Acts 7:30-34 Listen to today's devotional Acts 7 reminds us that God shows up in the waiting. In that chapter, Stephen retells the story of Moses and says, “After forty years had passed…” Forty years. That’s not a quick devotional quiet time or a short worship service that gets you out before lunch. That's not a semester, or even a longer-than-you've-ever-had pastoral appointment. That’s a lifetime of wondering if the promise still meant anything. Then, one day, out of nowhere, a bush starts burning, and everything changes. This week, our family is celebrating our son’s graduation from Air Force Basic Training. Within the last few days, several people have told my wife, “Wow, the time went by fast!” And for them, maybe it did. But ask his mama. It has been almost two months since she’s talked to her baby boy. Time doesn’t fly when you’re counting the days. Two months have passed for us. Forty years passed for Moses. While Moses was tending sheep in that time, doing the ve...
Google Voice did me wrong this morning. I was easing into the day with my inbox open, scrolling through messages I’d ignored for a few days. Nothing urgent. It's a Friday morning, after all. Then I saw it. An email from Google Voice. Apparently, my number was about to expire. “Use it or lose it,” basically. I almost laughed. Even my phone number needs attention now. So I clicked the link and logged in, ready to make a quick call just to keep it alive. The screen loaded. Right beneath my number, neat and casual, as if it were doing me a favor, Google offered suggestions of people I might want to call. The first name stopped me. My grandmother. The second one hit harder. My sister. For a split second, it felt normal. Like I could just tap their names and hear their voices ring through the speaker. Like nothing had changed. Like time hadn’t moved. But time has moved. They’re no longer with us. And there I was, just trying to keep a phone number active, when an algorithm casually hande...