Posts with the tag “courage”

Sunday you heard about the moment Nehemiah had to open his mouth and ask. He had been carrying the burden for months. He had prayed. He had planned. And then the king looked at him and said why does your face look sad. And everything came down to what Nehemiah did in that moment. He asked. Most of us have something we need to ask for and have not asked for yet. A conversation we need to start. A door we need to knock on. Help we need to admit we cannot get along without. We are waiting for the perfect moment, the right words, the guarantee that the answer will be yes before we risk the vulnerability of asking. There is no perfect moment. There never is. Nehemiah was standing in front of the most powerful man in the world with no guarantee and no script and a prayer he sent up in about three seconds between the question and the answer. You know what you need to do. You have known for a while. The plan is not the problem. The ask is the problem. This week, make the ask. Send the message. Make the call. Walk through the door you have been standing outside of. You do not need certainty. You need the same thing Nehemiah had: a God who goes before you into rooms you cannot control. The opposition will show up when you start moving. That is actually a sign you are going the right direction. Sanballat showed up the same day Nehemiah got permission. The resistance is not a reason to stop. It is confirmation that what you are building matters. Ask. Move. Trust the One who opened the door.  Read More

On September 11, 2001, Genelle Guzman-McMillan was trapped in the rubble of the North Tower for twenty-seven hours. Alive in the dark. Unable to move. Unable to see. With no way to know whether anyone was still looking. On September 12, a hand found hers. The ancient Jewish framework for understanding history has a name for the age we are living in. Olam Hazeh. This current age. The age of the rubble. The groaning. The twenty-seven hours. But Olam Hazeh is not the final word. Acts 3:21 says Jesus remains in heaven until the restoration of all things. All things. The rubble is not the ending. The rescue is still underway. Read the full post.  Read More