When I was in high school I had a dream that I got two jobs, and I was trying to figure out how to juggle their schedules. In reality, I had been applying to summer positions so employment was on my mind.

The dream turned out to be a premonition as I did end up accepting two different jobs, and my schedule was challenging to juggle at times.

That was the only time anything like that has ever happened to me, and I remember being dumbstruck about it at the time. However, I don’t think it was a vision with any purpose sent from God or anything like that. Probably just a busy mind working out the details of a stressful situation.

God does use visions to speak to and through His people sometimes though. It shouldn’t be counted out as impossible.

“A voice of one crying out: Prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness; make a straight highway for our God in the desert.” ‭‭(Isaiah‬ ‭40‬:‭3,‬ ‭CSB‬‬)

God used Isaiah to tell His people about the good news of their salvation through Jesus nearly 600 years before Jesus was born. And He used John the Baptist to spread the news just a few months before Jesus’s ministry began. (Clearly we needed a lot of preparation and encouragement.)

It’s hard to imagine getting a message from God the way the prophets of old did. Did they hear a voice? See a vision? Just have an urgent feeling?

But Jesus’s followers do all have a message straight from God that we are commanded to share. It didn’t arrive as a vision or a dream. It’s written down for us, clear as a bell. Jesus said to reach out to everyone, everywhere, of every tribe and nation, to tell them that God loves them and has a free gift of salvation ready and waiting for them. What Good News!

Dear God, thank you so much the good news of salvation! Thank you also for making my duty as your follower very clear. I don’t have to wait for or puzzle over a vision. Thank you for the words of the Bible that lay it out for me in black and white. Teach me how to be an effective messenger today.

I think I was in my late 20s when I first understood the true value of time. I had an interesting job, and I spent the bulk of my waking hours working. I didn’t seem to have time for anything else. Then I remember hearing someone say, “Time is more valuable than money because you can get more money, but you will never get more time.” That really hit home for me then, and I still think about it now.

I was spending all my time getting more money. I didn’t understand that what I was giving away was more valuable. It was like giving my diamonds in exchange for some glitter.

Don’t get me wrong. I know I need money to get by around here. But it doesn’t need to be my priority. God promises to meet my needs if I make love my priority instead.

“This is how we have come to know love: [Jesus] laid down his life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.” (1 John‬ ‭3‬:‭16,‬ ‭CSB‬‬)

My life can be measured out in a finite set of minutes. I don’t know how many it will be, but God has ideas for them all. When I choose to spend those minutes loving people (instead of seeking after success, wealth, comfort, or fame), He reveals His plans for a new, beautiful life with infinite minutes. This is His gift to all who accept it.

Dear God, thank you for your beautiful and underserved gift of infinite minutes in a new life. Remind me that my minutes here in this life are precious and few but all belong to you. Teach me how to spend them as you desire.

God created us with brains and passionately curious minds. And He created this vast and wondrous existence for us to explore. We have not reached the end of it in outer space nor have we reached the bottom of it in the study of subatomic particles. We don’t really even know how our own bodies work.

There are so many interesting things in God’s creation to study, observe, learn, and try to comprehend. God made it so.

So of course science and religion can coexist. In fact, they should do more than coexist. True religion is fed by science and vice versa. We cannot expect to fully understand a product without consulting the maker.

False religion is afraid of science. It is afraid of a discovery that could prove deeply held beliefs to be incorrect. Or worse, prove that God doesn’t exist.

“Jesus said to him, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’” (Matthew‬ ‭22‬:‭37‬, ‭CSB‬‬)

As you notice, Jesus said I am to love God with my mind. I can think of no better way to do this than to ask questions and diligently seek the answers. The scientific method is a beautiful tool in learning the truth about this amazing God we have. God isn’t scared about what we’ll discover, nor should I be.

Dear God, thank you for the beautiful world and universe you created for us. And thank you for the curiosity and passion you instilled in us to want to know and discover and understand. Reveal yourself to all who seek to know you with an open mind.

In an early episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the crew discovers a crystalline life form on a planet that is being terraformed. The crystal entity considers the terraforming a hostile act and retaliates against the humans which they call “ugly bags of mostly water.”

For some reason this insult has stuck with me. Probably because it is both funny and pretty much true. We are mostly made up of water, an average of 60% or so. In fact, every single cell in our bodies contains water, including our hair, fingernails, and tooth enamel.

Water is a critical, foundational building block of nature. Without it, the universe and everything in it, including Earth and humans, would not exist.

Water is so vital to life that it is actually a decent metaphor for God’s love. God’s love created everything and without His love it would all cease to exist. God is love, and He imbued everything in His creation with His love.

We can mess up our connection to God’s love with sin, the same way we can pollute our precious water resources. But God has provided beautiful ways of naturally recycling and filtering our water, and He has provided a Way for us to be refilled with His love as well, through Jesus.

“And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.” ‭‭(1 John‬ ‭4‬:‭16‬, CSB‬‬)

I may feel like I don’t need to drink water, but bad things happen when I get dehydrated, even mildly so. Similarly, if I don’t drink in God’s love as often as I can, bad things happen to me spiritually.

Dear God, thank you for my body and the miracle of life. Thank you for my easy access to clean water and my even easier access to you and your love. Remind me to drink you in every chance I get. Fill me up with your loving Spirit today.

I heard someone talking about their experience on one of the new diet drugs. They had lost a very noticeable amount of weight and were no longer a diabetes risk. It was fascinating because the drug seems to have changed the way things taste. Packaged and processed foods no longer tasted good so their cravings for them dissipated. Instead they wanted carrots and apples and greens.

Eating healthy is a very effective weight loss plan. It’s just too hard to do without help it seems.

I would love not to crave sugar, cake, candy, chocolate… I could easily lose weight too if I wasn’t hungry anymore. I don’t need to lose a lot of weight but those last pounds are very stubborn. Because I frequently give in to my cravings.

“I am the bread of life,” Jesus told them. “No one who comes to me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in me will ever be thirsty again.” (John‬ ‭6‬:‭35,‬ ‭CSB‬‬)

Jesus isn’t a weight loss plan, of course. But He does promise to give us victory over our fleshly urges.

If I accept His gift of salvation and prioritize Him above even my basic needs like food and water, He promises to meet those needs. He also promises eternal life. In that life to come, hunger and thirst will never be a problem. Nor will an uncooperative body that tells me to eat all the wrong things.

Dear God, thank you for the body you gave me that works quite well, all things considered. I’m sorry for not always taking the best care of it. Give me the strength to put aside my various drives and urges to spend time with you, doing your will. I trust you to provide what I really need. I look forward to the body I will get when you return and make all things new.

I’m sure you’ve heard the old expression, “Home is where the heart is.” I remember thinking that felt true when I was a kid.

Then later, after college, when I’d struck out on my own, I remember reading a t-shirt that said, “Home is where your stuff is.” And that felt more true during that time of my life. I traveled a lot, moved a lot, had various roommates or lived alone. I would visit my family, but that was no longer “home.” And I valued my belongings. I had a good job, was saving money, and started to be able to afford nice things for the first time in my life.

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew‬ ‭6‬:‭21,‬ ‭CSB‬‬)

Jesus knew of our tendency to value stuff. He understood the truth written on that joke t-shirt. And He used it as a warning. Hanging my identity, future, or self-esteem on accumulated wealth is unhealthy and is sure to lead to heartache. Treasures here on earth are fleeting and vulnerable to moths, rust, and thieves, among other things.

Instead of investing my emotional resources in a house, a car, a job, even another person, or anything this world has to offer, Jesus says to bet everything I have on Him. It’s the only sure bet and sound investment.

Dear God, thank you for taking care of my needs when I prioritize you. Forgive me for loving my stuff a little too much. I’m so grateful to have a comfortable house to live in, but thank you for the reminder that my true home is with you.

I went to a college football game a few weeks ago. Throughout the game, a man stood behind me and cheered loudly every time the team he was rooting for did something good. He shrieked just as loudly in horror when something bad happened for that team. He made his allegiances well known.

The noise wore on me. But it also annoyed me because he was rooting for the wrong team.

I started to wonder why he cared so much. And then I wondered why I cared at all.

The team I was rooting for was comprised of young men who happened to attend the same college as I had. They wore the familiar colors and logos. Aside from that, I knew nothing about them and didn’t feel invested in their lives. My life would not be affected by their success or failure during that game. And yet, I cheered proudly when “my” team scored a touchdown, while the man behind me wailed in misery.

We humans get caught up in tribal mentality quickly and easily — always seeing the world in stark divisions of “us” vs. “them.” We take credit for and celebrate the victories of any individuals in our perceived tribe as if they were our own. And we take their failures personally.

Unfortunately the devil knows us all too well. He recognizes our tendencies toward tribalism and uses that to deepen our divisions, drawing out misplaced fears and unwarranted hatred.

The truth is that we only have one enemy here, and it’s not another human or group of humans. Our true enemy is sin which leads to death, and the devil wants to drag as many of us there with him as he can.

“But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” (1 Corinthians‬ ‭15‬:‭57,‬ ‭CSB‬‬)

We only have the one true enemy, but because of God’s love, we can already claim victory against it. Death will no longer have the final say for those who trust in Jesus.

Dear God, forgive me for thinking that I have any enemies among your children here. Remind me that the only meaningful team or party or tribe I really belong to is your team. And the only rivalry worth focusing on is between me and sin. Thank you so much for letting me play on your winning team, a unifying team of love.

As I played tennis this morning, I found myself annoyed with my partner. It was a woman I had just met. She seemed intent on blaming me for our losing score. Sure, I was making my share of the errors, but she was making plenty too. For a while, I decided to keep quiet and accept the criticism in stride, while trying to improve my game. But I eventually ran out of patience and pushed back. The next time she highlighted an error I made, I pointed out that she had made errors on the previous two points.

This was not a winning strategy. Both of our games got worse instead of better. My pride kept my focus on my partner’s judgment and comments instead of focusing on my footwork or on the ball.

Humility is really challenging. Pride is insistent and indignant with plenty of rationalization to go around.

When I feel I am in the right or if my rights are being stepped on in any way, humility is not my natural reaction.

“Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death — even to death on a cross.” (Philippians‬ ‭2‬:‭7‬-‭8,‬ ‭CSB‬‬)

Jesus had every right not to be humble. He is God. He is all-knowing, all-powerful, and eternal. He created the world. And yet, He laid all of that aside to model perfect humility for His followers.

Jesus’s humility was total. He followed humility all the way to death. I couldn’t even follow humility’s course for the rest of a tennis match.

Dear God, I have a lot of work to do when it comes to humility. Help me to stop caring so much about my rights and to care more about the needs of others. Help me to care less about other people’s opinion of me and to care only about your opinion of me.

When Thanksgiving rolls around, we are often asked to list the things we are thankful for. And when praying to God we are encouraged to contemplate the things he has done for us, today, yesterday, and last year.

“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his faithful love endures forever.” (1 Chronicles‬ ‭16‬:‭34,‬ ‭CSB‬‬)

But the real thing to thank God for is for being God. For being the good God that He is. For loving me, for being faithful to me, and simply for being good.

I’m so grateful that the Creator of the universe values beauty and harmony. He made the world to sustains itself, to continually renew itself, for all things to work together in magnificent ways. (Of course we messed it up quite a bit, but the blueprint of His perfect creation is still visible.)

We could have a creator who enjoyed squalor and pain, but we don’t. He hates those things more than we do. How glad I am that God is good, always and forever.

Dear God, thank you for being you. I’m so grateful for who you are and all that you created out of your goodness and love. Teach me to be good like you.