the kickstand

But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
- 2 Corinthians 12:9 (NIV)
 
Let me tell you about the motorcycle ride I took this weekend.
I went approximately zero feet.
Camp Eagle Rock is set up so several groups can be there at the same time. Our CMA group gathers at Gray Fox Lodge, where we have cabins, a big conference area, room for the kids to play while the adults do Bible study, a kitchen for snacks and—most importantly—a coffee pot.
The wonderful staff feeds us three very good meals every day and provides activities around the camp. Since everything is spread out, we use ATVs and dirt bikes to shuffle people back and forth. I was in the final group to go axe throwing. When we finished, we had three adults, one kiddo, two ATVs and Randy's Honda TransAlp.
Easy solution: I'll ride the TransAlp. After all, I ride a motorcycle. I've had my motorcycle license for years. This wasn't exactly my first time on two wheels. I climbed onto the bike, centered myself on the seat and leaned over to pick up the kickstand.
Except...I kept leaning. The kickstand never came up. And neither did I. I just flopped over onto my left side, effectively wedging myself between the TransAlp, an ATV and the ground.
I never started the motorcycle, I never put it in gear, I never moved an inch, I never even got off the kickstand.
The problem wasn't that I didn't know how to ride a motorcycle. The problem was that this wasn't my motorcycle. The TransAlp is taller than what I normally ride. Its weight felt different. Its balance was different. Where my feet landed was different.
I approached it thinking, I know how to do this. And technically, I did. But knowing how to ride didn't change the weight of what I was sitting on.
I think we do that in life, too. We look at something in front of us and think: I've done this before. I've handled hard things, I know how this works - I've got this. Until suddenly we don't.
Something shifts.
The weight is different, our footing isn't where we expected it to be. And before we've even gotten started, we find ourselves thinking, How in the world did I end up down here?
Maybe there's a reason God never asked us to prove that we can handle everything.
Paul asked God to remove something he was struggling with, but God's answer was, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
God didn't tell Paul to try harder, He reminded Paul where his strength came from.
There's nothing wrong with experience. There's nothing wrong with confidence. And there's certainly nothing wrong with knowing how to ride your own motorcycle.
But sometimes we encounter something that reminds us that our own strength has limits.
And maybe that's not failure - maybe it's an invitation. An invitation to stop saying, “I've got this,” and start saying, “God, I've got You.”
Because there will be things in life that are taller than we're used to.
Heavier than we expected, different from anything we've handled before, and occasionally, we may discover that before we've even gotten off the kickstand.
When that happens, we don't have to pretend we're strong enough. His grace is sufficient. His strength doesn't depend on ours, and sometimes the first step forward is simply admitting:
This is heavier than I thought.
 
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Daily Inspiration from the Bible
 

empty but full

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
— 2 Corinthians 4:16 (NIV)
 
I am tired. Not the I could use an extra cup of coffee kind of tired. I'm talking about the we just spent the weekend at Camp Eagle Rock kind of tired.
And it was wonderful.
We spent the weekend with our CMA family. Some were people who have been there before, and this year we had new people join us too. We studied God's Word together through Kyle Idleman's When Your Way Isn't Working, and some of those lessons hit pretty close to home. We worshiped, talked, and laughed. We made little crosses in the blacksmith shop. We threw axes. We rode ATVs and dirt bikes. We worked together on a 500-piece puzzle. We ate together, sat together, we simply did life together for a little while. And somewhere in the middle of all of it, God filled us.
That's the strange thing about weekends like this. I came home physically empty. My body is tired. My muscles know I did things they don't normally do. There are bags to unpack, laundry to wash, things to put away, and regular life is already waiting for us.
But inside? I'm full.
Paul wrote, “Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.”
I understand that a little better today.
Sometimes we think being renewed means resting until we aren't tired anymore. But maybe renewal isn't always about what happens to our bodies. Sometimes God renews us while we're sitting around a table with friends. Sometimes He renews us through a conversation we didn't know we needed. Sometimes it's through a Bible study that seems to speak directly into something we've been carrying. Sometimes it's through laughter, through worship.
Sometimes it's standing beside a fire, pounding a piece of hot metal into a little cross. And sometimes it's simply stepping away from the normal noise of life long enough to remember what really matters.
We went to Camp Eagle Rock with schedules, bags, motorcycles, helmets, expectations, and probably a few burdens nobody else could see.
We came home tired.
But somewhere along the way, God took some of those burdens and replaced them with something else: encouragement, connection, peace, joy. A reminder that we aren't walking this road alone.
Maybe that's one of the beautiful things about allowing God to fill us. Our bodies can be tired while our souls are rested. Our energy can be empty while our hearts are full.
Today I may need a little extra coffee, I may move a little slower, and that laundry isn't going anywhere, but I wouldn't trade this tired for anything.
Because sometimes you come home exhausted... and realize you've been renewed.
 
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Daily Inspiration from the Bible

tomorrow

 
For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning.
- Psalm 30:5 (NKJV)
 
I love sunrises and sunsets. I feel like some of God's most beautiful paintings are put right there in the sky for us to simply look up and see. But maybe the best thing about a sunrise is this: Every sunrise is evidence that yesterday ended. Whatever happened yesterday—good, bad, exhausting, disappointing, frightening, or just plain boring—it eventually ran out of hours.
Then morning came.
Psalm 30:5 reminds us that weeping may last for the night, but joy comes in the morning.
Have you ever considered how often we talk about “tomorrow”? Even Scarlett O'Hara did it in Gone With the Wind: “I'll think about it tomorrow... After all, tomorrow is another day.”
I'll deal with it tomorrow.
Maybe tomorrow will be better.
I'll try again tomorrow.
We'll see what happens tomorrow.
But eventually...tomorrow comes. And sometimes nothing dramatic happens when it does. The sun simply rises while we're going about our ordinary lives.
A couple weeks ago, I caught a gorgeous sunrise on my way to work. There was no beach, mountain or beautiful lake in front of it. There was a parking garage. And yet, there behind all that concrete was this spectacular sunrise.
Sometimes we're so busy waiting for the beautiful season, the answered prayer, the perfect circumstances, the vacation, the weekend, or the next milestone that we miss the beauty God put right behind the parking garage.
God doesn't require a beautiful setting to create a beautiful moment. He doesn't need perfect surroundings. And neither do we.
So don't wait for the perfect view to start looking for Him. Look for God in the ordinary places. Look for Him on the commute, at work, in the backyard, behind the parking garage. Because God is present in an awful lot of ordinary life when we're paying attention.
And if yesterday was a hard one? Look up. Tomorrow came.
 
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Daily Inspiration from the Bible

still growing

But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.
- Jeremiah 17:7–8 (NIV)
 
This year, I decided to plant a garden. I already had the raised beds, thanks to my handy husband. All I had to do was fill them with dirt and seeds, water them, and watch everything grow.
Well...that was the plan.
The carrot seeds were eaten by some critters—I suspect the Backyardigans. My zucchini fell prey to the dreaded squash bugs, quickly followed by the cucumbers. The green beans were amazing producers, but the strawberries became snacks for little grubs. The chickpeas were kind of “meh,” and we haven't dug up the beets yet, but they aren't looking very promising.
The tomatoes, though? Good grief. I had tomatoes for DAYS.
Then the rain stopped. And it stayed gone long enough that cities began asking people to conserve water and burn bans started popping up. The garden stopped getting watered. The ground became dry. Rain was scarce. Everything started looking a little thirsty.
Then we got a few sprinkles. And later, a few more. And apparently that was all my tomatoes needed.
They're still growing.
Jeremiah 17 describes someone who trusts in God as a tree whose roots reach toward the water. When the heat comes, it doesn't have to be afraid—and it keeps producing fruit.
We have dry seasons, too. Seasons when prayer feels harder. When answers don't come. When we're tired. When life isn't particularly exciting. When we don't feel like we're flourishing. But apparently my tomatoes didn't get the memo that there's a drought. They're just out there doing tomato things. Maybe that's because what matters isn't only what's falling from the sky. It also matters where the roots are finding their water.
Our circumstances may be dry, but we don't have to dry up with them. When our roots are deep in God, He can continue growing love, patience, kindness, faithfulness and peace in us—even when the conditions around us aren't ideal.
You don't have to look like the season you're living in. Stay rooted. Keep growing. And keep producing fruit. Even in a drought.
 
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Daily Inspiration from the Bible

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