stop feeding the fire

Without wood a fire goes out; without a gossip a quarrel dies down.
- Proverbs 26:20 (NIV)
 
My handsome and amazing husband is perfect for me. We're one of those couples who will ask, “What do you want for dinner?” while already knowing exactly what we want. In fact, we have a rule in our marriage: You can't ask the other person what they want for dinner unless you have at least one suggestion of your own. Saturday night, Randy wanted steak. Not unusual for a weekend, and he's a really good grill master, so I was completely on board. Simple plan: Fire up the grill. Cook dinner. Eat steak.
Except apparently, sometimes good grills go bad.
We went outside to find smoke and flames rolling out of the grill. The lid was so hot we couldn't lift it. We immediately shut off the propane and started dousing the flames. It got hot enough to melt the dials off the front and crack the glass window.
Needless to say, there was no steak dinner Saturday night. But later I thought about what we'd done. We didn't stand there arguing with the grill. We didn't keep trying to cook the steak because that was the plan. We shut off the fuel source.
Sometimes the smartest thing we can do spiritually is stop feeding the fire.
An argument. Gossip. Anger. Resentment. Social media drama. Someone who keeps baiting us. Even our own thoughts replaying something somebody did six months ago. Sometimes we keep supplying the propane and then wonder why the flames won't go out.
Some fires don't need us to fight them. They need us to quit fueling them.
Saturday night, we disconnected the propane before anything serious happened. We lost a grill and a steak. (Although apparently the steak wasn't a total loss. One of the Backyardigans thought charbroiled beyond recognition was perfectly acceptable).
But that burned-up grill left me with a question worth asking:
When something in my life starts burning hotter than it should, maybe my first question shouldn't be, “How do I put this out?”
Maybe it should be: “What am I feeding it?”
 
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Daily Inspiration from the Bible

did you see that?

How many are your works, Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.
— Psalm 104:24 NIV
 
I think most of us have a morning or evening commute—a route we've driven so many times we could almost do it in our sleep. When we travel the same roads every day, it's easy to stop noticing what's around us. We focus hon getting where we're going and everything along the way becomes background.
The other day I was driving home from work and stopped at a traffic light along my normal route. Nothing unusual about that. But I happened to glance to my right.
And there he was. A little groundhog, happily nibbling on a tree.
Obviously, my first thought was that I should grab him and take him home. 😂 He was only 1.3 miles from my house! He could join the Backyardigans, live completely free, be fed regularly and, of course, have a name.
I didn't.
The light turned green, and I continued home, leaving little Wobbles exactly where he belonged. But I've looked for him every day since. It made me wonder: How much do we miss simply because we're so focused on where we're going?
Psalm 104 reminds us just how many of God's works surround us and that the earth is full of His creatures. They're there whether we notice them or not.
And maybe that applies to more than groundhogs. We tend to care more once we've noticed. We can't encourage the person we never see. We can't help with the need we don't notice. We can't appreciate the little gifts God puts along our path when we're too busy staring at the destination. Sometimes we need to slow down—not necessarily our vehicle, but our attention.
Look around.
Notice people. Notice needs. Notice creation. Notice the little unexpected things God has placed along today's familiar road. You never know what you've been driving past. And apparently, sometimes it's a groundhog named Wobbles.
 
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Daily Inspiration from the Bible
 

hand of God

 For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.

— Isaiah 41:13 (NIV)
 
Have you ever looked at the sky and found shapes in the clouds? It might be a children's game, but I still do it. I love finding dragons and dinosaurs, whales and cars in the puffy white clouds. A few weeks ago, I happened to look out the window at work and noticed an unusual group of clouds. The first thing I saw was fingers—almost like an outstretched hand. And immediately I thought, the hand of God.
We tend to look for God's hand in the big stuff. The answered prayer. The miracle. The door that suddenly opens. The disaster we narrowly avoided. But most days don't look like that. Most days look like sitting at work, looking out a window, doing ordinary life. Yet His hand is still there.
Sometimes it's easy to see God's hand. Other times we're standing in the middle of something we don't understand. The prayer hasn't been answered. We don't know where the road is leading. We can't connect the dots. Maybe faith isn't always seeing God's hand. Sometimes faith is trusting the hand you're holding.
Not every situation will end the way we hoped. Not every prayer will be answered the way we expected. But God doesn't promise that we'll always understand what He's doing. He promises that we won't walk through it alone. And so often, when we finally get far enough down the road to look back, we can see things we couldn't see while we were living them.
Turns out, His hand was there all along.
 
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Daily Inspiration from the Bible

truth in advertising

In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
- Matthew 5:16 (NIV)
 
When smartphones first came out, my kids would ask me about games, and I was very clear: “I don't play games on my phone.”
Apparently, I meant "yet". I currently have somewhere around 51 games downloaded on my phone. In my defense, some of them are games my granddaughter plays. Some are relaxing games that help me wind down. Others are puzzles and word games that I tell myself are keeping my aging brain active. But almost every one of them has something in common:
Ads.
And then there's social media.
The ads there seem to know exactly what might catch my attention. I've successfully broken my Temu addiction. I'm trying very hard not to buy more clothes. But somehow “Pete's Pasta” convinced me that I needed to try their no-carb pasta. Then there are ads promising to tell me my feminine archetype. At 57, I'm pretty confident I can dress myself—but I admit I did ask my good friend ChatGPT about it. There are products I've never heard of, exercise programs I'm suddenly convinced I should try, watch bands, underwear, health products and things I didn't know existed five minutes ago that I am now wondering if I need.
That's what good advertising does, it gets our attention. It makes us curious, it shows us something and makes us think :maybe I want that.
And somewhere in all those advertisements, I started wondering, what if we advertised God?
Not with flashy commercials or catchy slogans. And certainly not by trying to “sell” Jesus as though following Him is another product promising to make our lives easier.
What if we were the advertisement?
Jesus tells us in Matthew 5 to let our light shine so that people see what we do and ultimately glorify our Father. In other words, people should be able to see evidence of God in the way we live.
What would that advertisement look like?
Maybe it's peace in a situation where everyone expects panic. Maybe it's kindness toward someone who can't do anything for us in return. Or maybe it's forgiveness when holding a grudge would be easier, or generosity without needing recognition. Maybe it's sitting beside someone who's hurting when we don't have the words to fix anything or maybe it's admitting when we're wrong. Perhaps maybe it's joy that doesn't disappear simply because life gets difficult. And maybe someone watching begins to wonder what do they have that I don't?
That's when our lives have an opportunity to point toward Jesus. But here's where truth in advertising matters. Following Christ doesn't mean everything suddenly becomes easy. Christ followers still get sick. We still lose people we love. We still struggle. We still make mistakes. We still have days when our faith feels strong and days when we have questions.
We're not advertising a perfect life, we're showing people a faithful God in the middle of an imperfect one. And unlike the ads that promise something miraculous if we'll just click BUY NOW, Jesus isn't asking us to make exaggerated claims on His behalf. He's asking us to live differently because we know Him.
To love, to serve, to forgive, to give, to shine. And when someone notices the difference, we can tell them where the Light comes from.
So maybe the question isn't: “Would people buy in if we advertised God?”
Maybe it's: “When people look at my life, what am I advertising?”
I hope they see enough of Jesus in me to want to know Him for themselves.
No pop-up ad required.
 
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Daily Inspiration from the Bible
 

it doesn't fit anymore

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us
- Hebrews 12:1 (NIV)
 
Even though the weather hasn't exactly gotten the message that fall is coming, I took advantage of the long weekend to start pulling out my fall and winter clothes, which somehow turned into a complete closet cleanout. As I started going through things, I realized that a lot of my clothes simply don't fit anymore. After losing so much weight, that's certainly not a bad problem to have. But I'll admit, there were a few things that were hard to put in the donation pile. Some of my favorite cat shirts and sweaters had to go—including my beloved blouse with a cat version of Van Gogh's Starry Night. I love that blouse. But no matter how much I love it, I'm never going to be able to wear it again. So why am I carrying it into another season? And somewhere between the keep pile and the donation box, my closet started preaching.
Because maybe that's a question worth asking about more than clothes: What am I still carrying that doesn't belong in this season of my life? We go through our closets deciding what still fits and what doesn't. We pull things out, look at them, remember when we wore them, and decide whether they still have a place.
But we aren't always as willing to clean out the spiritual clutter. We keep carrying the horrible things a boss once said or did to us, we carry the lies that destroyed a friendship. We carry old disappointments, resentment, rejection, embarrassment and conversations that ended years ago but somehow keep replaying in our heads. Some of those things hurt deeply. Putting them down doesn't mean they weren't important. It doesn't mean what happened was okay. And it certainly doesn't mean we have to pretend we don't remember.
It simply means we don't have to keep carrying them.
Hebrews tells us to throw off everything that hinders us so we can run the race God has placed before us.
Maybe some things belonged to another season. Maybe they taught us something, maybe they changed us. Maybe there are even parts of that season we'll always remember. But that doesn't mean they still fit the life God is leading us into now.
There was nothing wrong with my Starry Night cat blouse. It just doesn't fit anymore. And maybe there's something you've been carrying that doesn't fit anymore either. An old hurt. Someone else's opinion of you. A mistake you've already asked God to forgive. A grudge you've gotten so accustomed to carrying that you've forgotten how heavy it is. A version of yourself that God has already helped you outgrow.
Maybe it's time to take it out, acknowledge what it meant, and finally say: I'm not carrying this into another season.
There is freedom in making room.
And just like that closet suddenly has space for the clothes that fit the person I am today, maybe our hearts need some empty space too—for what God is doing now and for whatever He has waiting in the season ahead.
 
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Daily Inspiration from the Bible 

dinos and pink bows

The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.
- Zephaniah 3:17 (NIV)
 
At 57 years old, I never thought I would have an interest in dinosaurs, Spidey and His Amazing Friends, Paw Patrol or SuperKitties.
Then my world exploded with two absolutely adorable grandchildren. Suddenly, things I probably wouldn't have given a second thought became important. I find myself teaching a little girl to sew and doing crafty things simply because they make her happy. We watch cartoons on the big screen outside. I buy dresses for Grandpa-granddaughter dates. We're teaching both of them to ride dirt bikes and four-wheelers. There are swimming lessons and magnetic-tile garages to build. Dinosaurs get hauled around in toy trucks, and sometimes the day ends with a snuggly kiddo beside me watching something quiet while I attempt to convince him that going to sleep is actually a good idea.
Somewhere along the way, our world changed.
We still have all the adult things. There are jobs and bills and groceries and laundry and responsibilities. But now, when we're deciding what to do, there's another question:
Can we involve the grandkids?
And suddenly I'm interested in dinosaurs. Not because I've developed a lifelong fascination with the Tyrannosaurus rex.I care about dinosaurs because someone I love cares about dinosaurs. I care about pink bows and crafts and cartoons and little dirt bikes because the people I love light up when we're doing those things together.
And I think sometimes we underestimate how much God delights in us that way. We know God loves us. We say it all the time. But do we ever stop to think that God enjoys us?
Zephaniah tells us that God delights in His people and rejoices over them.
That's different from imagining a distant God who watches from heaven and occasionally intervenes when something is important enough to get His attention. He's our Father, and what matters to His children matters to Him.
That doesn't mean God gives us everything we want. And it doesn't mean every little desire we have is part of some enormous divine plan. It means relationship changes the importance of the conversation.
When my grandson tells me something about a dinosaur, I listen. The dinosaur isn't what makes the conversation important. He is. When my granddaughter wants to show me something she's made, I want to see it. The craft isn't precious to me because of what it's worth. She is.
Maybe we sometimes decide that something is too small to bring to God. Surely God has more important things to worry about. Of course there are enormous things happening in this world. But an infinite God doesn't have to ration His attention.
So tell Him. Tell Him what made you happy today, what you're worried about, about the thing you're excited about that nobody else seems to understand, about the disappointment that seems too insignificant to bother anyone with. Bring Him the big things, the little things, the dinosaurs and the pink bows.
Because sometimes what matters most isn't the thing we're talking about. It's the relationship between the One listening and the child doing the talking. And you are His child.
 
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Daily Inspiration from the Bible

welcome home

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household
- Ephesians 2:19 (NIV)
 
There are two words that always catch my attention when I travel: “Welcome home.”
The funny thing is, I'm usually nowhere near my house when I hear them. I've heard “welcome home” at vacation resorts. I've heard it at campgrounds. I've heard it when arriving at CMA events and rallies. And every time, it makes me happy, because sometimes that campground in Oklahoma is home, sometimes the facility on Iron Mountain in Mena, Arkansas is home and there are even times when that vacation resort is home. Not because that's where my house is or because my belongings are there or that's the address on my driver's license.
It's home because I've been there before. I know the place. I know the people. There are memories there. There are people I'm excited to see—and people who are excited to see me. Somewhere along the way, those people stopped being strangers. They became family.
Maybe that's why I love the words Paul uses in Ephesians 2:19 so much, “Members of His household.”
Not visitors., not strangers standing awkwardly at the door, not guests who need to behave themselves because they're in somebody else's house. Family.
Think about the difference between being a guest in someone's house and being family. A guest waits to be invited in. A guest might wonder where they're supposed to sit. A guest asks before opening the refrigerator. A guest worries about overstaying their welcome. Family walks through the door and hears: “Welcome home.”
And God says that is who we are. Through Christ, we aren't outsiders trying to get close enough to God. We aren't visitors hoping He'll let us stay a little longer. We don't have to wonder whether there's room for us at the table.
We belong to His household. I think sometimes we forget that. We approach God like guests. We try to clean ourselves up before we come in. We worry that we've messed up too many times. We wonder whether we've been away too long. We look around at everyone else and think maybe they belong here more than we do.
But that's not what Scripture says. It says we are no longer strangers. We are His people. We are His family. We are home.
And maybe that's also why there are places on this earth that can feel like home even when our house is hundreds of miles away. God gives us glimpses of what belonging feels like through the people He puts around us.
Someday, we'll hear the greatest “Welcome home” of all. But until then, we don't have to stand outside wondering whether we belong. The door is open. There's a place for us. We're family.
Welcome home.
 
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Daily Inspiration from the Bible