

The Hope that Does Not Disappoint

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces…

Sovereignty: Three Ways to Trust God When Failure Looms

Last week I watched Clemson trounce Alabama in the NCAA’s Football National Championship game. Clemson was up 31-16 at halftime and never looked back. After a botched fake field goal at the beginning of the third quarter Alabama’s loss seemed imminent. Failure, at least in that game, was coming. Still Alabama did not walk off…

The New, the Not Yet, and the Gone: How to Live Fully When Now is a Struggle

“The struggle is real,” is our snide mantra over laughable “struggles” like not having coffee in the morning. But real struggles do exist. Depression turns just getting out of bed into a war. The struggle for parents to love, guide, discipline, and direct children who want their own way. The battle to overcome addiction. Physical…

Newly Broken: How to Live Fulfilled

2018. A year of breaking. God broke my comfortable world. He called me to teach high school seniors (a leadership class), enroll my kids in the school where I work, and step back into nursing by becoming a school nurse. Nothing felt comfortable. Nothing normal. In the midst of all the change my brokenness became…

Hope and Character: How to Find Lasting Hope

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope… Romans 5:3-4 ESV Character produces hope… I always thought imagination produced hope. Imagination that figures out a way through a difficult situation. Or an imagination that dreams big dreams. But God tells us character…

The Day After: How Hope Changes Everything

But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake…

Depression: How to Explain It to Others

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:18 ESV Looking back I can see it plainly. I was depressed and desperately clinging to my faith. No one from the outside could see it. They knew I injured my foot. They knew my house had to have all the…

New Beginnings: Grace, Growth, and Gratitude

Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:19 ESV God is in the business of doing new things in our lives. Why? For our good and His glory. So that this world…

Rethinking Christian Life

Rethinking Challenges, Rethinking Christian Life, Rethinking Faith

Rethinking Christian Life, Rethinking Hard Times

Rethinking Christian Life, Rethinking Gratitude

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