A Picture of Grace in Italy
The world I will roll into tomorrow deserves to see the light of the world shining in the darkness and the works of God displayed through a life disabled but one gloriously enabled by grace.
God’s Word as a Catalyst for Community
Within the pages of the Bible, God has given us the full history of His promise to humanity: to rescue us from death and infuse us with life. Despite its density, we need to read it …and read it regularly.
I’ve always wondered, “If this is the source text for my worldview, why do I barely review it on my own?”
Between the Advents
We often forget that four hundred long, tumultuous years are compressed into the single page that bifurcates our holy scriptures into an old and new testament. Within the infinity of that blank page, God’s people waited and waited and waited in the deafening silence and weighty absence of prophetic words or divine appearances. I can only imagine how their once-helpful hope became heavy and burdensome, rather than buoying, as their faith faded in the long-expected Messiah.
Life in the After
I like the word straining. It implies that looking ahead is not easy; it takes effort. We usually think of strain in relation to pain. And maybe that is what Paul is implying: looking ahead is hard, requiring effort and maybe discomfort. But we must strain forward to what lies ahead, though it may feel better to look back.
Choosing “Through”
God never intended for us to be damsels rescued from distress, but for us to be His co-laborers in this beautiful world, which means he wants us to wake up to who we were created to be.
Luxury Problems
None of us can control much, but we can control our response in life. Each unexpected moment presents us with that opportunity to focus on the bitterness or the blessing.
For What Didn’t Happen
He has permitted certain pains, but He has spared you from far more than you could ever begin to comprehend, neither as a punishment nor as a reward but as a means in which to more fully understand His grace.
What You Get When You Choose Gratitude
This rhythm of thanking God even in the loss of expectation begins to retrain our minds to recognize Him sometimes withholding not just the things we desire but blessedly, the things we most fear.
Naming the Good
It is our choice, perhaps our duty even, to see this good and to call it by name. We must tell each other the story, from the grandiose themes to the name of the smallest beloved one, and in so doing we make manifest the story of hope that is within us all, and it is good.
The Thorns
Since we know the end of the story, we can confidently endure, moreover embrace, the depth of suffering guaranteed in our own days. It is impossible to live in the joy of new life if we don't first internalize just how far we've been taken away from death.
A Short Story of Hope
As life continues and with it struggles and with them hope, we find ourselves losing our grips on the things we don’t even know we are holding so tightly. And yet, we finally find our rest, secure in arms more capable, more loving, more alive than our own.
Survival Guide: Melissa Niednagel Wolmarans
While I have experienced a fair amount of loss in my 35 years of life, I am not someone who is a victim of unjust suffering. am the person who has caused it.
John’s Birth Story
This story is the story of John Nestor Wolf and the day he arrived in the world. This is his story, our story, but it’s your story too. And ultimately, it’s God’s story—the one where new life is birthed from near death, where hope overflows from broken vessels. We are still pondering this profound revelation in our hearts as we hold him in our arms.
Survival Guide: Lisa & Eric Barlow
Life isn't over. It took me some time to figure that out, and there were moments when I had wished it was. Looking at it now, I realize that we have been able to fulfill so many of our dreams, it has just looked different than we had planned.
Survival Guide: The Smiley Family
When you go through something hard, you’ll find a lot of well-meaning people are quick to reassure you that “God never gives you more than you can handle.” But if you’ve ever truly suffered, you know that’s not true. At some point in your life, even if you think you’re ready for it, God is going to give you more than you can handle. And then what do you do?
Survival Guide: Katherine & Jay Wolf
Hope Heals seeks to re-narrate the story of suffering by sharing the lives and lessons of real people—their honest answers, vulnerable struggles, and surprising transformations through enduring life's greatest storms.
Paying Attention to What We Remember
Responsible remembrance is a bit of past-changing magic that gives us the grace of distance, which leaves space for perspective and gratitude to redefine our past, present, and future.
Waiting Well
Our lives have been full of good things, which means our future is full of good things if we are willing to define and identify them rightly.
Glorious Scars
But when we allow our paradigm of healing to shift, her scars begin to look like badges of honor. She can proudly point to this old wounded place and say, “I’m scarred, but I’m still here.”
Joyful Rebellion
What if we could see celebration as a form of worship—a necessary, life-giving acknowledgement of God's goodness?