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Marching Into a New Year
At the end of each year, I like to look back and remember what God has done and look ahead to what I believe He will do in the coming year. This year, I thought I’d share some of my reflections. I pray you are encouraged to reflect on how you have grown and seen God work over the past year and build anticipation for this new year. For me, 2018 was a year of milestones: I was accepted to my dream Bible school, I graduated from high school, and I transitioned to college life in downtown Chicago. There were many highs and lows—endings and beginnings, fears and anticipations, “see…
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Day 21: Start
This month, I’m participating in a Five Minute Friday challenge called “31 Days of Five Minute Free Writes,” responding to a one-word prompt for five minutes each day in October. Click here to join in! Start. Sometimes that’s all you need to do. You’re standing on the edge of something big, and it’s exciting yet terrifying. You’re about to take the plunge, but fear is holding you back. You know God is calling you to help that ministry to the homeless in your city. You know you need to have that conversation to restore peace with the person you’ve hurt. You know you should apply for that job that would give you…
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Day 16: Pray
This month, I’m participating in a Five Minute Friday challenge called “31 Days of Five Minute Free Writes,” responding to a one-word prompt for five minutes each day in October. Click here to join in! Prayer is one of the most important practices in the Christian life. Through prayer, we are connected to the God of the universe, who loves us and wants to communicate with us. “Prayer is work, and it works.” That’s what Ken Rudolph used to say at the winter retreats I went to with my youth group. Prayer takes time and energy, to be sure; it is sometimes hard to prioritize it in the midst of our busy…
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Day 11: Door
This month, I’m participating in a Five Minute Friday challenge called “31 Days of Five Minute Free Writes,” responding to a one-word prompt for five minutes each day in October. Click here to join in! “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” Revelation 3:20 This verse is frequently quoted as an invitation to salvation. Too often, however, once we have answered the door and invited Jesus into our lives, we want to keep Him in the front room, the one that’s neat and clean with comfortable…
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Day 2: Afraid
This month, I’m participating in a Five Minute Friday challenge called “31 Days of Five Minute Free Writes,” responding to a one-word prompt for five minutes each day in October. Click here to join in! I’ve spent a lot of time being afraid. Throughout my life, I have battled irrational fears as a result of my anxiety disorders, as well as fear of the future, fear of vulnerability, fear of failure, fear of success, fear of rejection. There are countless things one can be afraid of, and my brain has mastered pointing out every possibility. However, in recent years, I’ve come to realize that there is no need for fear.…
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A New Ocean
This post was written for the weekly Five Minute Friday blog linkup. Each week, writers respond to a one-word prompt by writing for five minutes, then share their writing with each other. Click here to join the fun! This week’s prompt: Ocean. “Oceans” by Hillsong United is one of my favorite songs. Whenever I hear it, I am challenged to trust God with my life and allow Him to pull me out of my comfort zone and into the greater plan He has for me. Recently, the metaphor of an ocean has been resonating with me as I ponder my upcoming transition to college life. I don’t know what’s coming, I…
