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Learning to Lean Hard–AGAIN
Walking with God. The scriptures talk a lot about how we walk, which is biblical language for how we live. But walking itself, beyond the analogies, has a special meaning to me. As an infant, polio paralyzed me from the waist down, but little baby helper nerve cells sprouted up and gave me some use of my leg back. I needed a full-length brace to be able to stand and walk at all for my first years. And every step of my life has been a rather noticeable limp. So to me, walking = limping. So when I hear words of wisdom like, “Don’t trust any leader who doesn’t walk…
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Walking in the Wilderness
This post was originally published in 2012. But it fits as much today as it did then. I once had a mentor tell me that the lessons of our lives often go in circles, just like Israel wandered a circular path in the wilderness. The older I grow, the more I see the cycles—the same lessons are learned more deeply as we step into new but different places. If you find yourself walking through a wilderness season, take heart. God is using the deeply worn pathways to teach you and take you somewhere good. Forty years—it sounds like an eternity. I’m sure it felt that way for the Israelites too.…
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Confidence Rightly Placed
Recently, I came to the end of my backpacking skills. As I faced terrain that was new and difficult, I found myself desperately depending on the Lord for everything. My fear of slipping, tripping, falling, and even collapsing hurled me at the feet of Jesus. Praying to, singing about, and reflecting on Him enabled me to endure the physical, emotional, and mental challenges. “And He has made my feet like hinds’ feet, and makes me walk on my high places” (Hab 3:19) pounded through my mind and heart multiple times. I wasn’t hiking Mount Everest, but this trail was my high place! Fear is common to humans. Fear can come…
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FORGIVENESS: Forgiven…No Longer Burdened
Like the woman washing Jesus’ feet with her tears in Luke 7, many of us carry the guilt of our sins with us like a heavy burden, weighing us down. The continual reminder of our sins keeps us from experiencing freedom and from enjoying the relationship with God that we have by faith in Jesus Christ. We don’t just need a teacher. We need a Savior who comes in and does for us what we can’t do for ourselves: forgiveness. All of our debt of sin before God is enormous; we are incapable of ever paying it back. You and I need to understand how complete and continual is God’s…
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Is God Holding Out on Me?
My one-year-old sits in his highchair, cramming watermelon into his mouth. He can’t get it in fast enough. In between bites, he fusses. If there’s not a spare piece or two waiting on his tray, he complains. Despite the fact that we generally give him as much watermelon as he wants, he still fears a shortage. As I watch the scene unfold over lunch, it hits me. My son thinks I’m holding out on him. And in a sense, I am. I don’t want him to fill his mouth so full of watermelon that he chokes. So I give him a piece or two at a time—then wait for him…
