MAY 7, 2026

  "Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy."  

― Kahlil Gibran

1 KINGS 14-15

11Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father David had done. 12He expelled the male shrine prostitutes from the land and got rid of all the idols his ancestors had made. 13He even deposed his grandmother Maakah from her position as queen mother, because she had made a repulsive image for the worship of Asherah. Asa cut it down and burned it in the Kidron Valley. 14Although he did not remove the high places, Asa’s heart was fully committed to the Lord all his life. 15He brought into the temple of the Lord the silver and gold and the articles that he and his father had dedicated.

JOHN 1:1-28

 9The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.14The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. 

JOURNAL

Lately I have been confronted with the difficulty of work in a deeper way than I expected. Rejection, silence, uncertainty, and effort without immediate results can wear on the soul if we are not careful. There are moments where discouragement creeps in and whispers that if the reward is not coming quickly enough then maybe the work itself is not worth it. But the more I sit with that tension, the more I realize that God never intended work to simply be a mechanism for reward. Work itself is a blessing because it shapes us. It exposes us. It teaches us obedience, endurance, humility, and faithfulness.

Most of us naturally want satisfaction now. We want affirmation, visible progress, recognition, and reassurance that our labor matters. Yet some of the deepest work God does within us happens precisely when those things are absent. In those moments we are forced to confront why we are working in the first place. Are we working only to receive something back, or can we learn to work from obedience, gratitude, and love? That is what strikes me so deeply about Jesus in John 1. The Creator of the universe stepped into his own creation and the world did not recognize him. He came to his own people and many rejected him. He healed people who still doubted him, loved people who betrayed him, and served people who mocked him. Yet he kept going because his purpose was rooted in the Father, not in the approval of man.

That truth confronts me because I can see how easily my own motivation becomes attached to outcomes. Rejection has a way of exposing idols. It reveals how much of my peace can become dependent upon success, comfort, affirmation, or visible results. King Asa in 1 Kings remained fully committed to the Lord even when obedience required discomfort, sacrifice, and difficult decisions. He removed idols and confronted corruption because faithfulness mattered more than convenience. That same invitation stands before all of us. To continue working with integrity when no one notices. To continue serving when there is no immediate return. To continue giving our best even when the outcome feels uncertain.

What I am beginning to realize is that there is a hidden joy found in that kind of obedience. When I stop demanding that work constantly reward me, I become free to experience the joy hidden inside the work itself. The joy of discipline. The joy of surrender. The joy of becoming someone who remains faithful regardless of circumstance. That kind of joy cannot be taken away because it is no longer dependent upon results. It is rooted in purpose. Rooted in obedience. Rooted in God himself.

"Whatever you do, work at it with your whole being, for the Lord and not for men..." 

COLOSSIANS 3:23

MAY 6, 2026

   “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”  

― J.K. Rowling

1 KINGS 12-13

26Jeroboam thought to himself, “The kingdom will now likely revert to the house of David. 27If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, they will again give their allegiance to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and return to King Rehoboam.”

28After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” 29One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan. 30And this thing became a sin; the people came to worship the one at Bethel and went as far as Dan to worship the other.^d

LUKE 24:1-35

45Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48You are witnesses of these things. 49I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

JOURNAL

Our lives are shaped far more by our daily choices than by our talent, intelligence, or intentions. Every commitment we keep to ourselves strengthens something inside of us. Every commitment we repeatedly break weakens something inside of us. That is true even in the smallest areas of life.

When we continually choose comfort over discipline, avoidance over responsibility, or immediate pleasure over long term purpose, it slowly affects our psyche. We may think those little compromises are harmless, but over time they reshape the way we see ourselves. We begin to lose trust in our own word. Motivation fades because motivation is often connected to integrity. Joy fades because deep joy is connected to purpose, growth, and honesty. Discipline weakens because the mind begins to normalize escape instead of perseverance.

That path becomes dangerous because once we train ourselves to seek relief above truth, we begin craving the easy way out in more areas of life. We start self-serving rather than living with courage and responsibility. Addiction often grows from this exact place. So does anxiety, bitterness, apathy, and destruction. We can slowly become people who are ruled by impulse instead of conviction. The tragedy is that this erosion rarely happens all at once. It happens through thousands of tiny decisions.

Jeroboam’s story reflects this perfectly. His downfall did not begin with golden calves. It began with fear, insecurity, and self-preservation. He did not trust God enough to remain obedient, so he created a more convenient version of worship that protected his own power and comfort. He chose what was easier instead of what was true. Those choices did not just affect him. They affected an entire nation.

The same principle exists in our lives today. Every choice is shaping us into someone. We are either becoming more grounded, disciplined, honest, loving, and courageous, or we are becoming more enslaved to comfort, fear, distraction, and self-indulgence. There is no neutral ground.

In Luke 24, Jesus tells the disciples to wait for the power of the Holy Spirit. These were ordinary and frightened men, yet they would become bold and transformed because God would dwell within them. That same truth exists for us. God does not ask us to white-knuckle our way through life by sheer willpower alone. He calls us to surrender daily, to walk in truth, and to allow His Spirit to strengthen what our flesh constantly wants to weaken.

The encouraging part is that the opposite is also true. Small acts of integrity strengthen the soul. Keeping your word matters. Getting up when you said you would matters. Exercising discipline when nobody is watching matters. Choosing honesty matters. Refusing to numb yourself matters. Serving others matters. Daily obedience slowly rebuilds confidence, clarity, peace, and joy because we were designed to live aligned with truth.

Who we become tomorrow is being shaped by what we repeatedly choose today.

In God, whose word I praise, In the LORD, whose word I praise, In God I have put my trust, I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me? 

PSALM 56:10-12

MAY 5, 2026

   "Are you capable of forgiving and accepting in love a world which has disappointed you by not being perfect, a world in which there is so much unfairness and cruelty, disease and crime, earthquake and accident? Can you forgive its imperfections and love it because it is capable of containing great beauty and goodness, and because it is the only world we have?...And if you can do these things, will you be able to recognize that the ability to forgive and the ability to love are the weapons God has given us to enable us to live fully, bravely and meaningfully in this less-than-perfect world?” 

― Harold S. Kushner, When Bad Things Happen to Good People

1 KINGS 10-11

1King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. 2They were from nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. 3He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. 4As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. 5He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. 6So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done.(11:1-6)

LUKE 24:1-35

1On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” 8Then they remembered his words.

9When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. 10It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. 11But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. 12Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

JOURNAL 

It is so easy to get consumed with the challenges of life. Not just distracted by them, but absorbed to the point where they begin to define how we see everything. There are moments when I catch myself wishing it all away, imagining a version of life where there are no problems, no tension, no uncertainty. A life where everything works out exactly how I want it to. On the surface that feels appealing, even justified. But the more I sit with it, the more I see the danger in that way of thinking.

That version of life is not real. And when I begin to expect it, I set myself up to become frustrated, bitter, and even angry when reality does not cooperate. The deeper issue is that many of my wants are not grounded in truth. They are shaped by comfort, control, and self-interest. I want ease. I want clarity. I want outcomes that favor me. But life does not operate on my preferences, and Scripture never pretends that it does.

When I look at Solomon, I do not just see a man who made poor choices. I see someone who had everything most people believe would eliminate struggle. Wisdom, wealth, influence, favor. Yet even he drifted. His story is not unrealistic. It is painfully honest. It reminds me that the problem is not external circumstances alone. It is the condition of the heart. Even in the best situations, the heart can wander when it is not anchored in truth.

David’s life shows something similar. A man after God’s own heart who still made decisions that brought real consequences. His story does not sanitize failure. It reveals it. But it also reveals something deeper. God works within the reality of human weakness, not outside of it.

Then I come to the empty tomb. The women walked toward it carrying spices, expecting death, expecting to finish a process that felt final. Everything about their reality pointed toward loss. But what they found did not match their expectations. The stone was rolled away. Jesus was not there. In the middle of what looked like the ultimate defeat, God revealed something far greater than what they could see or understand.

That is where this begins to shift for me. The beauty of life is not found in the absence of problems. It is found in seeing what God is doing within them. If I spend my energy wishing away hardship, I will miss the very places where God is revealing something deeper. Something stronger. Something more real than my limited understanding.

The world is not perfect. It never has been. There is unfairness, loss, sickness, disappointment, and things that do not make sense. But it is also the place where grace shows up. Where love is revealed. Where redemption becomes visible. If I only focus on what is broken, I will become hardened. If I begin to accept reality as it is, not as I wish it to be, I can start to see the goodness that exists within it.

Forgiveness and love are not passive responses to a broken world. They are active choices that allow me to live fully within it. They keep me from becoming consumed by what is wrong and open my eyes to what is still good. They allow me to trust that even when I do not understand, God is still working.

Loving God with all my heart, soul, and strength is not about escaping reality. It is about stepping fully into it with trust. It is about anchoring myself in something deeper than my circumstances. When I do that, I begin to see differently. I begin to notice beauty where I once only saw frustration. I begin to find purpose where I once felt resistance.

The challenges do not disappear. But they no longer define everything. They become part of a larger story. And in that story, there is still goodness, still growth, still grace.

4Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.^a 5Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

DEUTERONOMY 6:4-7

MAY 4, 2026

  “I see a world on the edge of a blade. Without balance, it will fall.” 

― Victoria Aveyard

1 CHRONICLES 11-13

15Three of the thirty chiefs came down to David to the rock at the cave of Adullam, while a band of Philistines was encamped in the Valley of Rephaim. 16At that time David was in the stronghold, and the Philistine garrison was at Bethlehem. 17David longed for water and said, “Oh, that someone would get me a drink of water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem!” 18So the Three broke through the Philistine lines, drew water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem and carried it back to David. But he refused to drink it; instead, he poured it out to the Lord. 19“God forbid that I should do this!” he said. “Should I drink the blood of these men who went at the risk of their lives?” Because they risked their lives to bring it back, David would not drink it.(11:31-33)

JOHN 9:1-23

1As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

3“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

6After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7“Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

JOURNAL 

There is something powerful woven throughout Scripture that I can miss if I’m not paying attention. The moments that end up shaping everything are rarely grand on the surface. They are small, ordinary, almost forgettable scenes—a man longing for water, a blind beggar sitting on the side of the road, mud pressed into someone’s eyes followed by a simple command to go and wash. And yet those moments echo through history and shape the faith of billions. That is what stands out to me. The masterpiece is not built in the spotlight; it is built in the details of today.

David’s mighty men did not become legendary in one dramatic act. Their greatness was forged in loyalty, in presence, in choosing devotion in moments no one else would have noticed. Even the story of the water from Bethlehem is not really about water. It is about honor, sacrifice, and recognizing the weight of what others were willing to do. David saw that and refused to treat it casually. In the same way, Jesus did not bypass the blind man in search of something bigger. He stopped, engaged, and used something simple and ordinary to reveal something eternal. What looked insignificant became a moment that displayed the power and heart of God.

That is the invitation in front of me today. As I step into a new week, I do not need to chase something massive to live a meaningful life. The question is much simpler and much more challenging at the same time: what ordinary moments today can I turn into something extraordinary? The answer is not found in striving for recognition or chasing outcomes. It is found in obedience. It is found in refusing to dismiss the small things and instead giving my full attention, effort, and heart to what is right in front of me—a conversation, a responsibility, a moment to choose patience over frustration, presence over distraction. This is where the masterpiece is formed.

Balance comes into this as well because I can easily drift in either direction. I can begin to think too highly of myself and believe I need to do something great to matter, or I can go the other way and believe that what I do does not matter at all. Both are wrong. The truth is that my life matters deeply, but not because of scale. It matters because of faithfulness. The challenge is to live fully engaged in today without making it about myself.

I do that by staying close to God, not occasionally but daily, through small, consistent rhythms of Scripture, prayer, and quiet surrender. When I drift from that, I start chasing the wrong things or minimizing the right ones. David struggled when he was isolated, and the disciples struggled when they relied on their own understanding, but over and over God met them when they returned, when they surrendered, and when they chose to keep showing up. That is the pattern I want to follow.

So today my focus is simple. I want to do what is in front of me with excellence, treat the small things as sacred, choose obedience over convenience, and stay connected to God in every moment, not just the big ones. Because the truth is, the ordinary moments of today are not ordinary at all. They are the brushstrokes of the masterpiece.

1Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

ROMANS 12:1-2

MAY 3, 2026

 “We often miss opportunity because it's dressed in overalls and looks like work” 

― Thomas A. Edison

1 KINGS 6-7

51When all the work King Solomon had done for the temple of the Lord was finished, he brought in the things his father David had dedicated—the silver and gold and the furnishings—and he placed them in the treasuries of the Lord’s temple.(7:51)

LUKE 23:27-38

32Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. 33When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. 34Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”^c And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

35The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”

36The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar 37and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”

38There was a written notice above him, which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS

JOURNAL 

Solomon finished the temple—a masterpiece crafted with devotion, detail, and great cost. What began with David’s vision was brought to completion by Solomon’s obedience. The temple was filled with treasures set aside for God—gold, silver, fine furnishings—all devoted, all holy. It was the culmination of sacrifice and faithfulness, a physical space where heaven and earth would meet.

But centuries later, heaven and earth would meet again—this time not in a building, but on a hill called Golgotha.

Jesus, the true temple (John 2:21), was nailed to a cross between two criminals. He was stripped, mocked, and left to die. Instead of being surrounded by gold and priests, He was surrounded by sneers and soldiers. Yet even there, Jesus did what Solomon could not: He became the offering. The temple required gifts; Jesus gave Himself.

His entire life was lived in service and love—never in selfishness. And this, I confess, is where His life confronts mine. While Jesus gave everything, I often find myself pulling back. Retreating. I avoid discomfort. I look for ways around the struggles of honesty, love, and hard work. At its core, sin is often a step backward—a refusal to press into the challenges of obedience and truth.

But Jesus doesn’t confront me to shame me. He confronts me to free me.

The cross reveals not just my sin, but His mercy. Jesus looked at those who crucified Him and said, “Father, forgive them.” That same mercy reaches me. And with it comes a promise: “God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7).

Through Christ, I’m invited to stop running and start building—just like Solomon did. Only now, the temple is my heart. I can offer the ordinary pieces of my day—my honesty, my work, my presence—as sacred acts of worship.

Joy isn’t found in escape. It’s not hidden in the next big moment. It’s here—in the now. In choosing love over selfishness, service over comfort, and truth over convenience.

Today is a new altar. Will I place my best on it?

22Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. 23Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, 24since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

COLOSSIANS 3:22-24