God cares for you enough to never waste your pain. A good friend recently told me that he hopes God can use his past, pain included. I assured him that this is God’s precise plan. God never lets our pain go to waste. Pain is what C.S. Lewis called “God’s great unwanted gift.” Remember a…
Two philosophers went on a camping trip. Tucked away in their sleeping bags for the night, one of them asked the other, “When you look up, what do you see?” His buddy said, “I see thousands of stars.” “And what is the deeper meaning of that to you?” “I think it means somebody stole our…
“He has a good heart.” We hear that a lot. But is it the “heart” that really matters? Said another way, if the heart is good, but our actions don’t align with the desires of our heart, what good is it? We find this revealing description of a little-known king named Asa. “The high places…
President Hubert Hoover died at the age of 90, on October 20, 1964, in his apartment in New York City. The next five days, leading to his burial, were rather typical for a former president. Until one thing. At the burial site five days later, there was one aberration from every other presidential burial in…
Gunsmoke was the greatest western in television history. And Matt Dillon was the best U.S. Marshal ever. But during his 20-year career, Matt was shot 56 times, knocked unconscious 29 times, stabbed three times, and poisoned once. Imagine getting nearly killed on the job nearly five times a year for 20 years. And you think…
Larry and Henry were two 80-year-old friends who met for lunch the first Monday of each month. One day, before they even sat down at the table, Larry turned to Henry with a question. “Who was that cute girl I saw you with at church yesterday?” Henry: “That ‘cute girl’ is my new wife.” Larry:…
Let’s play music trivia. Who was the first American Idol winner? Whom did Paul McCartney credit for teaching him everything he knew? Who was the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Who is the only country artist to have a Top-20 hit for six consecutive decades? What was Elvis Presley’s…
We say, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” But no one really eats an apple a day. We say a lot of things – we’re going to join a gym, eat healthy, or spend less time playing silly video games. Many of us say we love our church, but a smaller percentage of…
When God told Gideon to lead his people to victory over the Midianites, Gideon complained that he was the weakest man in the weakest family in the weakest tribe of Israel. Gideon essentially said, “Get someone else!” To that, God said, “Go in the strength you already have” (Judges 6:14). That is life-changing. “Go in…
Hard times are a part of life. And they are certainly a part of recovery. I love this quote I came across the other day: “Laughter means nothing unless there have been tears” (Jack Hyles). Often, these tears are the result of bad decisions. A study cited by Psychology Today found that most people fail…