jesus calling
Embracing Courage
“I can find courage through remembering who You are— pondering Your awesome Power and Glory, delighting in Your unfailing Love. I rejoice in knowing I’m on an adventurous journey with You and my ultimate destination is heaven!” – Jesus Listens,August 18th Are you ready to embrace a more confident and courageous life? Is it time for you to set aside your doubts, reservations, and hesitations, and step into a more courageous faith? Then let today be the day you begin implementing seven practical steps that can set you on a brand-new course, one that is directed and empowered by our Heavenly Father. For most of my life, I considered myself to be strong and courageous. I believed that courage centered solely around the ability to face challenges and conflicts with personal strength and stern d...
Last Picked Has Its Perks
“When I prize You above all else, delighting in You as my First Love, I’m protected from feeling fragmented. You are the One who completes me, and You’re training me to bring my thoughts back to You whenever they wander from Your Presence. Thank You for Your patient work in me, Lord.” – Jesus Listens,March 12th Have you ever been picked last? Or not picked at all? Maybe classmates didn’t choose you for their dodgeball team, or you were never asked to the prom, or you sat out the songs for couples at the roller rink. After two decades of living sober and following Jesus, I’ve learned great news: we can surrender every hurt and offense to Almighty God. Although this type of submission can be difficult, it produces supernatural results. Years ago, I was a small-market news anchor in Duluth, M...
Weaving a Web of Faith
“Through reading Your Word, I’ve seen that waiting, trusting, and hoping are intricately connected— like golden strands woven together to form a strong chain. I think of trusting as the central strand because this attitude is taught so frequently throughout the Bible. Waiting and hoping embellish the central strand and strengthen the chain that connects me to You.” – Jesus Listens, April 15th When my younger son was four, his preschool teacher spent the month of October on a spider unit. They went on walks looking for webs, made spider art, and generally delighted in all things spider. I do not delight in anything spider. One October afternoon, he began to climb into his backseat chair while offering an unending flow of words about webs: “There are different kinds of spider’s webs, not jus...
The Art of Unplugging
“Whenever I’m feeling inadequate or overwhelmed, I love being able to lean on You, Lord. You remind me that I am more than adequate when I rely on You to strengthen me.” – Jesus Listens,June 25th Over the last three years, I’ve steadily built a discipline of powering down my devices and embracing what I like to call “the art of unplugging.” What began as a simple nudge to turn off my phone during one of my quiet times has morphed into a daily discipline of turning away from the digital noise and pressing into the moment right in front of me. If you’re feeling burnt out by the digital hamster wheel and craving more presence in your daily life, I pray these tips for unplugging will meet you right where you are today. START SMALL It’s easy to take on an all-or-nothing mentality when unpluggin...
Ignoring God’s Warning Signs
“I long to encounter You in the midst of my circumstances. So I’ll look for signs of Your Presence as I walk along the path of Life. A grateful attitude opens both my heart and my eyes— enabling me to see You in myriad tiny details as well as in the big picture of my life. I need to slow down and take time to notice all Your blessings—thanking You for them and enjoying Your many gifts.” – Jesus Listens, November 24th Fourteen years ago, I suffered heat stroke in sight of the finish line of a community race I’d been training to win. It was eighty degrees, with high humidity, and I’d trained for months in unusually cool-for-summer seventy degree mornings. I had my time goals for each mile—my “splits,” as they’re called in the running world—written on my hand. My brain locked onto those times...
The 5 Benefits of Voicing Gratitude
“Lord, instead of experiencing only a short- lived burst of gratitude, I want to learn to remain in an attitude of thankful Joy— letting my gratefulness spill over into the future.” – Jesus Listens, February 29th Years ago, when I was faced with the most difficult time in my life, the last thing I wanted to do was express gratitude. For what? I thought. I have nothing to be thankful for! Nothing. My life is falling apart. My marriage is falling apart. I have no peace. I’m miserable! Those were my dominant thoughts. I desperately needed a turnaround. One day, I heard a minister say, “Stop looking at everything you’ve lost in your life and start looking at everything you have left. And start thanking God for it.” It was late one evening when I walked into my kitchen and with tears pour...
Your Life Is Your Prayer
“I love to use Your Name as a whispered prayer, a praise, a protection; and it never loses its power.” – Jesus Listens “The day of my spiritual awakening was the day I saw—and knew I saw—all things in God and God in all things.” —Mechthild of Magdeburg “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” —Mark 11:24 (NIV) Personal Fear On a summer trip to Jackson Hole, I conquered a personal fear. The trip was jam-packed with activities. We hiked, fished, floated the Snake River, roasted marshmallows, and took the tram to the top of the ski mountain for waffles. It was a blast, until our trip to the Aerial Ropes Course. Everyone knows Mom isn’t a fan of heights. I panicked when the outfitter said both parents would need to be eigh...
Interruptions Can Be Opportunities
“Rather than letting setbacks and interruptions upset me, I want to use them as reminders—that You are the sovereign God and I am Your beloved follower. Help me to trust in Your unfailing Love, gladly subordinating my plans to Your infinitely wise Master Plan.” – Jesus Listens, October 26th I don’t like to be interrupted. Whether in conversation or while I am working on a task, interruptions derail my focus, stunt task completion, and frequently leave me unsettled or annoyed. I lose the point of what I was discussing when people interject. I lose my fervor for the task at hand when other demands cut in to dance. Some interruptions lurch I know you’ve been here, trying to tap out a text that matters—the response to your boss, the apology to your spouse, the reply to ...
The Birth & Death of Shame
“The Bible tells me that knowing the truth will set me free, and Your wonderful counseling is freeing me from sin and shame.” – Jesus Listens, October 9 Shame has been a background noise in my life—a low and persistent hum. But where did shame start? God created Adam and Eve in His own image, perfectly crafted to commune with Him for all eternity. But, of course, they didn’t stay that way. Just a short time after God placed Adam and Eve in the garden and laid out their purpose in creation, that purpose was tragically derailed by something called the fall. You likely know the story. Entire commentaries could (and have) been written on just the first three chapters of the Book of Beginnings, but I want to focus on what happened directly before and directly after Adam and Eve disobeyed God. H...
Live Without Secrets
“How thankful I am to be fully known by You! Everything about me is visible to You—including my most secret thoughts and feelings.” – Jesus Listens, April 19th I long for a church that lives without secrets. The Beauty of Honesty One of my favorite things about church is our new members’ meetings. All the new members pack in a room for a Saturday, and they share their testimonies. There are always lots of tissues, lots of hugs, and lots of honesty. Whenever I see new members join, I think, This is the church as it should be! A bunch of people in a room, telling each other why they are messed up, and celebrating that God loves us anyway. But most of church life is not like that. I see pastors fall from grace because of secrets they kept. I see people worry more about fitting in at church th...
Choosing Worship Over Worry
“I’ve found that thanksgiving and praise put me in proper relationship with You—opening the way for Your Joy to flow into me as I draw near You in worship.” – Jesus Listens, May 9 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ. —Romans 10:17 NIV Faith felt easy Faith felt easy at one point in my life. I didn’t realize that my confident exterior was a cover-up for the fear hiding in my heart. Waves of challenges hit one after another until most of that self-assurance washed away. Problems seemed to surround me on every side: impossibilities at work, difficulties as a new mom, and struggles in marriage. One morning while home alone with my kids, I sank under the floodwaters of fear, and I wasn’t sure I could come back up. Abbey and ...
Let’s Build “Recovery Culture” into Our Communities
“You know absolutely everything about me, yet You love me with perfect, unfailing Love.” – Jesus Listens, January 4 If you call yourself a Christian, you’re in recovery. If we were all once sinners in need of a Savior, then we’re all trying to recover and heal from something. Recovery is for everyone—and if that statement bothers you, recovery is probably for you, too. After all, real recovery isn’t a program, it’s a lifestyle. A lifelong journey that celebrates diversity and combats stigmatization. And because recovery is for everyone, there’s no shame in acknowledging that we all need it. Building an authentic recovery culture within pre-existing Jesus groups can be a real challenge. Because recovery, even with Jesus as our Higher Power, is wildly unstable. Here are five critical m...
