Uncompromised

  Clothed With Strength and Dignity "She is clothed with strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future." Proverbs 31:25 I've been receiving private messages and emails from several ladies this week, and it's been striking how many of us landed in the same place. Afraid of the future. Not having a plan. Not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Or just not being satisfied with where they are right now. Different situations, different stories, but the same weight underneath. Marriage. Ministry. Family. People we love. Things we can't fix. Things we wish we could change. Things we don't understand. And, of course, the future. That word can carry a lot of weight, can't it? Sometimes we look ahead with excitement, and other times, if we're honest, we look ahead with a knot in our stomach. What if this happens? What if things don't work out? What if something changes? What if I can't handle what comes next? What if the thin...

The Youngest of the Old People?! Hello, friends! If you have ever tried to juggle a ministry, a business, a house, and a rebellious set of joints all at the same time, you know that sometimes life requires running in circles. My strategy when I have a mountain of tasks is exactly that: running in circles. If I stick to just one thing, I get stuck, so I bounce from project to project. And between tasks? My secret to resetting my brain is a little bit of cleaning. Now, let's be very clear: I am no neat freak. But a little vacuuming here, a small surface wiped down, it clears the mental cache. There's a verse about toil having its rewards, though I suspect Solomon wasn't picturing a cat hair-free zone and a dodged inbox. Which is a cute strategy, until your body stages a rebellion. This past month, my cleaning and task-jumping came to a screeching halt. Between walking too much at the convention in Orlando, my ankle flared up so badly I could barely walk. Thankfully, I had ...

  What If They Don't Need Our Stuff? As Christians, or even just as people who go to church, I think there's one thing we can all agree on: missions matter. Short-term or long-term, missionaries usually have our hearts, our prayers, and our financial support. And rightly so. They're doing important work, going where many of us will never go, learning languages we may never speak, living in cultures very different from our own, and sharing the Gospel. So, kudos to all the missionaries out there. Seriously. And let me say this too: not only IMB missionaries are "real missionaries." I once heard a Baptist pastor say something along those lines, and honestly, it bothered me. The Great Commission belongs to Christ, not to one denomination. Jesus didn't say, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, as long as they belong to our denomination." He said, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19). All nations. Not j...