John 17:15
My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.

The other day Sydney came running into the kitchen holding up 2 slices of bacon. That alone caught my attention because I wasn’t sure where she’d gotten the bacon and I was even more unsure of why I didn’t have any. But, I digress. As I was looking at her, she asked me matter-of-factly if I knew how to feed a piranha. Now, I don’t know what kinds of things happen to you during the course of a normal day, but being asked if I know how to feed piranhas by a five year-old standing in my kitchen holding 2 slices of bacon isn’t one of those things. This was – even for my reality – WAY out of the norm.

“No,” I replied. “How?”

“You drop the bacon in the water where the piranhas are and then you run!” She stood there, watching me, all the time knowing that I needed to know more, even if I didn’t ask. “If you hold the bacon down for them to eat it,” she continued, “they’ll eat the bacon and your fingers all the way to the bone!!” That, she decided, completed the piranha-feeding course, so she turned and walked out while eating her bacon. She left me amazed, wondering how she’d gained such knowledge and still unsure about why I didn’t have any bacon.

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Romans 8:31
If God is for us, who can be against us?

Underdogs. America is fascinated with them, and Sunday night proved to be no different as a record number of people tuned in to watch David try to once again take down Goliath. At least that was the way the networks billed it, and they should have. They know that got more of us to watch. All of us can relate to underdogs, and very few of us can relate to giants.

Of course, most of us have read about David and Goliath and we’re quick to bill any “underdog vs. favorite” match-up as a modern replay of the age-old fight, but there is one major difference: most underdogs are trying to prove that they’re as good as they always thought they were, but David – and those of us who have thrown ourselves 100% on the grace and mercy of Jesus’ saving act on the cross – was never trying to prove to Goliath that he was as good as the giant. He was only trying to prove that God was bigger than the giant and could use a little guy like David to defeat him. Continue reading

Luke 6:39
Can a blind man lead a blind man?

In a word, “No.” Of course, I can’t just know that by sheer intellect alone. Oh, no! I had to go and prove it in front of about 150 students. I go every Monday morning to my children’s school to lead a bit of praise and worship during their school assembly, and this morning I took Sydney with me. I’m carrying her as I walked toward the piano and I can see absolutely nothing, so I kind of gauged where I was by the length of the piano and once I had walked past it, I turned right to go behind it to play. Of course, I completely forgot about the bench that was in front of the piano and when my feet hit it, my legs stayed there and my upper body continued to go sit down. Sydney and I hit the floor bottom first and belly first, respectively, and the students got quite a laugh. Thankfully I was able to point out to all the students and teachers Continue reading