"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." -Matthew 11:28-30 ESV What comes to your mind when you think of Jesus? His miraculous birth? His death on a cross? His second coming when he returns to the earth as a powerful King? But what about his gentle, gracious heart which desires to gi

“It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” -Romans 4:24a-25 (ESV throughout; emphasis mine) In Romans 3, Paul claims that no one is righteous (Rom. 3:10). Everyone has sinned . Everyone has fallen short . There is no human being that has lived righteously . C. S. Lewis has said, “Christ takes it for granted that men are bad. Until we really feel this assump

Well, I turned 40 this week. This birthday feels like a milestone, and, if I’m being honest, I’ve been processing it with some difficulty. I wouldn’t call it a midlife crisis, exactly, but there has definitely been some wrestling with the question: “What do I have to show for my life if it is, indeed, halfway over?” I’ve always loved and identified with the quote from the movie You’ve Got Mail about leading a “small life . . . well, valuable but small.”[1] I have always bee