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  Matthew 8:23-27 Unfortunately, you don't know how much you trust Jesus until you really have to. That’s because it’s easy to sing about trusting Jesus when the boat isn’t sinking. In Matthew 8, the disciples follow Jesus into a boat, and along the way, the weather gets bad. Matthew calls it a “great storm" as waves are crashing over the boat. The disciples are panicking. And not-so-little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head. Now, some of these disciples were fishermen. They knew how bad storms could get. So, the surprise may not have been the storm itself. What frightened them was that Jesus didn’t seem nearly as concerned about it as they were. “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” I wonder how many of our prayers are some version of that. Jesus, don’t you see what’s happening? Don’t you care? Why aren’t you doing something? And Jesus responds with his own question: “Why are you afraid, you of little faith?” Of course, Jesus doesn’t suggest there is no storm. Because of wh...

  2 Corinthians 1:8-11 Listen to today's devotional None of us plans to go to prison. Yet, during my time with the Kairos community, I met men who thanked God for exactly that experience. Before that, they lived as they pleased, often without considering the impact of their actions on others. But prison changed everything. A strict schedule replaced freedom, and choices were limited. Their physical freedom was taken, but in that confinement, many discovered a deeper kind of freedom. They learned to live more responsibly, reflect, and rely on structure and guidance outside themselves. Paul writes about a similar kind of spiritual “confinement” in 2 Corinthians 1:8-9. In Asia, he and his companions were overwhelmed, burdened beyond their strength, and even felt great despair. But it was through this that Paul realized he could not rely solely on himself. Just as the men in Kairos found freedom in boundaries and reliance on what they could not control, Paul found life-giving strength ...