Uncompromised

  I See You When God's Love Doesn't Look Like We Expected I see you. I see you showing up when you would rather stay in bed. I see you smiling in the church lobby while carrying something no one in that lobby knows about. I see you praying the same prayer for the hundredth time, wondering if heaven is still listening. I see you sitting with a diagnosis you didn't ask for, a marriage that feels harder than it should, a child who is struggling, a dream that quietly died, or a hundred small griefs that piled up until they became one very heavy thing. You are doing the hardest kind of faithful. The kind no one applauds. The kind that just keeps going. And somewhere in the middle of it, you have probably whispered a version of this prayer: "Lord, I know You are good. I just don't understand what You are doing." Friend, I want to sit with you here for a while. Not to explain your pain away. Not to hand you a verse and walk off. I want to open Scripture with yo...

El Roi: The God Who Sees Me  Life feels heavy sometimes, doesn’t it? Disappointment, grief, betrayal, they press down on us, making it hard to take the next step. Some of the deepest wounds come from those we trust most. People we cherished and believed in can turn against us, creating false narratives that feel impossible to untangle. And yet, I know I’m not alone in this. These past few weeks, my heart has carried much. They’re the kind of burdens I used to share with my mom. We’d pray together, and she always had a timely word from the Lord, a verse to meditate on, a prayer to lift me up. But she’s not here anymore, and oh, how I miss her. She knew me well. She knew my husband well. She knew our hearts and loved us deeply. That kind of love is rare, and I don’t take it for granted. While the world looks at the exterior, God looks at the heart. “Man does not see what the LORD sees, for man sees what is visible, but the LORD sees the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). He is always seeking he...