#biblicalcourage

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The Lord, Our Refiner: Beauty After the Fire

I’ve spent enough time in the field to know that fire is never the end of the story.Recently, I stood in an area that had been scorched. The ground was blackened. The air still carried that faint burnt smell. And everything looked finished. Dead. Empty. Like nothing good could ever come from it again.But if you’ve worked in conservation long enough, you know better.Because after the fire comes…

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The Part That Undoes Me Every Time

It just hit me differently this morning. I was sitting with my coffee, probably scrolling through things I didn’t need to see, when my mind just… stopped. It landed on a thought so big I had to put my phone down.We talk about Jesus coming to earth, and we usually start in the stable. We picture the manger, the animals, the quiet night. But that’s not the beginning. Not really.Before the cold…

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The Day I Stopped Playing Myself

I have a confession to make: I am a terrible main character.For years, I’ve been approaching life like it’s a game I’m destined to lose. I’d wake up every morning, select my character, “Me”, and try to grind my way to victory. I’d load up on armor made of good intentions, equip weapons of willpower, and tell myself, “Okay, this time I’m ready. This time I’ll beat this level.”But I never did.The…

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When the Road Disappears

There’s a particular kind of tired that doesn’t come from physical labor. It’s the exhaustion of not knowing. Of standing at a crossroads where the signposts are blurred, the map is outdated, and the path ahead seems to vanish into a thick, gray fog. Maybe you’re there now. Maybe the diagnosis is uncertain. Maybe the career path has crumbled. Maybe a relationship hangs in the balance, or the…

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2026: The Only Resolution That Matters

It’s that time again. The turn of the calendar, the blank page, the whisper of “new year, new me.” I’ve made those lists. I’ve clenched my jaw and vowed that this year, I’ll finally become the stronger, more successful, more disciplined, more “together” version of myself. And, if you’re like me, by mid-January, that determination can feel as flat as last year’s ambitions.But this morning, in the…

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The Touch That Stopped the Savior

Of all the stories in the Gospels, the one about the woman who touched the edge of His garment always finds me. Maybe it is because I have felt so much like her. Pushed aside by the crowd, weary from a long struggle, and feeling utterly unseen. For twelve years, she suffered. Twelve years of doctors and treatments that only left her worse. Twelve years of being labeled unclean, untouchable,…

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The Anchor for My Shifting Soul

I cannot trust my emotions. If I’m honest, that’s a difficult sentence to write. My feelings are so immediate, so loud, and so convincing. When anxiety wraps its cold hands around my heart, it feels like the truest reality. In moments of deep sadness, it seems as if the sun will never shine again. And when fleeting happiness arrives, I’m tempted to believe I’ve finally built a life that can…

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With a Trowel in One Hand and a Sword in the Other: The Lesson Nehemiah Taught Me

used to think the life of faith was a series of separate seasons. There were times for building—for focused, peaceful work on the dreams God had placed in my heart. And then there were times for fightingfor battening down the hatches and weathering a storm of opposition, doubt, or crisis.I was wrong.It was the ancient, dust-covered story of Nehemiah that shattered my neat and tidy categories. In…

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