AUGUST 23, 2026

   “I think if I've learned anything about friendship, it's to hang in, stay connected, fight for them, and let them fight for you. Don't walk away, don't be distracted, don't be too busy or tired, don't take them for granted. Friends are part of the glue that holds life and faith together. Powerful stuff.” 

― Jon Katz

PSALM 119:105-176

145I call with all my heart; answer me, Lord,

and I will obey your decrees.

146I call out to you; save me

and I will keep your statutes.

147I rise before dawn and cry for help;

I have put my hope in your word.

148My eyes stay open through the watches of the night,

that I may meditate on your promises.

149Hear my voice in accordance with your love;

preserve my life, Lord, according to your laws.

150Those who devise wicked schemes are near,

but they are far from your law.

151Yet you are near, Lord,

and all your commands are true.

152Long ago I learned from your statutes

that you established them to last forever.

1 CORINTHIANS 5

6Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? 7Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

JOURNAL 

There is something revealing about seeing arrogance or desperation in another person. I don't mean that judgmentally, because I recognize both in myself. But when I see someone desperately seeking approval, demanding recognition, manipulating circumstances or trying to convince everyone of their importance, it reminds me how exhausting and ultimately futile that pursuit really is. Arrogance and desperation can look completely different on the outside, but I wonder if they don't often come from the same place: the need to be accepted, valued and loved.

Maybe that is one of the reasons God is so insistent that I receive those things from Him first. "Yet you are near, Lord." I don't have to convince God of my value. I don't have to perform for Him, manipulate Him or somehow become impressive enough to earn His attention. Through Christ, I am already loved and accepted. The question is whether I can actually receive that and allow it to become enough.

Because when I don't, I inevitably start looking for acceptance somewhere else. I want people to notice what I do. I want appreciation. I want affirmation. And when I don't get it, frustration can turn into resentment, insecurity or even arrogance. I can begin trying to manufacture from other people something they were never capable of permanently giving me.

But if I can receive my acceptance from God, something changes. I no longer have to enter relationships asking, consciously or unconsciously, "What can you give me?" Instead, I can begin asking, "What can I give you?" I can encourage without needing encouragement returned. I can love without controlling the response. I can celebrate someone else's success without feeling diminished by it. I can tell a friend the truth without worrying that honesty will cost me their approval.

Maybe that is what makes real friendship, marriage and family so powerful and also so difficult. Jon Katz says to "hang in, stay connected, fight for them, and let them fight for you." That requires people who aren't constantly keeping score. It requires enough security to be honest, enough humility to receive correction and enough love to remain when things get messy.

Paul's warning about "a little yeast" reminds me that insecurity, pride, resentment and dishonesty don't stay contained. They work their way into everything. The answer isn't pretending they aren't there. It is returning to sincerity and truth, first about myself and then with the people I love.

Perhaps this is another part of surrender. Stop trying to extract from other people what God has already offered freely. Receive His love. Receive His acceptance. Receive the truth that I am His. Then walk into the world from fullness rather than desperation. A friend loves at all times. Maybe I become capable of loving that way only when I finally understand that I am already loved that way. And when I don't need everyone around me to prove that I matter, I become much freer to show them how much they matter.

17A friend loves at all times,

and a brother is born for a time of adversity.

- PROVERBS 17:17

AUGUST 22, 2026

   “Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.” 

― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

JEREMIAH 7-8

Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in obedience to all I command you, that it may go well with you. (7:23) 

1 TIMOTHY 2

1I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— 2for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, 6who gave himself as a ransom for all people.

JOURNAL 

Yesterday reminded me how quickly perspective can change everything. I can be living inside frustration, disappointment and discouragement and begin telling myself a story about what is happening. Nothing is working. Nobody notices. Maybe what I am doing doesn't really matter. Maybe all this effort isn't worth it. And if I stay inside that internal dialogue long enough, it begins to feel like truth.

That is what makes Dostoyevsky's words so powerful. "Above all, don't lie to yourself." Sometimes the lies I tell myself aren't intentional. They are simply the conclusions I reach when I allow my emotions in one difficult moment to define the whole story. Yesterday began to change when I was reminded of how many people actually appreciate what I do, how many people notice, how many lives are being affected in ways I don't always get to see. The circumstances hadn't necessarily changed. My perspective had.

And suddenly frustration could become motivation. Disappointment could become gratitude. What had felt like reasons to toss in the towel became reasons to keep going. Not because I suddenly needed the approval of other people, but because their appreciation reminded me of something I had temporarily forgotten: what I am doing matters. The seeds we plant often grow where we cannot see them.

Maybe that is another reason God continually calls me back to the present. Today, right now, this moment, God is here. Yesterday is permanent, and tomorrow is unknown. But today is still full of possibility. I can spend it replaying what went wrong, worrying about what might happen, or convincing myself that my efforts don't matter. Or I can tell myself the truth.

The truth is that I have been given people to love, students to teach, players to coach, a family to encourage and opportunities to serve. I won't always see the results. I won't always feel appreciated. Some days will be frustrating and some will leave me wondering

 9Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.

DEUTERONOMY 7:9

AUGUST 21, 2026

 “I asked her what was so scary about unmerited free grace? She replied something like this: "If I was saved by my good works -- then there would be a limit to what God could ask of me or put me through. I would be like a taxpayer with rights. I would have done my duty and now I would deserve a certain quality of life. But if it is really true that I am a sinner saved by sheer grace -- at God's infinite cost -- then there's nothing he cannot ask of me.” 

― Timothy Keller, The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith

PSALM 119:1-48

33Teach me, Lord, the way of your decrees,

that I may follow it to the end.^b

34Give me understanding, so that I may keep your law

and obey it with all my heart.

35Direct me in the path of your commands,

for there I find delight.

36Turn my heart toward your statutes

and not toward selfish gain. 

1 CORINTHIANS 3

5What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. 6I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. 7So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor.

JOURNAL 

Yesterday was a really hard day. It felt like everything was being challenged, nothing seemed to go right, and by the time I woke up this morning there was a part of me that just wanted to toss in the towel. Not necessarily on anything specific, but on the effort of it all. The constant trying, hoping, working, praying and believing only to have another day where circumstances seem to push back from every direction.

Those are the days when the questions get louder. Why am I here? Where is my hope? What am I supposed to do? When things are going well, those questions can almost feel philosophical. After a day like yesterday, they become very real. And yet the answers haven't changed. I am here because God created me. My hope is in the God who created me. And what I am supposed to do is seek Him and faithfully respond to whatever He places in front of me today.

Maybe the difficulty is that I still want faithfulness to produce the outcomes I hope for. Somewhere inside me is the belief that if I work hard enough, love well enough, pray enough and try to follow God, things should eventually work out. That is why Keller's words about grace hit me so hard. If this were a transaction, I could point to what I've done and expect God to provide a certain quality of life in return. But grace means there was never a transaction. God doesn't owe me the outcome I want, and I don't have to earn the love I desperately need.

Paul's words make even more sense after a day like yesterday: "I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow." My responsibility has never been to make everything work. I plant. I water. I love. I teach. I coach. I encourage. I pray. I show up. But the growth belongs to God. The outcome belongs to God. Maybe much of my exhaustion comes from continually trying to do His part.

So perhaps waking up wanting to toss in the towel isn't necessarily a sign that something is terribly wrong. Maybe it is another invitation to surrender. Not surrender as quitting, but surrendering my demand that today has to go a certain way. Psalm 119 says, "Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight." It doesn't say the path will always produce the circumstances I want. The blessing is that God is on the path with me.

And this morning I don't feel particularly strong or inspired. Maybe that is exactly where grace becomes real. I don't have to manufacture some heroic response to yesterday. I simply have to return. The prodigal didn't clean himself up before going home. He came back busted up and empty, and while he was still a long way off, his father ran toward him.

So today I return. I may be tired. I may be disappointed. I may not understand what God is doing. But I can still plant the seed in front of me. I can still water what He has entrusted to me. I can still love the people He puts in my path. I can still contribute today's verse without knowing how the story turns out.

Maybe faith isn't never wanting to toss in the towel. Maybe faith is waking up wanting to toss it in, handing the towel to God instead, and saying, "I don't have much today, but what I have is Yours."

The growth belongs to Him. The outcome belongs to Him. Tomorrow belongs to Him.

Today, I just need to walk with Him.

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

21“The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

22“But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

 LUKE 15:20-24

AUGUST 20, 2026

   “When anything in life is an absolute requirement for your happiness and self-worth, it is essentially an ‘idol,’ something you are actually worshiping. When such a thing is threatened, your anger is absolute. Your anger is actually the way the idol keeps you in its service, in its chains. Therefore if you find that, despite all the efforts to forgive, your anger and bitterness cannot subside, you may need to look deeper and ask, ‘What am I defending? What is so important that I cannot live without?’ It may be that, until some inordinate desire is identified and confronted, you will not be able to master your anger.” 

― Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters

PSALM 116-118

8It is better to take refuge in the Lord

than to trust in humans.

9It is better to take refuge in the Lord

than to trust in princes. (118:8-9)

1 CORINTHIANS 2

 3I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. 4My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

JOURNAL 

One of the blessings of doing this every day has been that I cannot avoid tough scripture. I cannot simply turn to passages that are more comfortable or encouraging. I have to sit with the hard ones. These recent readings have been especially revealing, because Paul makes it very clear that the only allegiance acceptable for my heart is God. Anything else is counterfeit. As he writes in 1 Corinthians 2:3–5, “I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.”

Having grown up in the church, I have heard this most of my life, yet I feel as though I am finally beginning to understand it in ways I never have before. When I consider my actions, the community I live in, and the world around me, I can see how easily my faith attaches itself to things that are not God. Timothy Keller wrote that when something becomes an absolute requirement for happiness and self-worth, it becomes an idol. That truth has been pressing on me, because I can see how anger, bitterness, or disappointment often reveal what I am really worshiping.

For me, one of the chief counterfeits has always been people. For most of my life I have placed unrealistic expectations on friends, family, and authority figures. Over and over again I have discovered that people are flawed, they are not God, and they were never meant to carry the weight of being my refuge. Trusting in them as if they could fill that role creates dependence and burdens that ultimately destroy relationships.

This does not mean relationships should be avoided. Quite the opposite, they are essential. But they are never meant to be my ultimate refuge. The psalmist makes this plain in Psalm 118:8–9: “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in humans. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes.” Only God can be my refuge. Everything else will eventually fail, and placing my identity or hope there will end in disappointment and damage.

As sobering as this is, it is also freeing. It frees me to let people off the hook. It frees me to love them—not for what they can provide, but simply because they are here, because God placed them in my life, and because His Spirit enables me to love. That is a freedom worth celebrating. That is a joy worth holding tightly.

Paul reminds me in 1 Corinthians 2:12–13: “What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.”

12What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.^c 

- 1 CORINTHIANS 2:12-13

AUGUST 19, 2026

 “The only way to free ourselves from the destructive influence of counterfeit gods is to turn back to the true one. The living God, who revealed himself both at Mount Sinai and on the Cross, is the only Lord who, if you find him, can truly fulfill you, and, if you fail him, can truly forgive you.” 

― Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope That Matters

PSALM 112-115

4Even in darkness light dawns for the upright,

for those who are gracious and compassionate and righteous. (112:4)

1 CORINTHIANS 1

26Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29so that no one may boast before him. 

JOURNAL 

I have always loved the underdog. Sometimes probably too much. I confess, I often, while watching sporting events, will privately change allegiance mid game to pull for the one who is behind. I just love seeing a team, a person etc. overcome the odds. The Bible is full of those stories...here Paul even confirms that God makes fools of the wise by using the foolish. To me this is so cool and troubling. 

Does this mean that God is not the God of the successful, the beautiful, the wealthy? Does this mean that God intends to destroy the "favored" and give to the foolish? Does this mean God is a socialist? 

I think the answer is it all comes down to the heart and who and what holds the number one position in the heart and life of the human in question. There is one thing that I have discovered over and over in scripture and that is the question that God asks of man. Who or what do you serve? It is the question of all questions. In essence God is asking...Who or what is your God? 

The answer to this question sets the entire course and future of every life. Until it is answered nothing else really matters. Joshua asks this of the Israelites when he tells them to "choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve". This question is not about lip service...because man is designed to serve a God. We will choose one to follow...it's how we were designed...if we abstain then the default will become an object, a person or lastly ourselves. Either of these 3 options will produce addiction, obsession or narcissism...neither of which have a favorable ending. 

It is more and more apparent that life is rigged in a way that choosing anything other than God ends up destroying the heart and soul. I think this is at the core of these verses...God makes good of anything that fully surrenders to him. No matter how the world judges it...because God is the ultimate redeemer. 

14“Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

- JOSHUA 24:14-15