NOVEMBER 14, 2026

 

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

― C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, and Other Addresses

EZEKIEL 7-9

19“ ‘They will throw their silver into the streets,

and their gold will be treated as a thing unclean.

Their silver and gold

will not be able to deliver them

in the day of the Lord’s wrath.

It will not satisfy their hunger

or fill their stomachs,

for it has caused them to stumble into sin. (7:19) 

HEBREWS 10:24-39

 24And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another...

JOURNAL 

I keep coming back to what C.S. Lewis says about being far too easily pleased. I usually assume my desires get me into trouble because they’re too strong. But Lewis makes me wonder how often I settle for satisfying them at the surface. I want something new, and for a little while having it feels like enough. Then the feeling wears off, and I’m right back to looking for the next thing. John Eldredge’s The Journey of Desire has me wondering what I might discover if I stayed with that longing long enough to ask what I really wanted.

I can put an extraordinary amount of hope in ordinary things. I can imagine that if I own something, accomplish something, or finally have an experience I’ve been looking forward to, all the pieces will fit together and I’ll feel at ease in my own life. Advertising understands how easily I make that leap. It can sell me almost anything by quietly suggesting that I’ll feel a little more secure, a little more admired, or a little less alone once I have it. Ezekiel strips away that promise with the image of people throwing their silver into the streets. They still have what they thought would save them, and they’re still hungry. How often do I feel that hunger and immediately start thinking about what I could buy, do, or prove to make it go away?

Jesus gives me a different picture. A man finds treasure in a field and, in his joy, sells everything to buy it. I’ve often focused on what the man gave up. This morning I’m thinking about what it must have felt like to find the treasure. What had he been hoping all those other things might give him? And what did he see in that field that made him glad to let them go? I wonder what would happen if I let myself desire that deeply. Beneath my wish for things to go my way, I want to know that I am loved when they don’t. Beneath my desire to impress people, I want someone to know me fully and delight in me. Jesus gave his life to bring me into that kind of relationship with God, and the same Spirit who raised him from the dead lives in me. How much of my life do I spend waiting to feel what God is already inviting me to receive?

I think this is where surrendering outcomes becomes real for me. When so much of my attention goes to getting tomorrow right, I can be sitting across from someone I love and barely hear what they’re saying. If I trust God with what I long for, I have room to listen. I can feel the sting of a disappointment, tell God the truth about it, and ask him to help me love the person in front of me. Maybe that’s part of what Hebrews means by spurring one another toward love. There are days when someone else’s encouragement helps me remember the love I’ve been too distracted to receive, and there are days when I get to do that for them.

So when I catch myself reaching for the next thing, I want to pause long enough to ask what I hope it will give me. If what I’m aching for is to be known, to be loved, or to know that I’m safe in God’s hands, I can bring that desire straight to him. I can do it in the next six seconds, with the outcome still up in the air and my heart still unsettled. I can tell him what I want and let myself be with him here. This is the moment I have to share with God.

44“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.

45“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it

MATTHEW 13:44-46

NOVEMBER 13, 2026

   “Lack of interest in mission is not fundamentally caused by an absence of compassion or commitment, nor by lack of information or exhortation. And lack of interest in mission is not remedied by more shocking statistics, more gruesome stories or more emotionally manipulative commands to obedience. It is best remedied by intensifying peoples’ passion for Christ, so that the passions of his heart become the passions that propel our hearts.” 

― Tim A. Dearborn, Beyond Duty: A Passion For Christ, A Heart For Mission

EZEKIEL 4-6

 9Then in the nations where they have been carried captive, those who escape will remember me—how I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts, which have turned away from me, and by their eyes, which have lusted after their idols. (6:9) 

HEBREWS 10:1-23

19Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Placed by the blood of Jesus, 20by the new and living way opened for us through the curtain of His body,e 21and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

23Let us hold resolutely to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful.

JOURNAL 

What if I knew for certain that all my deepest longings and desires would be fulfilled next year? How would I live today?

It’s a fascinating experiment because I think I would wake up with less worry and less urgency. I’d still care about what I’m working toward, but I wouldn’t need to measure the day by how much closer I got. I think I’d notice more. I’d give my full attention to what I was doing and might even enjoy the details I usually hurry through. At the end of the day, I could rest with things still undone.

I think I’d be braver, too. If I knew that a failure or a missed opportunity couldn’t cost me what I longed for most, I’d be more willing to try something I might be bad at. I could make a decision without going over it ten more times in my head. And I could let an opportunity pass without wondering whether I’d just missed my one chance. What strikes me is that all of this would happen before a single longing had been fulfilled. Just trusting the future would change how I live today.

I think I’d also be less jealous. When someone else received something I’ve been hoping for, I could share in their joy without immediately wondering when it would be my turn. I could admire what someone else had built without feeling behind in my own life. What strikes me is that all of this would happen before a single longing had been fulfilled. Just trusting the future would change how I live today.

Ezekiel is a difficult read. Beneath the judgment, I hear how deeply God grieves that the people he loves have turned away from him. It makes me consider where I turn for assurance. I can want good things so badly that I start looking to them for the peace I want to feel today. Then I read Hebrews and hear the invitation to draw near to God “in full assurance of faith.” Because of Jesus, I can do that now, with my desires still unfulfilled and my questions still open. “He who promised is faithful.”

I wonder if this is something of how the disciples lived, and how they were able to endure what they did. When Jesus gave them their commission, some of them still doubted. He told them, “Surely I am with you always.” I wonder if trusting him with their future gave them room to receive what God was giving them through his Spirit right then. They could take the next step without seeing where it would lead. And when it led to suffering, they could trust that Christ was still with them there.

That brings me back to Dearborn’s words about the passions of Christ becoming the passions that move us. I wonder how much more I would notice what love asks of me if I spent less of my energy trying to make sure everything worked out. Maybe the courage to act and the patience to pay attention both grow out of trusting that God is already here.

I don’t know what next year will bring. I can still ask myself how I would live these next six seconds if I trusted God with what comes after them. I think I’d be less hurried, more curious, and more willing to do the thing I’ve been afraid to try. And I might discover something of God in a part of the day I would otherwise have hurried past.

16Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

MATTHEW 28:16-20

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