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  Acts 28:1-6 Listen to today’s devotional Have you ever had one of those days that make you wonder, "What else can go wrong?" This little story about a snakebite might help put them in perspective. After being shipwrecked, Paul and the others make it to the shore of Malta. Even though they're cold, wet, and exhausted, at least they're on land. As they sit around a fire, a snake comes out and latches itself to Paul's hand. The islanders see it and immediately assume this man was a murderer. He thought he could escape justice, but it caught up to him. In their minds, perhaps, Paul may have outwitted the sea, but not the goddess of justice, Dike. How quickly they thought they had Paul figured out. We still do the same thing. We can be too quick to explain someone else’s hardship. Some people will hear of a diagnosis, a failed relationship, job loss, or some other pressing circumstance and assume it's God's way of sending a message. God’s punishment, even. Th...

  2 Timothy 1:12-14 Listen to today’s devotional The apostle Paul writes to his young pastor friend, Timothy, from a prison cell. Paul is literally suffering for the gospel. But notice what kind of suffering it is. Paul is not suffering because he was arrogant, cruel, or self-righteous. He is not suffering because he hurt people and got called out for it. He is suffering because he chose the way of Jesus. And the way of Jesus is humility, compassion, mercy, and love. I'm convinced that too many Christians today confuse criticism with persecution. Sometimes we say, “The world hates me because I follow Jesus,” when really people are reacting to bitterness, pride, dishonesty, or a lack of grace. That is not the suffering Paul talks about. Pardon me for saying it, but Jesus never promised a blessing for being a jerk. He said blessed are the merciful, the peacemakers, the humble. Jesus suffered because he healed on the Sabbath, he welcomed outsiders, forgave sinners, touched lepers, cha...

  Job 38:1-11 Listen to today’s devotional Job spends chapter after chapter asking God and his friends, “Why?” Why the suffering? Why the silence? Why would God allow someone faithful to lose everything? And when God finally speaks in Job 38, God does not give Job the explanation he wanted. We don't get the explanation we want either. There is no detailed answer. Instead, I like to say when God finally speaks, all we find out is that God is a tree hugger! What the Lord does give Job is something better than answers: awe. God speaks of stars being born, the seas being restrained, and morning breaking through. In this moment, Job’s pain and questions are placed inside something larger and more mysterious than he imagined. Yes, his suffering is real, but now God wants Job to see that the world is held by a wisdom beyond his understanding. Will Job have enough humility to see it? Will we? Honestly, that's a little frustrating. We want answers because answers give us a sense of cont...

  Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9 Listen to today’s devotional There is loneliness that comes from being alone. Many of us know what that feels like. But there's also a loneliness that comes from being unknown. This is when you carry burdens or pressures no one else can feel. You don't have words or a voice for your prayers. There’s an ache of carrying something no one else can understand. The prayers that don’t make it past your lips. The weight of your suffering has no language to communicate and seems foreign to others. Thankfully, Hebrews tells us something almost too good to be true. That we are not unknown. We do not have a high priest who is distant or detached from pain. We have One who has  felt  it. And not just theoretically or symbolically. Jesus knows bodily, tearful pain that has to shout. Jesus has cried out. Hebrews says he offered “loud cries and tears.” That means there were moments when even the Son of God groaned his prayers. And here’s the tension we often neg...

  Psalm 34:4-6 Listen to today's devotional Trouble is not shy, so it has no problem announcing itself loudly. It's like an aggravating visitor that doesn’t knock. It barges in uninvited and then tries to take over. I'm sure you know what this looks like. It's when bills stack up or a diagnoses changes your life. Or maybe trouble fractures your relationships. The psalmist writing Psalm 34 would understand all that. He doesn't pretend trouble isn’t real. Instead, he says, “This poor soul cried and was heard by the Lord and was saved from every trouble." I'm sure you noticed that he didn't say trouble didn’t come. What he said was that trouble didn’t get the best of him. There’s a difference between trouble showing up and trouble taking control. One is unavoidable. The other is a surrender we don't have to make. The psalmist writes as someone who knew fear in his bones. He had enemies, uncertainty, and moments where making it through every day felt li...

  James 1:2-4 Listen to today's devotional The book of James says something that sounds almost irresponsible at first: “Whenever you face various trials, consider it all joy” Wow! He didn't say after the trial. Not once it all makes sense. But when you’re in the thick of it. I don't imagine most people struggle with faith when things are easy. It's when faith gets tested that things begin to get shaky. It's when there remain unanswered prayers, slow healing, or seasons when things just don't seem to work out at all. James doesn’t deny the pain of those moments. But there is necessary reframing to better understand how we walk through them. What if we think of trials not as interruptions to God’s work? After all, the Lord is not overwhelmed by pressing matters. So, how does seeing our trials as part of the means of God's work change our perspective? James reminds us that testing produces perseverance, and perseverance is shaping something deeper than our comf...

  1 Peter 1:6-9 Listen to today's devotional Joy and grief really can live in the same house. In 1 Peter 1, the apostle doesn’t pretend we’re above life’s pain. Peter never says, “Rejoice instead of suffering,” or “Rejoice once the suffering ends.” He helps us understand what we probably already know to be true: that joy and sorrow often show up at the same time. Many of us feel pressure to choose between the two. If you’re hurting, you wonder if your faith is weak. If you’re hopeful, you wonder if you’re avoiding reality. But the Bible gives you permission to hold both with honesty. Faith isn’t pretending the pain isn't anything less than it is. Instead, faith teaches us to trust God even while the pain is still present. In the Bible, joy isn’t a mood. It’s a deep confidence in who God is and how God stays with us. God is with you, God is working, and God is not done. And grief is not a spiritual failure. It’s the honest acknowledgment that life hurts and losses matter. You do...

  James 1:2-4 Listen to today's devotional Joy is deeper than happiness. Happiness can rise and fall with each day. But joy is rooted in the eternalness of God. So, you can be unhappy and still have joy, because true joy doesn't come from you. It comes from God. And faith teaches us that joy is not dependent on our circumstances. Instead, joy comes from learning to trust in who God is and the promises God makes. That's an important consideration because none of us escapes sorrow or pain in this life. We all face our share of unhappiness and heartbreak. But even in our trials, we still have joy. That doesn't mean God throws calamity on us. God doesn't play games with our suffering. Testing isn't to fail us, but to form us. Testing doesn't expose your weakness to shame you. It reveals your strength to shape you. And as we let it do so, we learn to persevere. So, perseverance isn't sitting on your hands waiting for a trial to pass. Instead, perseverance is ...

  Revelation 17:1-18 "Bad news isn't wine. It doesn't improve with age." I haven't found the context for that quote from Colin Powell. But bad news is bad news. So, I can appreciate what his quote means. We can even apply it to scripture today. First, let me confess. I don't always look forward to writing a reflection on anything from Revelation. Do I have to describe beasts and battles again? But, today, a little apocalyptic literature might be good for the soul. In our reading today, guess what, there's a beast. It has seven heads. There's also, though, a woman John sees. His vision is of a woman "clothed in purple scarlet and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls" (Revelation 17:4). In other words, she has it all. This is, of course, no ordinary woman. Most likely, the woman, labeled the "great whore," represents Babylon and her religious practices. John sees her "drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the wit...