The Journey

Photo by: Tyler Nix When trudging through difficult situations, I find myself searching through scriptures for some sort of comfort. Something to ease the pain or to bring peace or even to confirm I am right and the whole world is wrong, I am searching for validation. Grasping, really. Anything that will quiet the storm brewing in my mind and the whirlwind of my emotions. One passage always brings easement no matter the battle. Hebrews 4:15-16 (NIV) states, "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way just as we are--yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." Did you know we have a sympathetic Savior? Typically, this passage is preached to encourage us in our struggles with temptation, assuage condemnation, and to open the altars for repentance. While that is certainl...

Photo by Will Porada Earlier this week, a snippet of a fire-and-brimstone sermon from somewhere in my youth came back to me in weird randomness. Fuzzy details of the setting loom in the corners of my mind trying to come to the forefront, but never actually forming a clear memory. I truly do not remember the who, what, when, whereof the matter, but what I do remember resonates. In this foreboding sermon, the minister is warning of the dangers of dabbling in worldly pleasures and such. "Don't go anywhere Jesus wouldn't go with you." At the time, I am sure I rolled my eyes in a covert manner, probably sighed--inwardly, of course--as I tossed this tidbit away thinking Brother Old Fogey just could not relate to the current times. After all, didn't Jesus have dinner with sinners? In retrospect, this concept is absolutely true and applicable to every generation of old and young alike. When we find ourselves tiptoeing around in areas we know we should not, we can ease...