SEPTEMBER 24, 2026

 “Decision-making based on emotional intuition, without the aid of reason to keep it in line, pretty much always sucks. You know who bases their entire lives on their emotions? Three-year-old kids. And dogs. You know what else three-year-olds and dogs do? Shit on the carpet.” 

― Mark Manson

ISAIAH 1-3

17Learn to do right; seek justice.

Defend the oppressed.^a

Take up the cause of the fatherless;

plead the case of the widow. (1:17)

GALATIANS 2

 20I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”^e

JOURNAL 

Leadership is not about eliminating stress, difficulty, or uncertainty. Maybe I have been thinking about that backwards. The objective of life is not to arrange circumstances so that I am never overwhelmed. The objective is to become so in tune with God that I can engage whatever comes in the way He designed me to.

A musical instrument does not become beautiful because the music is easy. In fact, the most demanding music often reveals what the instrument is capable of producing. But before any of that matters, the instrument must be in tune. An instrument that is out of tune cannot reveal its full beauty no matter how skillfully it is played. The problem is not the difficulty of the music. The problem is that the instrument is not properly aligned.

Maybe the same is true of me. When I am out of tune with God, I begin trying to control circumstances, avoid discomfort, manage outcomes, and follow whatever emotion happens to be loudest. Fear, frustration, pride, anxiety, and desire start determining how I respond. Mark Manson's point about emotions is important because emotions are real, but they were never intended to be the sole authority directing my life. I need something greater by which to tune them.

Paul writes, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me." That changes the objective. Surrender is not losing myself. It is allowing God to tune me toward the person He created me to become. His Word, prayer, quiet, obedience, and the Spirit continually bring me back into alignment. They allow me to recognize when fear, emotion, ego, or habit has pulled me out of tune. Isaiah says, "Learn to do right; seek justice." Learning implies practice. Tuning is not something done once. An instrument must continually be brought back into tune, and so must I. That is why coming before God each morning matters. It is not simply a religious routine. It is recalibration. I am reminding myself who God is, who I am, what matters, and how I want to enter the day.

Perhaps the narrow road Jesus describes is not a life without difficulty at all. It is a life increasingly aligned with God in the middle of difficulty. I don't need every problem removed. I need the power, love, and self-discipline to meet the problem in front of me well. The hard things may even become the music through which God reveals what He has placed within me. So the question is not, "How can I make today easier?" It is, "Father, how can I become more in tune with You today?" Because when I am in tune with God, I can more fully become what He designed me to be and engage the life He has given me in a way that is good, beautiful, courageous, and life-giving.

Thank you, Father, for Your Word, Your Spirit, and another day. Tune my heart toward You. Let me stop asking You to remove every difficult note and instead surrender myself to Your hands so that my life can become the music You created it to make.

13“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

MATTHEW 7:13-14

SEPTEMBER 23, 2026

 “A disciplined mind leads to happiness, and an undisciplined mind leads to suffering.” 

― Dalai Lama XIV, The Art of Happiness

SONG OF SOLOMON 6-8

7Many waters cannot quench love;

rivers cannot sweep it away.

If one were to give

all the wealth of one’s house for love,

it^c would be utterly scorned. (8:7) 

GALATIANS 1

10Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

JOURNAL 

Teaching seventh graders has a way of holding up a mirror. I can watch a student become frustrated, embarrassed, bored, excited, or angry and then immediately act out whatever he is feeling. From the outside, it is easy to call it a lack of self-control. But the more I watch them, the more I recognize myself. I may be better at disguising it, but I often do the same thing. I feel something and immediately believe I need to respond to it. Anxiety says worry, so I worry. Restlessness says move, so I move. Frustration says react, so I react. Fear says avoid, so I avoid. The emotion becomes the command, and I become its servant.

Even as I sit here writing this, I can feel the urge to get up and walk around. There is an energy telling me to move on to something else. But I don't have to obey it. I can notice it, allow it to be there, and continue typing. That seems incredibly small, but perhaps this is exactly where discipline begins. I used to think discipline meant fighting my emotions, suppressing them, or somehow making myself stop feeling them. I am beginning to understand that real discipline may be something very different. I can experience an emotion without becoming the emotion. I can feel fear without being controlled by fear, anger without reacting in anger, anxiety without chasing every anxious thought, and an impulse without obeying it. There is tremendous freedom in realizing that.

Maybe this is part of what Paul is getting at when he asks, "Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God?" Something is always asking for my obedience. Other people's opinions, my emotions, my fears, my appetites, my desire for comfort, or God. Discipline is deciding which voice gets authority. That also changes the way I think about the discipline I am trying to teach my students and players. Discipline isn't simply behaving correctly when a teacher or coach is watching. It is developing the ability to create space between what I feel and what I do. It is learning that discomfort does not require escape, anger does not require reaction, fear does not require retreat, and desire does not require satisfaction.

Perhaps that is where real confidence comes from. Not from believing I will always feel strong, peaceful, or motivated, but from knowing that whatever I feel does not have to determine what I do. A disciplined mind isn't a mind without emotion. It is a mind capable of experiencing emotion, listening to it, learning from it, and then choosing its response. My emotions can inform me, but they do not have to command me. God has given me the ability to choose what I serve, where I place my attention, and what I do next. That is freedom, and I am beginning to believe that kind of freedom is at the heart of discipline.

1The wicked flee though no one pursues,

but the righteous are as bold as a lion.

2When a country is rebellious, it has many rulers,

but a ruler with discernment and knowledge maintains order.

PROVERBS 28:1-2

SEPTEMBER 22, 2026

  “If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” 

― Mother Teresa

SONG OF SOLOMON 4-5

Eat, friends, and drink;

drink your fill of love. (5:1) 

2 CORINTHIANS 13

11Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.

JOURNAL 

Years ago, I went through a really dark season. One of the hardest parts was feeling completely alone in what I was experiencing. I prayed for God to change my circumstances, remove the pain, and make things right. God did show up, but often in ways I never expected and sometimes completely contrary to what I was asking for.

The clip from The Legend of Bagger Vance has always spoken to me because Junuh is lost. Bagger tells him that inside every one of us there is "one true, authentic swing." Junuh hasn't really lost it. It is still there, buried beneath everything that has happened to him. Bagger's role isn't to give him something he never possessed. It is to help him find his way back to something that was there all along.

I think God has done something similar in my life. In those dark moments, I thought I needed Him simply to change my circumstances. What I really needed was for Him to lead me back to who I was and, more importantly, whose I was. I belonged to Him. I had always belonged to Him. I had simply lost sight of it beneath the fear, shame, disappointment, and uncertainty.

And maybe that is why our suffering can eventually connect us so deeply to other people. Everyone struggles. Everyone doubts. Everyone gets scared. Everyone waits, worries, cries, and hurts. We tend to believe our pain separates us from others, but perhaps our pain is actually one of the things that reveals how deeply we belong to one another.

My loneliness can become a desire to comfort. My hurt can become a desire to heal. My anger can become a desire to reconcile. My fear can make me more compassionate toward someone who is afraid. God doesn't have to waste any of it. The very things that once made me feel isolated can become the things He uses to help someone else find their way back.

Maybe that is what Mother Teresa meant when she said we lose peace when we forget that we belong to each other. We are all God's children. We are all imperfect. We are all carrying things others cannot see. We are all, in one way or another, trying to find our way home.

Jesus said people would recognize His disciples by the way they love one another. Sometimes that love is incredibly simple: a smile, a word, a hug, a note, encouragement, or simply standing beside someone who has temporarily forgotten who they are. Maybe God places us in each other's lives to do what Bagger did for Junuh: not to fix one another, but to patiently remind each other of what is still there and help each other find our way back.

Perhaps that is where real joy comes from. Not from finally reaching a life without struggle, but from allowing God to transform our struggles into love for someone else. Maybe peace isn't the absence of pain. Maybe peace is remembering who we are, whose we are, and that none of us were ever meant to find our way home alone.

34“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

JOHN 13:34-35

SEPTEMBER 21, 2026

 “When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty, I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.” 

― C.S. Lewis, On Stories: And Other Essays on Literature

SONG OF SOLOMON 1-3

5Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you

by the gazelles and by the does of the field:

Do not arouse or awaken love

until it so desires. (3:5)

2 CORINTHIANS 12

 Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

JOURNAL 

Trauma has a way of trapping us in time. Something happens, often when we are young, and we develop ways of protecting ourselves from experiencing that pain again. We force things we do not need to force. We run from things we need to face. We lash out when we need to calmly assess. We smooth things over when we need to confront. We hate when we need to love. We remain stubborn when we need to forgive. I learned at Onsite years ago that many of these patterns are established when we are young and become automatic responses to fear, anxiety, rejection, and pain. Long after the original threat is gone, we can continue responding as though it is still happening. Trauma can keep us in a perpetual loop where yesterday dictates how we respond to today.

But I am beginning to think there is another way we become trapped. It is not only what we believe about our past that shapes how we live today. It is also what we believe about our future. A lack of positive expectancy can create its own kind of dysfunction. If I expect tomorrow to bring disappointment, failure, sickness, loss, or some catastrophe I cannot handle, then every problem today becomes larger than it really is. A setback becomes evidence that everything is falling apart. Difficulty becomes something to fear or escape rather than something to confront and engage.

Faith changes that perspective. If I truly believe that God is good, that He loves me, that His grace is sufficient, and that He is working even through circumstances I do not understand, then I can develop a positive expectancy about life. Not the childish belief that nothing bad will happen, but the childlike belief that whatever happens, my Father will be there. Paul prayed three times for his thorn to be removed, but God did not remove it. Instead, He said, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." The promise was never a life without difficulty. The promise was God's presence and power within it.

Maybe that is one of the great differences between fear and faith. Fear takes today's problem and projects it endlessly into tomorrow. Faith confronts today's problem while placing tomorrow in God's hands. When I believe God still has plans for me, there is something beyond the problem in front of me. There are people still to love, students still to teach, players still to coach, relationships still to deepen, things still to create, mistakes still to redeem, and lessons still to learn. There is purpose ahead that I cannot yet see.

Perhaps this is part of what C.S. Lewis understood about growing older while recovering the best parts of being a child. Maturity does not require abandoning wonder. The unhealthy child within me reacts from old wounds and fears, but there is another child within me capable of trust, curiosity, hope, love, imagination, and expectancy. Maybe healing requires recovering that childlike ability to believe there is still something good ahead.

Positive expectancy is not believing everything will work out according to my plans. It is believing God will be present and purposeful even when my plans do not work out at all. Trauma says, "This happened before, so protect yourself because it will happen again." Fear says, "Look at today's problem and imagine how bad tomorrow could become." Faith says, "God has been faithful, God is here now, and God will already be there when tomorrow arrives."

The past does not have to dictate today, and today's difficulty does not have to define tomorrow. I can confront what is in front of me, do the next right thing, and surrender the outcome. There is still something good ahead, not because I know what tomorrow holds, but because I know who holds me when it arrives.

1Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

1 PETER 2:1-3

SEPTEMBER 20, 2026

 “It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.”

― Theodore Roosevelt

ECCLESIASTES 10-12

4If a ruler’s anger rises against you,

do not leave your post;

calmness can lay great offenses to rest. (10:4)

2 CORINTHIANS 11:16-33

 I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. 24Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. 25Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, 26I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. 27I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. 28Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.

JOURNAL 

Thursday night reminded me why I love athletics and why sports can teach us so much about life. Our eighth graders had not won a football game in two years. Then they found themselves down fourteen points. It would have been easy for them to believe that this was simply another loss, another night when things were not going their way. But they didn't quit. They stayed at their post. They kept playing, kept believing, kept fighting for the guy beside them, and somehow found a way to come back and win.

The joy of that moment was intoxicating. Watching those kids celebrate was about so much more than a scoreboard. I was watching young men experience what happens when they persist through something difficult and discover that the outcome has not yet been decided. They had every reason to become discouraged, but they kept swinging the hammer. For one night, they got to experience the victory that perseverance sometimes produces.

And maybe that is why the moment meant so much. If winning were guaranteed, there would have been no joy like that. The two years without a win, being down fourteen, the mistakes, frustration, practices, disappointment, and moments when quitting would have been easier were the very things that gave the victory its meaning. The struggle wasn't something that got in the way of the story. The struggle was what made the story worth telling.

That is what I continue to learn about life. I spend too much time wanting difficulty removed when difficulty is often where effort, grit, discipline, brotherhood, faith, and love become real. Athletics puts that truth right in front of us. You cannot hide from the scoreboard, the mistake, the missed tackle, or the disappointment. You have to respond.

Thursday reminded me that maybe the goal is not to avoid being down fourteen. The goal is to become the kind of person who keeps playing when you are. We will not always get the comeback or the celebration, and that cannot be why we persevere. We persist because giving everything we have to the moment in front of us is how we are called to live.

But every once in a while, God gives us a Thursday night when the comeback happens, the kids experience victory, and for a few beautiful minutes we get to see why we kept swinging the hammer.

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