Uncompromised

What We Mean When We Say Family We use the phrase church family so easily, and I have used it myself more times than I can count. But I have been asking lately whether we truly live as though it means what we say it means. Because family does not disappear when it becomes inconvenient. It does not quietly withdraw when someone is no longer in the same season or no longer easy to be around. In a real family, distance does not erase love, and disagreement does not cancel care. And this is true not only within the church walls but inside our own homes. There are families with prodigals, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, spouses, who are alive but far, breathing but distant, once close but now gone in ways that have nothing to do with miles. Some of them walked away from faith altogether. Some never had it. And the temptation, after enough silence or enough rejection, is to quietly let go, to protect yourself, to stop reaching. But our side of it does not change based on their r...

Do the Next Thing As I wrapped up Easter promos for a couple of churches last week, this part of an old Saxon poem came to mind - the one Elisabeth Elliot made famous: "Do the next thing." She didn't mean being busy for the sake of busy. She meant faithfulness. Trust Christ and do the good work in front of you. Active faith, not passive waiting. Just like Psalm 37 teaches. Scripture reminds us: "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Ephesians 2:10 Elisabeth Elliot learned those words from an old Saxon poem found scratched on a wall. Do the next thing. Not the grand thing. Not the perfect thing. Just the next one. She lived that out in some of the hardest circumstances a person can face and came out the other side not bitter but faithful. Because faithfulness isn't a feeling. It's a decision you make before the feeling ever shows up. Nobody feels faithful every day. That's actua...

  More Room for What Matters Spring cleaning. Decluttering. Minimalism. Call it what you want, but what if God is using all of it to teach us something far deeper than a tidy closet? My friends, This morning I stepped outside with my iced coffee (yes, iced!), because it is already warm and glorious here in Mississippi and I am not sorry.  The sun was doing that beautiful thing it does in (almost) spring, the kind of warmth that feels like a exhale after winter. My cat Moe was right there with me, completely unbothered with life... until a squirrel strutted across the fence like he owned the property, and Moe absolutely lost his mind. I laughed out loud, just me, my coffee, and this silly cat. And then, the birds. They were back. I had my app open, identifying them one by one. A Carolina Wren. A mockingbird. A flash of a goldfinch. And something in my chest just settled. That quiet, full-hearted joy that only comes when you notice that life is returning. That new things a...