I Want to Walk on the Water

"The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe." — Proverbs 29:25 Whose voice has the greatest influence over your life? It's a question worth asking. Throughout Scripture we find people who knew what was right...yet chose another voice. Not because they were ignorant. Not because God hadn't spoken. But because, in a moment of fear, pride, anger, or the desire to be accepted, they valued another voice above God's. The Bible calls it the fear of man. The fear of man can look like a lot of things. Sometimes it looks like keeping the peace. Sometimes it looks like wanting to fit in. Sometimes it looks like protecting our reputation. Sometimes it looks like wanting everyone to like us. Sometimes it even disguises itself as wisdom or kindness, but at its core, the fear of man is simply valuing other voices more than God's. It's allowing the opinions, expectations, approval, or rejection of people to carry more weight than what God has alr...

Grief. Feels like a shipwreck.  One moment life is familiar. The next, you're floating in waters you never expected to navigate, surrounded by pieces of the life you once knew, reaching for whatever you can find just to stay afloat. Then the waves come. One after another. Relentless. Threatening to pull you under before you've caught your breath from the last one. If you've ever walked through deep grief, I don't have to explain those pictures. You know them. You've lived them. I know them, too. Not your story perhaps, b ut I know what it feels like to have life change in an instant. To wonder how you'll ever move forward. To question whether you'll ever feel whole again.  Somewhere along the journey—maybe not immediately, but eventually—a different question begins to surface. "Why?" Why did this happen? Why now? Why them? Why me? If we're honest, we're often searching for the purpose of our pain, but over the years  I've come to know ...

One of the most breathtaking sights in the ocean is watching a humpback whale feed. Scientists call it lunge feeding . The whale surges upward, opening its mouth nearly ninety degrees as the expandable pleats beneath its jaw stretch like an accordion. In one incredible gulp, it takes in an enormous amount of water and food. Then something remarkable happens.  The whale filters everything it has taken in.  It keeps only what will sustain it.  The rest is released back into the sea.  As I watched this magnificent creature, I couldn't help but think... "There's a lesson here." The funny thing is, this journey didn't actually begin with a whale.  It began in  Proverbs.  For thirty chapters, Proverbs repeatedly warns us about our mouths.  Guard your tongue. Don't gossip. Don't lie. Don't speak recklessly. Don't answer before listening. Then, almost unexpectedly, the final chapter changes direction.  Three times we're told to open our mouths. "...