An old regulation from the era when most people traveled by train included this puzzling requirement: “When two trains approach a crossing both shall stop, and neither shall go ahead until the other has passed by.” The long-ago rule is, of course, a prescription for neither movement nor change. But it sounds just like the ways we all behave when we find ourselves in conflict with someone: neither of us will move until the other has moved first. Nations face off with arsenals of bristling armamen...
Dec 05, 2024•2 min•Ep. 456
It is likely the oldest question humanity has ever asked: “What must we do to perform the works of God?” And for millennia, honest, searching people have provided their own answers to the question. Magnificent temples and cathedrals have been built; exquisite liturgies have been composed; amazing acts of kindness have unfolded—all in the hope God would be pleased with the work, the toil, the effort, the prayers. But when the question was put to the One whom the Bible calls the Son of God, “Jesus...
Nov 29, 2024•2 min•Ep. 455
“Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul.” The poet’s words from long ago ring true each dawn. It may be finches perching on the feeder; it might be pigeons cooing on some ledge; it could be sparrows clustered on an edge. But somehow, with the rising light, our spirits rise as we discover that God’s world is moving, warming, singing once again. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5). Against the midnight of our fears, we hear the Love...
Nov 21, 2024•2 min•Ep. 454
We are not alone . . . Depending on how you see the universe, that thought could bring you comfort—or deep terror. If you view everything beyond your fence as threat, as something to be feared, you’ll spend your days defending only what you already have and what you’ve previously learned. But if, through grace, you can be open to a world where love and beauty grow and blossom, you will taste joy—the joy for which God made you. “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good...
Nov 14, 2024•2 min•Ep. 453
The mystery is that grace still finds us, hidden well beneath the cellar stairs—angry, broken, sinful, sad. When we’ve crawled into our painful cave to lick our wounds or plot revenge, we hear the footsteps on the stair. We hear the sound of Jesus’ gentle laughter: “You can stop being afraid now. All-y, all-y—yes—in free!” The games are finally over. When grace comes seeking you, there’s no more need to hide. What’s wounded starts to heal. Your past all gets forgiven. The lonely all get friended...
Nov 07, 2024•1 min•Ep. 452
Nothing in all the world is as wonderful as a gift. It may be the sunrise, wrapped in rose and gold, delivered to our eastern window. It may be the stick-figure drawing by a three year-old that bears the ribbon, “I love you, Mommy.” It may be the unexpected offer of the trip we’ve always dreamed of, to that place we sense has always been our home. Gifts make us conscious of the love beyond ourselves—the deep, rich kindness in the heart of God. “For there is no distinction, since all have sinned ...
Oct 31, 2024•2 min•Ep. 451
As four-year olds, we squabble over things we say that we deserve—first down the slide; the largest piece of chocolate cake; the undivided attention of our parents. At fourteen, we insist that we deserve at least what others have—a new smartphone; the latest gaming platform; a curfew later than our siblings. By 44, we vie for corner offices; subordinates who do our bidding; a happiness we assume is ours by right or through hard work. But in our hearts, we know the truth: we don’t want what our l...
Oct 24, 2024•2 min•Ep. 450
Before we ever learn to speak or find some syllables of thought, we learn that how we’re loved depends on how we live. As infants, we adapted to what brought us comfort and attention. As teens, we found affection best by mimicking what offered hope of friendship. And though we’ve grown in years and size, we still build contracts meant to bring us love. The world teaches us that love comes with conditions. Just here the gospel shines so bright: “But because of His great love for us, God, who is r...
Oct 17, 2024•2 min•Ep. 449
Every day beside the Jordan, can you hear the “hallelujahs”? Can you hear the joy of angels in their vast, euphoric choir as you give your life—again—to Jesus and walk down into the water? Can you feel the hug of heaven as you leave your past behind you—leave your sins and all your merits, held by grace and grace alone? Can you hear the words cascading: “This one’s Mine, My lovely child, of whom I’m so greatly proud”? Do you sense the great affection of the Father who will not be turned away by ...
Oct 10, 2024•2 min•Ep. 448
Grace is rarely just a moment; more often, a long season; and ideally, your forever reality. We focus on the moment when a person comes to faith in Christ as though that were the starting of the story: “I was saved at 6:14 p.m., on Sunday night, May 5.” But we at length discover how our eyes were truly opened—how the Spirit had been softening our hearts, erasing our old prejudices, and nudging us toward faith—all to bring about that moment of decision. All that God did was surely grace—before we...
Oct 03, 2024•2 min•Ep. 447
We search for friends with whom to share the deepest joys we know. Our happiness is multiplied by those who join our gladness. But friendship rests on more than witty fun or shared experience. We form a kind of covenant that pledges virtues we can’t naturally produce: “I’ll stay with you through hard times. I’ll hear you when you’re sad. I’ll walk with you in silence—when you need no extra words.” These are the qualities of grace—a grace we only learn by witnessing the love that comes from God. ...
Sep 26, 2024•2 min•Ep. 446
At least once a day, we want the truth about ourselves. Whether it’s that first, unflattering glimpse of pajamas and tousled hair, or that last, nervous glance in the office washroom before the big job interview, we rely on mirrors to give us unflinchingly honest reflections of what we really look like. A mirror that doesn’t reflect reality evokes laughter at a carnival or praises some vain fairytale character. God has a mirror too, and He offers it so we can learn the truth about our real condi...
Sep 19, 2024•2 min•Ep. 445
Fear builds around us prisons only we can see. We peer out through the bars of damaged memories and foolish choices—walled in by concrete years of dark regrets. And we assume the sentence is for life. But then one day there is a rattling at the door; keys open up a rusty lock. The cell in which we kept ourselves more rigidly than any jail is opened by a word of grace. “Your sins are forgiven you,” says the Lord who vowed to open every prison door. The sentence is commuted, and yes, the record is...
Sep 12, 2024•2 min•Ep. 444
The Bible doesn’t say, “By grit you have been saved through effort: this is your part. It is your gift to God.” But tragically, many who say they believe in Jesus hold this old falsehood closer than they grasp the truth: “By grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Eph 2:8-9). We strain to earn what Jesus freely gives, all unaware He wants to change our attitudes even more than our behavior. Grace teaches us to trust, and “trust” is yet ano...
Sep 05, 2024•2 min•Ep. 443
A hit song many years ago plaintively asked the question on millions of minds: “Will you still love me tomorrow?” The fragility and impermanence of human love has chorused through the centuries—in every culture, in every region. Something in the human heart cannot keep a covenant. Despite romantic wedding decorations and elaborate commitment rituals, we fail to keep our promises to always act with love and care toward even that one person we are most attracted to. Which is why the original Lover...
Aug 29, 2024•2 min•Ep. 442
“Do you want to be healed?” At first, it seems one of the world’s most foolish questions. What person, paralyzed for 38 years, wouldn’t leap at any chance for healing and renewal? But Jesus asked it anyway, for grace never overwhelms our choices. Like that long-ago disabled man beside a Jerusalem pool, we each live in the confines of a private prison, often built by foolish choices. Friendships broke under the strain of angry things we said; health was compromised by anesthetics we consumed to h...
Aug 22, 2024•2 min•Ep. 441
Contented? Not likely. Vast majorities describe themselves as discontented, always seeking for what’s missing. Entire industries are engineered for keeping us that way. Algorithms cleverly exploit our fears and passions to keep us always scrolling. News outlets need us anxious about the crises that might happen. And—we’re told—we’ll be unsettled and unhappy. Inflation will eat up our paychecks; rising tides will claim our coastlands; hackers will discover passwords. So purchase many layers of th...
Aug 15, 2024•2 min•Ep. 440
Deep-seated in each wounded heart is passion to return the hurt, to even the score for how we have been wronged. Our quest for vengeance is as natural as breathing, or thinking—or sinning. We feel the knife-blade of the cutting words; the dull ache of abandonment; the body blow of assaults upon our character. And sooner than we can imagine any other option, we poison-tip the arrows of our vengeance. It takes no effort—at all—to summon bitter words and deeds. Our tongues grow sharp; our hearts gr...
Aug 08, 2024•2 min•Ep. 439
Social media memes and reels solemnly declare that the hardest three words to say are the words “I love you.” Acknowledging our affection and commitment to another person—spouse, parent, child, or friend—is a moment of great vulnerability, and for some, even difficulty. And yet, the phrase is emblazoned on millions of T-shirts, shouted on billions of greeting cards, and declared in hundreds of TV shows and movies. But if you asked, “Which three words are heard least frequently?” they would undou...
Aug 01, 2024•2 min•Ep. 438
When the last kind word has vanished from our lips; When the last rich gift has left our bank account; When the last abandoned child has finally found a home—we still need grace. When the hymns we sing are clear and sweet; When we serve with fervor in the job we’re given; When we’ve prayed for every relative we know—we still need grace. The good things grace inspires us to do will not reduce our need for grace. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is th...
Jul 25, 2024•2 min•Ep. 437
When we’ve been wounded by the spitefulness of others, it’s grace that quiets our reactive hearts and calms our angry tongues. We remember being forgiven, and so we can imagine offering forgiveness. The grace that reconciled us to God becomes the opening that makes new reconciliations thinkable. The foolish cycle of retaliation need not take another turn, for Jesus has absorbed the weight of all our anger, sin and pain. A new day dawns in which forgiveness warms and brightens all we know. Gratef...
Jul 18, 2024•1 min•Ep. 436
The great illusion at the heart of our unhappiness is the fantasy that we can solve our brokenness and foolishness. A hundred self-help manuals urge us to discover new, untapped potential; find our core of optimism, rise above the litter of past choices. If even one of these vain remedies really worked, the bookstores would be empty, and people everywhere would be living warm, productive, joyful lives. But we continue fumbling in the bargain bin of last year’s over-hyped, self-centered strategie...
Jul 11, 2024•2 min•Ep. 435
Sometimes it seems all humanity is obsessed with removing stains from clothing, teeth, and even furniture. Ten thousand products invoke our shame if teeth are not their “whitest white,” if clothes are not their “brightest bright,” or guests discover “unsightly carpet stains.” Some thoughtful souls have wondered if our fascination with removing dirt that can be seen reflects our gnawing fear that we will never be free from stains no one can see—the soiled conscience, the unwashed heart, the muddi...
Jul 04, 2024•3 min•Ep. 434
If you believe your life has been rescued and redirected by a power greater than yourself, you live differently. One of the most frequent criticisms of the Bible’s teaching about how we are saved is the charge that because grace saves us “just as we are,” we stay “just as we were.” To some, grace looks easy, unremarkable, even cheap—a gift for those who don’t deserve it. Where is the historic space for human striving, effort, and obedience? But grace is not a freeze-frame moment that eliminates ...
Jun 27, 2024•2 min•Ep. 433
In every place; in every time; among all cultures; with every clan; in youth or age; through wealth or poverty—human beings will underline how what they do unites their lives with God. “It is my prayers,” the homeless woman says. “God saves me because I am persistent.” “It is my giving,” the multi-billionaire asserts. “God saves me because I build good homes for those who can’t afford them.” “It is my art,” the passionate young sculptor says. “God saves me because my art stirs thoughtful souls t...
Jun 20, 2024•2 min•Ep. 432
The mind in which grace lights a flame becomes, in time, a different mind. By nature and by nurture, we’re self-absorbed and focused on what brings us gain, what brings us fame. The path of least resistance leads us to our touted rights, and often—yes—our touted righteousness. We are the measure of all things: we sort and filter for what gives us points, what gives us power, what adds to our advantage. But when the grace of a supremely other-centered God breathes through the “heats of our desire...
Jun 13, 2024•2 min•Ep. 431
Could we ever live a day without the grace of God? That first breath you took this morning—perhaps the first one when you awoke—that breath had its beginning in the gracious act of God to fill your lungs and give you life. That first thought, in which you noted the beauty of the early sunlight bathing the yard with golden rays—that thought was the result of a marvelous biochemical chain of neurons lighting up your sleepy brain—all created by a gracious God. And even if all the distractions were ...
Jun 06, 2024•2 min•Ep. 430
There’s no accounting for love. Nothing in our calculations of expected human outcomes would lead us to predict the presence—or persistence—of kindness. We’ve learned through thousands of years of history to grimly rely on the awful realities of hate, of vengeance, of unrelenting cruelty—between clans, against other races, pitting nation against nation. These are our signature achievements as a species. But what is it that motivates a billion daily acts of caring, of forgiveness, of refusing tha...
May 31, 2024•2 min•Ep. 429
What is God like? It sounds like the question of a six-year old—honest; direct; no nuance. Simple as it sounds, it’s actually one of the most important questions in human history. From the dawn of recorded time, both peasants and philosophers have wrestled with the question. Some cultures told themselves that He was angry and all-powerful. Others asserted that He was only one of many gods usually engaged in wrangling with each other. Still others claimed He is eternally inspecting our behavior, ...
May 23, 2024•3 min•Ep. 428
No one really wants to sing the blues. We only want to hear other people singing the blues. It’s hard to believe that a homeless, hungry, abandoned soul would choose to write a song about it. Surviving takes all your energy. But listening to someone else lamenting their pretended sorrows somehow makes us feel better about our not-so-bad lives. And yet of Jesus—our Redeemer—the Bible sings, “He was despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief” (Isa 53:3). His suffering wa...
May 16, 2024•2 min•Ep. 427
