I love watching my son's high school track and field meets. What I do not enjoy is the length of said meets, which are usually over four hours long. Yes, you read that right. I'm also not a huge fan of the cold, which made a recent meet miserable.

Before we celebrate Easter Sunday, we can't overlook that dark Saturday. The day Jesus spent in the tomb was a time of silence, confusion, and waiting. However, during that day, we witness the enduring and steadfast nature of Jesus.

The heart of Jesus beats with a rhythm of mercy that never ceases to amaze. It is one that boldly and without hesitation extended forgiveness even in the face of rejection, hate, and scorn. As Jesus hung on the cross, bloodied and broken, battered and bruised, He cried out, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34). Forgiveness filled His heart - not just for those who had put Him there, but for all who would come to Him seeking forgiveness.

As we continue to explore the heart of Jesus together this Holy Week, we come to a definitive attribute of Jesus – His heart to serve! Pause and consider that Jesus Christ, the Son of God through whom all things were created and in whom all things hold together (Colossians 1:16-17), did not expect to be served by humanity, but rather Jesus served humanity by giving His life as a ransom.

The heart of Jesus beats with a love that is unconditional, sacrificial, and intimately relational. It served as the driving force behind His mission on earth, and His profound desire is to be in a close and personal relationship with each one of us.

On this Tuesday of Holy Week, we continue to explore the heart of Jesus together, and today we actually get to hear Jesus describe His own heart! The passage we just read, Matthew 11:28-29, is the only place in the Bible where Jesus explicitly describes what He is like at His core. Jesus could have used a lot of words to tell us about Himself like powerful, eternal, or wise, but instead Jesus describes His heart as gentle and lowly.

As we begin our journey through Holy Week exploring the heart of Jesus, we lead off with a simple, but profound, message: All are welcome…everyone matters and has value in the Kingdom of God. Throughout His ministry, Jesus demonstrated a compassionate nature that welcomed people from all walks of life. He spent time with the outcasts, the marginalized, and the rejected members of society, showing them love and respect. He ate with sinners, healed the sick, and spoke against injustice.

As a line of cars honked their horns, I realized that my driving career was off to a less than stellar start. The issue at hand was whether I looked at oncoming traffic when attempting to yield. I felt I had (and to this day, I still do), but according to my driving instructor, I had not…

My best friend, Rebecca, and I were heading out of town for a much-needed girls' trip. The excitement was tangible as we jumped in the car! A few hours into the trip, we found ourselves in the middle of nowhere - no houses or buildings and very little traffic.

God doesn’t measure up our faith the way we so often do. All He wants is for us to come to Him, regardless of what burdens we are carrying and what mistakes we’ve made. The foremost measure of our faith is not the amount of scripture we can recite, the percentage of our income we tithe, or the consistency of our church attendance (though these disciplines are extremely important and admirable). The extent of our faith is not based on how well we are “performing” as Christians. The health of our faith is measured by our willingness to lay our soul bare before Him. Faith is at its strongest when we continue to come to His feet, even when we feel hopeless, shattered, and plagued by shame.

“Lord, did I participate well with You?” On Sunday, in our gatherings, we were introduced to this as our prayer for Friday – to seek the Lord, to reflect and to examine our week at its end with this simple, yet specific question.  In our devotional today, Mike will be using the Psalms as a lens for a prayer of confession, as we reflect on our deepest longing to be whole and right before God. 

My world got rocked today. Everything I know is wrong. Since you are wiser than the person wearing the dunce cap (ME), you were probably well aware that it's "for all intents and purposes" and not "for all intensive purposes.”…

Today, let’s focus on eternity. Sounds nice, but this is not going to get the laundry done, the kids to school, the report finished for your boss, or your research paper turned in. Neither will this line of thinking change any of those interruptions and obstacles you are currently facing…

The person in charge of running the meeting was missing in action: no text message, phone call, or email letting us know about his whereabouts. With every minute that ticked off with him still being a no-show, the conversation turned into the legendary college debate…

The other day my wife Jenn and her friend took a day trip to visit (and shop..and shop..) IKEA in Charlotte. The longer it took for her car to pull into the driveway the more I could feel my wallet getting nervous. Fortunate for our budget, she showed amazing restraint by just picking up a few odds and ends…

It’s Wednesday.

The middle we spoke about when we gathered on Sunday.  I invited us then to see Wednesdays as a point of Midweek Connection, a time set aside to reflect on our week so far and to intentionally pursue God’s presence.

I'm not a morning person...at all. Being an "adult," I've learned to adjust out of necessity to kids waking me up from my hibernation or having an early morning work meeting, getting up to exercise, well, not so much…

Living in the suburbs in the 80's, my cul-de-sac served as the activity hub for the neighborhood. Bikes left in the front yard were akin to social media posts that fun was going down. In the warm summer months, we'd play outside from sun up to sun down. Some of the games got quite competitive, especially Tag whenever my friend Keith played…

Don't let my current "dad bod" fool you; I swam competitively for a few years while in high school. Okay, so competitively might be a bit of a stretch to describe my athletic prowess in the water…

The light and the dark. It’s the epic struggle we’ve seen depicted in our stories since the beginning of time. The hero of light struggles against the villain of darkness. We love these stories because they seem to reflect our world. They reflect our own desire that the light will win out over the darkness…