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Permission to Grieve

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  Grief is not unbelief. Sorrow is not a failure of faith. “There is a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.” — Ecclesiastes 3:4 Many Christians inherit an unspoken rule: mature believers should be “over it” quickly. We quote Romans 8:28 before the casket is closed. We treat tears as a theological leak—evidence that hope is not holding. Scripture will not allow that rule. Abraham mourns Sarah and buys a burial field. Jacob refuses to be comforted when he thinks Joseph is dead. David weeps until his voice is gone over Absalom. Israel weeps thirty days for Moses. Jeremiah is called the weeping prophet. An entire book is named Lamentations. Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, stands at a tomb He is about to empty and weeps (John 11:35). If the sinless Son of God can cry at a graveside, tears are not a defect in discipleship. They are one of the ways a human heart tells the truth. Death is an enemy, not a natural friend. The New Testament is sever...
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Walking On: Faithfulness for the Long 🛣️

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  Primary Scripture: Hebrews 12:1-3; Psalm 37:23-24 “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.” “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand.” Recovery after major surgery, and especially adjustment to permanent disability, is rarely a short chapter. It becomes a long road. The initial crisis passes, the visitors thin out, and the believer is left with the steady, unspectacular ...
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Location: Richmond, IN, USA
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Faith & the Body · A Scripture Reflection

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  WHEN THE BODY HURTS Turning Physical Pain Over to God A scripture-rooted invitation to surrender what you cannot carry alone “Cast your cares on the Lord.” — Psalm 55:22 Pain has a way of shrinking the world. It fills the night, interrupts the simplest tasks, and can make even faithful people wonder whether God has gone quiet. Scripture never pretends otherwise. The Bible is not a book written by people who floated above the body. It is a book written by people who knew fever, wounds, weakness, aging, and the long wait for relief. To turn physical pain over to God is not to deny that it is real. It is not to pretend it does not matter. It is to refuse to let pain become the final authority over your soul. The invitation of Scripture is this: bring the body you actually have into the presence of the God who actually cares. God Does Not Stand Far from Pain One of the first lies pain whispers is that you are alone with it. The psalms answer that lie directly. “The Lord is close to t...
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Location: Richmond, IN, USA
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The Eternal Perspective: Light Affliction, Eternal Weight

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  Primary Scripture: 2 Corinthians 4:17-18; Romans 8:18 “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” The hospital bed and the long adjustment to disability feel anything but light and momentary while they are being endured. Scripture does not deny the weight of present suffering. It places that weight on the scales opposite an eternal weight of glory and declares the comparison no contest. This perspective is not escapism. It is realism of the highest order. The body that now fails will be raised incorruptible. The pain that now dominates will be forgotten in the presence of the Lamb. Every hour of endura...
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Location: Richmond, IN, USA
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Remembering September 11: Twenty-Five Years Later

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  A commemoration for the people of God Twenty-five years have passed since the morning of September 11, 2001. For many, the images remain as clear as yesterday: the towers, the Pentagon, the field in Shanksville, the smoke against a blue September sky. Nearly three thousand souls were taken in a single morning. Fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, firefighters, police officers, office workers, passengers who chose to act rather than yield. Time has not erased the wound. It has only asked us what we will do with the memory. Scripture never treats remembrance as optional. Israel was commanded to remember the Lord’s works and the nation’s sins alike, so that neither pride nor forgetfulness would rule the heart. “Blessed be the Lord my strength… my goodness, and my fortress; my high tower, and my deliverer” (Psalm 144:1–2). On this anniversary we remember both the evil that was done and the God who remains our refuge. Evil is not a metaphor. That morning revealed what fallen men will do...
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Location: Richmond, IN, USA
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