Conntecting the Dots

Posts Tagged: James

How to Remain Confident When We Feel Like Giving Up

How can we remain confident when we feel like giving up? By ignoring the little voice that feeds us doom and gloom. You know how it goes…. Worry whispers that inflation is going to make it impossible for us to pay the bills and we’ll soon end up a homeless statistic. Anxiety assures us that… [ read more ]

Remember This When Bad News Comes

Bad news came to my inbox this week: Someone’s 14-year-old daughter went missing. A husband relapsed into drug addiction. A personal friend landed in ICU on a ventilator. Another friend was diagnosed with dementia. Jesus knows how easily we can lose heart when bad news comes our way. Perhaps that’s why He said, “Don’t let… [ read more ]

Choosing Joy on the Journey

Choosing joy is easier said than done when our life’s journey takes twists and turns as plentiful as the Rocky Mountain road on which Sailor-Man and I are traveling today. We’ve covered these miles many times in the past 40 years. Today’s trip seems one of the easiest because the weather is more like summer… [ read more ]

Becoming Visible

Cheri Strange connected with me recently online and asked me to consider endorsing her new book, Can You See Me, Now? Good news for the lonely, left out, and less than.  I read it from cover to cover, and I loved it. I could totally relate to the reality of feeling overlooked and invisible, and… [ read more ]

Taming the Tongue

  Taming the tongue isn’t easy. This is true at any time, but moreso in the current political climate. How many times in the past couple of years have you forced yourself to refrain from saying something regrettable? Or perhaps you didn’t: You expressed an opinion contrary to a friend or family member’s and sparked… [ read more ]

5 Good Reasons to Trust God

  Jesus said, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me” (NLT). His words—“Don’t let your hearts be troubled”—imply that we have control over worry and fear’s role in our lives. We can choose to let them run rampant or we can choose to trust God instead.   Letting… [ read more ]

God Still Speaks to Us Today  

  Several days ago, I was immersed in writing materials for a weekly Zoom Bible study I teach when I heard a little whisper. “Do your laundry now,” it said.   “What? But I’m in the middle of doing work that has to be finished today,” I said.   The whisper persisted. “Do your laundry… [ read more ]

3 Ways to Wait Well

  The pandemic has canceled our overseas ministry travels this year. I’ll be honest—I don’t miss the challenges that go hand-in-hand with international travel. Especially the waiting. A couple of years ago, a flight to Slovakia topped all.   The trip began in Vancouver. While waiting at the gate for our flight to Toronto, I… [ read more ]

How to Spread Contagious Joy

  We’ve heard the word “contagious” more times than we can count in the past few weeks. We all know that COVID-19 is easily spread from one person to another, so we wear masks to prevent droplets from escaping our mouths. We wash our hands multiple times a day. We wear gloves at the gas… [ read more ]

4 Meditations on the Names of Jesus – Week 1

  The Christmas season is upon us full bore. Even the international airlines featured Hallmark-type Christmas movies on our flight from England to the USA yesterday. I’ll admit it—I enjoy wrapping myself in a warm blanket and watching these movies for fun on cold winter nights as Christmas approaches. I also enjoy wrapping gifts, baking… [ read more ]