This temporary life we live on earth waiting to move on to our eternal home, can often times leave us feeling lonely, hopeless, and wondering what it will take in order for “success” to come my way?

Is that the silent, unspoken narrative going on in your head? Take heart, friend. We can ALL identify with that unmet expectation and many of us spend decades wandering through an unfulfilled life searching for inner peace and never finding it.

But it doesn’t have to be that way! There is hope and a path!

When someone we trust and love experiences us and tries to speak truth in love, we have a hard time receiving it. We put up walls to protect our heart, and we respond poorly. Oh, we can sound humble, but our so-called “humility” isn’t true humility. It’s our protective heart speaking out of false humility and out come the words , “Yeah, but . . . “

If someone were to ask you, “Who are you?” . . . what would you say?

A dad? A mom? A college student? Son? Daughter? Grandfather? Grandmother? What about a VP of the company you work for? These are all titles or things we do. The basic question we are all trying to answer in life is, “Who am I?” 

Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” This verse takes on more meaning the older you get.

Seasons come and seasons go. Some come with great joy. Others with great sorrow.

Is this all there is to this life? To go through these seasons? Repeat this cycle for every human?

“Emotional health and spiritual maturity are inseparable. It is not possible to be spiritually mature while remaining emotionally immature.” ― Peter Scazzero

“The Bourne Identity” is the story of a man rescued by an Italian fishing boat who suffers from total amnesia, without identity or background - except for a range of extraordinary talents, who sets out on a desperate search to discover who he really is, and why bad things are happening to him.

Sound familiar? Do you know your identity in Christ and who He says you are? Guess what? You can ask Him and he’ll tell you!

The holidays can often bring stress and anxiety just by thinking about gathering with your family. The reality of facing parents or siblings leaves us with yet another holiday season of emotional pain to navigate.

What would it look like to “flip the script” and change “how you do you” for the holidays with the family? It is possible to experience calm and peace. Are you up for it?

Living in the 21st century in western civilization where the speed of life goes at 100mph, we can go through our entire lives without truly knowing the people around us because we’re too busy and miss so much of life around us.

Maybe we would have less anxiety and depression in life if we lived at a slower pace and took the time to be known and to know others.

Jesus was all about simplifying life. Only two things are important in this life: Love God. Love others.

That’s it. Not how much my net worth is. Not how much I give to charity. Not how many friends I have. Not how popular I am. Just. Two. Things. It can’t get more simple than that.

It’s the second part of the second command Jesus gives us that strikes me. “Love others as you love yourself.” What does that mean? How do I love myself?

“My perception is right, doggone it, and I’m going to prove it to you!” Ever had that thought before and then your relationship is instantly fractured?

Let me ask you this: How’s that working for you?

How do we maintain healthy relationships when we are fighting to get our view, opinion, or point across? It comes down to two choices.

On any given day we experience some sort of stressful situation, or anxiety about something, which then drives our fears. The narrative that we build up in our heads feels overwhelming and it feels like it will crush us. Over time, left unchecked, we can even slip into depression. Isolation is a killer. We were created for connection.

A father’s influence in his child’s life is critical to their view of the God the Father.

Much like the moon blocks the sun in an eclipse, our experiences, both good and traumatic ones that involve our fathers, provide an eclipse and block us from seeing the Father as He really is. Why is that?

When March of 2020 hit, death and shame were unleashed on this world by the Destroyer, the devil, like never before. Not only did we have a pandemic of medical proportions, but we also had, and continue to have, a pandemic of emotional proportions like: Panic. Fear. Worry. Anxiety. Isolation

What’s at the root of all of this?

We all turn to something to cope with our anxiety. We are human. We will always feel anxiety. You can deny your anxiety and pretend it’s not there, but it doesn’t make it go away. Some people cope by finding a way to medicate through food, alcohol, pornography, other sexual brokenness, drugs, etc. But it doesn’t have to be that way. What we do with these feelings of anxiety makes all the difference.

As men, we often have a hard time finding a group where we can be real, honest, authentic and vulnerable. Deep down we desire to be known but we often struggle with believing the lie, “If you really new me, you wouldn’t love me.”

We end up wearing a mask and we join an “accountability group” thinking that we are finally going to have close friends who know us.

If you look more closely at how the terms gospel and good news originated back in the 1st century, you may see something you haven’t seen before. When you look at the culture and context of these words and how they were used, it brings new meaning to what Jesus was saying when he arrived on the scene.

Have you ever been triggered by something from the past and had absolutely no idea why you responded the way you did? Maybe it was to your wife, your kids, or even a stranger in the grocery store parking lot.

When I ask men, “If you strip away your job and what you do, your role as a husband, a father, a brother and a son: Who are you?” Do you know what I get as an answer? “I have no clue.”

For the first time in my young life I felt shame. “There must be something wrong with me,” I thought.