The end of the movie, The Quiet Place, contains a heartbreaking scene. (If you haven’t seen it yet, be forewarned: spoilers follow!) A father sacrifices his life to save his children. In this fictional world where silence means safety, this dad chooses to use his voice at the ultimate cost to himself. By yelling loudly, he […]

A few years ago, while traveling to Uganda, I met a little girl and completely fell in love with her. My family began caring for her needs from afar, visiting her twice a year and praying for her. Eventually God made it clear that He wanted us to pursue her adoption. I thought my heart […]

We live in a me-first culture. We want to be the best. Our flesh is hungry to worship itself, and that appetite is satisfied through a hardy diet of selfish ambition. So we form our identity through our accomplishments. We work hard in our careers, our education, our lifestyles—and even our churches—to guarantee success. Ambition […]

**Disclaimer: I wrote this article to encourage the Church to obey God even in the midst of fear and uncertainty. I used my own fears involved in our upcoming adoption as an example. Unfortunately, about a month after I wrote this, our daughter passed away before we could complete her adoption. Having my fears become […]

Three months ago today, I woke up to a world I didn’t recognize. A reality I didn’t choose. A pain I’d never experienced. My precious Gracious was gone from my life as unexpectedly and abruptly as she came into it. These last months are a bit fuzzy in my mind. My memories of them play […]

There are deaths to be died. Daily deaths. Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). These smaller, daily deaths are not without great pain and suffering. As I chase after Christ, I’m collecting wounds. Each act of dying […]

Today I’m pondering tests. My boys are wrapping up our homeschool year and that has included standardized testing. They don’t enjoy these tests and basically try to rush through them to be done as quickly and painlessly as possible. At some point during the middle of the three-hour test, they will inevitably ask me, “Do […]

Today I’m pondering questions. I have many. When I woke up one Sunday morning to an unimaginable reality, my fractured brain could only think in questions. Why, Lord? Why would you do this? How could you let this happen? What are you doing? Where do we go from here? Grief is greedy. It fills us […]

From Christy: For the last three years, my family has been caring for a little Ugandan girl named Gracious. We have been pursuing her adoption for the last eighteen months. Recently, we received the news that she had passed away from complications due to pneumonia. She was seven years old. Our local church, Imago Dei, in Raleigh, […]

Today I’m pondering emptiness. Specifically, this empty chair beside me. This week my family is at the beach. Stephen and our four boys are walking along the sand tonight, and I opted for some quiet time on our balcony. The ocean lies in front of me in all its beauty, with the soothing, rhythmic rolling […]