All In A Days Grace

In between writing my Sunday message and my Ash Wednesday service, I finally had time to get outside and assess the damage to my garden from the "historical" Florida frost. The evaluation was worse than I had imagined. Our rubber tree plant hung solemn in the warm morning sun—less of a proud tropical statement and more of a cautionary tale. The flowers that had once stood straight and proud were now shriveled and fallen, looking remarkably like they had already undergone their own private Ash Wednesday service without waiting for the rest of us. This front garden had been in the making for almost two years. Two years of planting, moving things, weeding, and coaxing life out of the dirt. And now, in a single night, it had been seemingly reduced to dust. The irony of the moment wasn’t lost on me. I had literally just been typing the words "to dust you shall return" as we call ourselves to repentance and surrender. I was sitting in the Scriptures, thinking about...

  The season of Lent is often described as a forty-day journey into the wilderness. Far from being a mere liturgical formality or a hollow religious tradition, it is a purposeful season of preparation and repentance. It is a time when the believer intentionally slows down to behold the weight of the cross and the gravity of the Gospel. To truly understand Lent is to recognize a fundamental spiritual truth: the joy of the empty tomb is only as deep as our realization of why that tomb was necessary in the first place. At the core of the Lenten season lies the cry of the prophets: a persistent, divine call to return to the Lord. In the Old Testament, repentance was frequently marked by outward signs—sackcloth and ashes—intended to reflect an inward breaking. However, the Word of God makes it clear that the external ritual is secondary to the internal reality. In Joel 2:12-13, the Lord declares: "Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and w...

For most of us, the arrival of Christmas is a highly anticipated event. We see the calendars turn, the lights go up, and the music begin. We prepare our homes, our schedules, and our budgets. We thrive on the predictability of the season.  Yet, the historical reality of the first Christmas was anything but predictable. For the two people at the center of the story, the first Christmas didn't arrive with a planned celebration—it arrived as a massive, life-altering interruption. The Interruption of a Young Woman’s Future Mary was a young woman with a clear path ahead of her. She was engaged to Joseph, likely focused on the domestic preparations common to any bride-to-be. Her life was orderly until the moment Heaven intervened. The angel Gabriel’s visit in Luke 1:30–31  was the ultimate disruption:   "Don’t be afraid, Mary," the angel told her, "for you have found favor with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus." This wa...

  Let's talk about thankfulness, but let’s talk about it honestly. It's easy for us—especially those of us in faith communities—to throw around phrases like "just be grateful" or "count your blessings." But let’s be real: sometimes life knocks the wind right out of you, and in those moments, the thought of being thankful feels like a bridge too far. Sometimes, we’re dealing with circumstances so heavy—grief, chronic pain, deep injustice, or unrelenting anxiety—that gratitude feels like a spiritual requirement we simply cannot meet. We need to acknowledge a critical truth: being thankful is not always easy, and it definitely does not solve every problem or instantly erase the pain. The Reality Check: Thankfulness Doesn't Mean Instant Easy When we choose gratitude in the midst of true hardship, we are not pretending the hardship doesn't exist. We are not saying, "This financial crisis is fine!" or "This grief doesn't hurt!...

  Forgiveness is a cornerstone of the Christian faith, yet it's often one of the most difficult and challenging commands to obey. The act of letting go of a hurt, a betrayal, or an injustice can feel contrary to our natural human impulse for retribution. We are frequently taught that to forgive is a sign of great strength, but from a biblical perspective, the strength required for true forgiveness is not our own. It is a supernatural act made possible only through the grace and power of God working within us. The Bible makes it abundantly clear that forgiveness is not an optional act for believers. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus links our ability to be forgiven by God directly to our willingness to forgive others. "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses" (Matthew 6:14-15). This is echoed by the Apostle Paul, who encourages...

    The promise contained within the verses of 1 John 5:14-15 appears, at first glance, to be a Christian's ultimate prayer "get out of jail free" card. The New Living Translation states it with remarkable clarity: “And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for.” On the surface, these words suggest a divine guarantee: ask and you shall receive. Yet, for countless believers, this passage has been a source of profound frustration and doubt. They have prayed for jobs, for healing, for relationships to be restored, and for financial burdens to be lifted, only to be met with silence or a definitive "no." This apparent contradiction between the divine promise and the human experience can leave people feeling that their faith is inadequate, that God is distant, or that the Bible is a collection of impossible promises. However...