I always like to start off my year thinking about how I can better set myself up for success in the days ahead – I think we all do. But more than the physical/financial/entrepreneurial/career goals we outline, I like to spend more time thinking about what I want to change internally – in my heart and mind – than I do about what I want to change externally. One of my themes for this year is ‘New Wine’ stemming from Jesus’ conversation with his disciples in the gospels: And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.” Mark 2:22 What Jesus is referring to in this passage is the fact that the vessel determines the viability of what is deposited into it. You can pour…

Or a crisis of Faith. Call it what you want. As a Christian, a crisis of Faith can feel very much like an existential crisis. If we were created by God for His purpose, and for His worship, then lost faith in God means lost faith in our very reason for being. A low point when you begin to question the very foundations on which you have built your entire life and planned out your entire future cannot BE considered anything less than existential. Such an existential crisis can present itself in many forms. Most times in my life, those seasons of doubt have been led by seasons of great disappointment, when God didn’t come through for me like He said He would or like I thought He would. Other times they come when we feel like we have been giving God and people our everything and receiving very little in return….

Joseph’s biggest problem in Genesis 37 really isn’t that he has jealous brothers… No, Joseph’s biggest problem is that he’s a braggart. Let’s take a closer look: Joseph’s story starts out by telling us a little bit about him: “The story continues with Joseph, seventeen years old at the time, helping out his brothers in herding the flocks. These were his half brothers actually, the sons of his father’s wives Bilhah and Zilpah. And Joseph brought his father bad reports on them.” A 17-year old tattle-tale? Already we can’t stand him. But oh, it gets worse: “Israel (Jacob) loved Joseph more than any of his other sons because he was the child of his old age. And he made him an elaborately embroidered coat. When his brothers realized that their father loved him more than them, they grew to hate him—they wouldn’t even speak to him.” So not only is…

Have you ever doubted that God cares? I definitely have. It’s like you know He’s there, and He’s all-powerful, you just doubt He’s as concerned about what you’re going through as you are. The break up. The loss of a family member or a friend. An unemployment situation. An empty bank account. We know He’s all-knowing, but somehow He seems ridiculously absent and uncaring in those situations. We ask, if you really cared so much, why did you let this happen? Why put me through this? Why let me follow you all this while and still allow me to have to endure this? In our minds and our hearts, we see God as removed from our problems while they’re actually happening – as someone who either comes in to save the day, or not. Sometimes it’s hard to fathom in our storms that God is moved by what we’re going…