NOVEMBER 12, 2026

  “To be in Christ -- that is redemption; but for Christ to be in you -- that is sanctification!” 

― W. Ian Thomas

EZEKIAL 1-3

1He said to me, “Son of man,^a stand up on your feet and I will speak to you.” 2As he spoke, the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet, and I heard him speaking to me.

3He said: “Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have been in revolt against me to this very day.(2:1-3) 

HEBREWS 9

14How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death,^c so that we may serve the living God!

JOURNAL 

I am just beginning to understand what it means to be intentional with the moment I am in. I wish I had understood this earlier in my life. I think about how many ordinary moments I hurried through because my mind was already on what came next. Even when I was doing something I enjoyed, part of me was somewhere else, planning how things should go or worrying about how they might turn out.

Meditation was where I first began to notice this. I would sit still and pay attention to my breathing, and within seconds my mind would be rehearsing a conversation or trying to solve a problem that hadn’t happened yet. Then I would come back to the breath I was taking. I could feel my shoulders relax. I could hear the sounds around me. For a few seconds, I was actually there. Now I am learning to bring that same attention into whatever I am doing, and it is changing more than I expected.

When I exercise, I can feel the movement, pay attention to my breathing, and put my energy into the rep I am doing. At school, I can slow down long enough to hear what a student is trying to ask, even with a lesson to finish. When I rest, I can enjoy the quiet without spending it working through tomorrow in my head. I still care about finishing the workout and teaching the lesson well. What surprises me is how much more I experience when I give my attention to what I am doing. Sometimes I even discover that the moment calls for something different from what I had planned.

I think that is part of what I am learning about surrender. In Ezekiel, God speaks, the Spirit enters him and raises him to his feet, and Ezekiel hears what God is asking of him. I have usually read that passage thinking about the assignment God gave Ezekiel. This morning I keep coming back to what happened before he was sent. The Spirit moved within him. That gives me a way to think about Ian Thomas’s words about Christ being in us. What might it look like to be attentive to Christ in me while I teach a class, listen to someone I love, or sit quietly at the end of the day?

I wish I had learned this sooner, and I am grateful I am beginning to see it now. When my mind starts running ahead, I can take a breath and come back to the next six seconds. I can give my energy to what is here, pay attention to the person in front of me, and trust God with how it turns out. I am beginning to see how much of the life I want to experience with God is already happening in these ordinary moments.

23Above all else, guard your heart,

for everything you do flows from it.

PROVERBS 4:23

NOVEMBER 11, 2026

  “As my sufferings mounted I soon realized that there were two ways in which I could respond to my situation -- either to react with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative force. I decided to follow the latter course.” 

― Martin Luther King Jr.

LAMENTATIONS 3-5

14The elders are gone from the city gate;

the young men have stopped their music.

15Joy is gone from our hearts;

our dancing has turned to mourning.

16The crown has fallen from our head.

Woe to us, for we have sinned!

17Because of this our hearts are faint,

because of these things our eyes grow dim(5:14-17) 

HEBREWS 8

I will put my laws in their minds

and write them on their hearts.

I will be their God,

and they will be my people.

11No longer will they teach their neighbor,

or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’

because they will all know me,

from the least of them to the greatest.

12For I will forgive their wickedness

and will remember their sins no more.”^c

JOURNAL 

We are created to know God, and I wonder how much of my life I miss because I am already somewhere else in my mind. I can be sitting right here while I rehearse a conversation that hasn’t happened or worry about a decision I may never have to make. I tell myself I’m preparing, but a lot of the time I’m trying to make the future feel secure so I can be at peace now. What I am beginning to see is that I can trust God with the future while it is still unknown. That frees me to be here, to experience the moment he has given me and discover what he might show me in it.

Lamentations shows demonstrates that faith because Jerusalem has already suffered the outcome everyone feared. The life they loved and cherished is gone and there seems very little hope of its return. Yet in the middle of it, the writer remembers that God’s mercies are new every morning. He can say, “Great is your faithfulness,” while the city is still in ruins. And when the people finally pray together, what they ask for goes deeper than getting their old lives back. They ask, “Restore us to yourself, Lord, that we may return.” They turn toward God while they are still waiting to see what comes next.

That prayer helps me read Hebrews 8 differently. Through Jesus, God promises to write his law on our hearts, forgive our sins, and bring us into a relationship in which we can know him. I am so often preoccupied with what I need to make happen that I miss what God says he will do. He will forgive. He will work in my heart. He will be my God. If I trust those promises, I can walk into a moment I would rather avoid and be open to discovering something about him there. I might discover what it feels like to receive mercy after admitting I was wrong, or what it looks like to extend mercy when I would rather make someone pay.

That is what I see in Martin Luther King Jr.’s decision about how to respond to suffering. He saw a choice about what he could do with the suffering he was already living through. I see something similar in what John Wooden asked of his players. He cared about how they practiced, how they responded to a mistake, and what they did on the next play. I say I value that kind of process, but I can spend a whole day measuring it by whether I got the result I wanted. What if the process is where I get to know God? What if the moment I am tempted to rush past is the one in which I could learn to listen, get curious, or love someone I find hard to love?

I know how quickly I lose sight of that when I feel threatened or angry. I can read something about politics or a forecast that seems daunting and spend the next ten minutes having an argument in my head. I can say I trust God and still want those I disagree with to be defeated or replaced. Jesus asks me to pray for those very people. In Luke 14, he asks me to reckon with what it costs to follow him and surrender everything. Some days, what I am most reluctant to give up is my insistence that I know how the story should go. In the next six seconds, surrender might be as simple as putting down my phone and praying for the person I was about to ridicule. I may still feel angry when I pray. I can bring that honestly to God, too.

Father, you keep coming after me, and you know how tightly I hold on to my plans. Help me trust you with what happens tomorrow, next week, and years from now. When I catch myself trying to live an entire future in my head, bring me back to the person in front of me, the work in my hands, or the quiet I keep trying to fill. Give me the courage to face whatever this moment holds and the curiosity to see what I might discover with you in it. The future is in your hands. Help me live these next six seconds with you.

31“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.

LUKE 14:31-33

NOVEMBER 10, 2026

   Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.” 

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

LAMENTATIONS 1-2

19Arise, cry out in the night,

as the watches of the night begin;

pour out your heart like water

in the presence of the Lord.(2:19) 

HEBREWS 7

23Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; 24but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. 25Therefore he is able to save completely^c those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

JOURNAL 

The image of Christ interceding for me is overwhelming. To think that he knows my failures, my fears, and the things I would rather hide, yet still stands for me, is difficult to fully comprehend. I spend so much energy trying to prove myself, account for my mistakes, and secure my future. Yet here is Christ offering a security I could never create through my own accomplishments. Before I accomplish anything today, I am already loved.

Perhaps this helps me understand being born again. Before birth, I depended on a provision and protection I could not even understand. Now I am learning to trust Christ with a life I cannot fully understand or control. His Spirit gives me power, love, and discipline to step into the world with a different understanding of why I am here. My purpose is to discover and experience God through how I live, with the freedom that comes from knowing my worth is already secure in him.

This new life does not remove struggle. Lamentations reminds me that faith includes nights when all I can do is pour out my heart before God. I can be afraid, disappointed, or uncertain and still come into his presence. Surrender begins with that honesty. I can admit how desperately I want something to happen, how much I fear losing it, and how little control I actually have. Then I can trust that God is present with me as the next moment unfolds.

If my ultimate future is secure in Christ, that changes the importance I give to earthly outcomes. Whether I am rich or poor matters far less than how I treat the people around me. Winning a championship matters, and I will work hard toward it, but the pursuit gives me daily opportunities to practice discipline, courage, love, and excellence. Those opportunities are available before the scoreboard ever tells me how the season ends. I do not have to wait for a particular result to live a meaningful life.

This is where the realization becomes practical. It comes down to the next six seconds. When a student interrupts me, how will I respond? When a player makes the same mistake again, how will I teach him?  When anxiety starts building over money, the future, or whether something I am working on will succeed, can I recognize it and return to what is actually in front of me? Each moment gives me somewhere to practice the trust I say I have.

I can prepare, plan, work, and give my best. Surrender asks me to release the demand that all of that must produce the ending I have imagined. Jesus in Gethsemane shows me how honestly I can bring my desires to God and still yield my will to him. I can care deeply about what happens and remain willing to follow when the path unfolds differently than I hoped.

The next six seconds are an opportunity to do that. I can choose patience over irritation, honesty over protecting my image, curiosity over the need to already know, and love over the desire to be right. When I fail, I can acknowledge it, make what repairs I can, and begin again. Christ’s intercession gives me the courage to face my failures without allowing them to become the final word about who I am.

“Not all those who wander are lost.” I do not need to see the entire road to walk it faithfully. There is room for discovery, surprise, difficulty, and joy along the way. Deep roots can sustain me through seasons when there is little visible evidence of growth. God can be at work while I am still wondering where all of this is leading.

Today, I want to remember that my life is happening in these ordinary moments. I can discover God in a classroom, a conversation, a difficult task, or an unexpected interruption. I can bring effort, discipline, love, and attention to what he has placed before me, then leave the outcome in his hands. The next six seconds are enough to begin.

3Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.^a ”

4“How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”

5Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit^bgives birth to spirit. 7You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You^c must be born again.’ 8The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”^d

JOHN 3:3-8

NOVEMBER 9, 2026

 “Stay hungry, stay young, stay foolish, stay curious, and above all, stay humble because just when you think you got all the answers, is the moment when some bitter twist of fate in the universe will remind you that you very much don't.” 

― Tom Hiddleston

JEREMIAH 51-52

 1Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah. 2He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, just as Jehoiakim had done. 3It was because of the Lord’s anger that all this happened to Jerusalem and Judah, and in the end he thrust them from his presence.(53:1-3) 

HEBREWS 6

10God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. 11We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realized. 12We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.

JOURNAL  

I had a thought... what if the Bible had been edited to be “Facebook worthy.” Imagine if every uncomfortable truth, every sin, every failure, every act of rebellion or shame had been carefully cropped out until all that remained was a gallery of polished smiles and perfect lives. No wandering Israelites, no David’s moral collapse, no Peter’s denial, no Paul’s violent beginning, no Jesus hanging between thieves. What would we be left with? A hollow feed of filtered faith, empty of humanity, grace, and redemption.

When you look closely... the Bible is gloriously unfiltered. It is full of chaos, doubt, heartbreak, and redemption. Adam and Eve’s shame, Cain’s jealousy, Moses’ temper, Jonah’s running, David’s sin, Peter’s denial, all of it speaks to the staggering truth that God’s story was never about our perfection but His patience. It is not a museum of saints, it is a hospital for the broken. And in that imperfection, the beauty of God’s mercy takes center stage.

It reminds me of Paul’s words in 1 Timothy 1:15-16, “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy, so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display His immense patience as an example for those who would believe in Him and receive eternal life.” Paul knew what we often forget, that the cracks in our story are not evidence of failure but of grace seeping through.

We live in a culture obsessed with image, with curating the illusion of strength and success. But Scripture reminds us that God remembers our work and love even when others forget, as Hebrews 6:10 says. He calls us not to laziness of spirit but to perseverance, to faith and patience that inherit what He has promised.

Maybe the greatest proof of faith is not a perfect image but an honest one. The Bible invites us to show up messy, uncertain, humble, and yet hopeful... because God does not edit out our weakness, He redeems it. Like Tom Hiddleston said, “Stay hungry, stay young, stay foolish, stay curious, and above all, stay humble...” because the moment we think we have all the answers, grace reminds us we don’t. And that is the best news of all.

15Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. 16But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life. 

1 TIMOTHY 1:15-16

NOVEMBER 8, 2026

  “Real courage is when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.” 

― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

JEREMIAH 49-50

6“My people have been lost sheep;

their shepherds have led them astray

and caused them to roam on the mountains.

They wandered over mountain and hill

and forgot their own resting place. (50:6) 

HEBREWS 5

7During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. 8Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered 9and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him 10

JOURNAL 

One of the best lessons I learned through sports happened when I was a sophomore in High School. It was toward the end of the season and we had lost several players to injury. I was the starting QB and in this particular game...things were not going well. By halftime, I had been sacked 5 times and had thrown 2 interceptions. As I sat in the locker room I dreaded having to go back out on the field, I knew it wasn't going to get any better and I knew I was up against sure defeat along with more bruises to my body as well as my ego. It was in that moment that I realized that I was going to have to face this whether I liked it or not. So...I could either stand up and give my best or I could cower down and mail it in...regardless the hits were going to come. 

Looking back, I realize I was beginning to learn what Nick Saban teaches about focusing on the next six seconds. I couldn’t take back the interceptions or undo the sacks. I couldn’t guarantee that we would win or even that the next play would go well. But I could get up, walk back onto the field, and give my best to the next play. I didn’t have to figure out how to survive the entire second half while sitting in that locker room. I needed to do what the next moment required.

So I decided to stand up and give my best. The hits still came, and so did another interception. But something valuable shifted. I began to understand that my effort didn’t have to depend on the score or how I felt about my chances. Each snap gave me another opportunity to pay attention, make a decision, and do my job. Then, whatever happened, I had to come back and do it again.

That lesson has stayed with me, although I am still learning how to live it. How often do I make the present harder by carrying everything that has already happened into it? How often do I waste the opportunity in front of me because I am trying to predict how everything will turn out? Regret pulls me backward, and fear pulls me forward. Meanwhile, the moment where I can actually do something passes by.

The next six seconds gives me something concrete to return to. What needs my attention right now? What would giving my best look like in this conversation, this task, this problem? Sometimes it means doing something difficult. Sometimes it means listening or being patient with a student, or finishing something I would rather avoid. I can bring curiosity, effort, discipline, and love to those moments without knowing where they will lead. When my attention wanders back to yesterday or ahead to the outcome, I can bring it back again.

Reading Hebrews, I am struck by Jesus’ prayers, tears, and ultimate submission. He understood the weight of what was ahead. In Gethsemane, he asked for the cup to pass, yet surrendered himself to the Father’s will. His obedience was lived through real anguish. That makes his example deeply personal to me. He understands the dread of facing something painful, and he shows me how to remain faithful in the middle of it.

I don’t read this as a demand to suffer enough or perform well enough to earn God’s love. Jesus has already made the way. I see an invitation to trust him with what I cannot see and obey him in what is before me. Difficulty can become a place where I learn that trust, where I discover that I can be afraid and still take the next faithful step.

That is what I was beginning to learn in that locker room. I wanted reassurance that things would get better before I went back out. What I had was an opportunity to stand up and give what I could. I have that same opportunity today. I can learn from what has happened, prepare for what may come, and then give my attention to the life God has placed in front of me. The next six seconds is where I get to practice trusting him with the outcome.

11For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 

JEREMIAH 29:11-13