DAY 23 "Calendars can con: there are really only as many days left as you actually really live. In the end, everyone ends up at the length of their lives—but only a few live the whole width of a life." (Ann Voskamp) How can sixty ticks on a clock face vary so widely (depending on... Continue Reading →

DAY 22 "But you don't understand—I've never been creative a day in my life!" In case you've held this constricting belief, either making sad peace with it or growing resentment because of it, lean in and let me gently tell you that you've simply not realized how you've been creative. Probably every day of your... Continue Reading →

Can you even believe it? Week 3, done! If you want to explore any of the subjects we've dealt with in the past few days at a deeper level, I've got tons of goodies lined up for you. Have fun! Spiritual Gifts: In case you don't yet have Craig Groeschel's Chazown on your reading list... Continue Reading →

DAY 21 The lives of husbands (and wives and kids and siblings and friends) across America changed forever in 1995. Why? A pastor in North Carolina published his unique idea that we all "speak" love in different ways. Gary Chapman's The Five Love Languages says that whether you're a quality time person, an acts of... Continue Reading →

DAY 20 "If I have only an hour with someone, I will spend the first 55 minutes asking them questions and finding out what is troubling their heart and mind, and then in the last five minutes I will share something of the truth." (Francis Schaeffer) It's easy to underestimate (and hard to overstate) the... Continue Reading →

DAY 19 Empty. What comes to mind when you think about that word? Is it a dry glass? An abandoned house? Your growling stomach? Hollow people with no hope in their eyes? Sit with empty for a minute; turn it over in your heart and see how it feels. For most people, empty is full—full... Continue Reading →

DAY 18 I've heard it said that true community is the greatest fear and deepest longing of every human heart. Talk about a love-hate relationship! This business of knowing and being known, seeing and being seen—it's messy. It's inconvenient. It's terrifying. It's what we're made for. When it comes to human interaction, we all fall... Continue Reading →

DAY 17 I'll let you in on a little-known fact. Lean in close. Ready? We all have a secret side hustle: every person on the planet is a blacksmith at heart. According to John Calvin, "The human mind is, so to speak, a perpetual forge of idols... Stuffed as it is with presumptuous rashness, [it]... Continue Reading →

DAY 16 "Repent and believe in the gospel, Jesus says. Turn around and believe that the good news that we are loved is better than we ever dared hope, and that to believe in that good news, to live out of it and toward it, to be in love with that good news, is of... Continue Reading →

DAY 15 One of my favorite things about fairy tales is the custom of giving gifts at birth—Hercules received Pegasus, Aurora was granted beauty and song, and Ella, poor thing, got stuck with the "gift" of obedience. (I'd be partial to an overactive metabolism, but, hey...) As our hearts are brought to life in the... Continue Reading →