On Suffering

Life in this world guarantees us three things: taxes, suffering, and death. Of course, there are seasons of happiness and times of celebration, and some have more of the happy times than the sad. Yet, no one escapes the hard times. The hardest thing I think any of us have to do in life is sit by and watch someone else suffer. Usually we can justify our own suffering in some manner or another, but watching someone else suffer as we sit there powerless to stop it is much, much harder.
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Run Forward

We’ve been trying to find a new church home since moving a couple of months ago. This journey has taken us to one of the Community Life campuses the past couple of weeks. I’m not sure whether we’ll land there for good yet, but we seem to have jumped in for part of their Detour series covering the time the Israelites spent in the wilderness just after God sent Moses to lead them out of Egypt. Which, in all honesty, is right where I am. But that’s another story for another day. During worship today, I kept having Galatians 5:1 run through my head.

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

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Sin, Grace, and Donuts

I woke up to my alarm Sunday morning after staying up too late on Saturday night, and after having a really weird dream about my new truck continuously dying on me. In my sleepiness I concluded that this must mean that I should drive the truck to church that day. I went back to sleep and thought that at least today would be a good day to get donuts with the boys. Calvin and Joseph finally came in and woke me up at some point. I was super excited to get dressed and surprise them. I got up and hustled to get ready. Then I called the boys back to their rooms to get them dressed. Joseph didn’t exactly listen, being the stubborn two year old that he is while remaining completely adorable. So I walked into the living room and that’s when I saw it! The chair pushed up to the counter. The chocolate smudges around Joseph’s lips. His older brother nowhere to be found because he knew he was going to be in trouble. The boys got into their momma’s chocolate candies while we were asleep. I. Was. LIVID!
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life: unmasked – Daily Bread

Life: UnmaskedSeveral years ago, I started being more authentic on the blog, and started sharing about life: unmasked, in which I share some of my struggles, questions, and failures. I may link up with other bloggers or I’ll just do it on my own. Either way, I feel it’s important to live and write unmasked
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Racial Supremacy, Brokenness, and a Better Leader

In the wake of the alt-right, white supremacist, outright insanity that took place in Charlottesville, VA over this past weekend I have gone through a litany of emotions and responses. I have been angry – no, outraged at the sheer audacity of these fools carrying a flag that our grandfathers and great-grandfathers sacrificed life and limb to wage war against. I’ve been stupefied at our President’s absolutely useless response, and even more so at Robert Jeffress’s almost complete silence concerning this overt display of hatred and all that is anti-gospel. I have been saddened that our country’s form of government allows as freedom of speech/expression a flag that has been outlawed in Germany. Now? Now I’m just broken.
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