The Hunger in the Human Heart: What Do You Want – Really?
We are needy creatures. For all the attempts many of us make to be independent and self-sufficient, it doesn’t work…
emotions
The Effort and Recovery Your Soul Needs for Lasting Transformation
Athletes or anyone interested in physical wellbeing knows that your muscles, bones, heart and lungs, every part of your body…
Learning Emotional Regulation with Jesus
How do you feel about your feelings? Some people see emotions as dangerous, so they exert great quantities of internal…
What If Feeling Bad Isn’t Always a Bad Thing?
Who wants to feel bad? I certainly don’t. There’s a whole list of feelings we usually consider “bad”: anxiety, anger,…
The Truth About Feeling Angry with God
We’ve often gotten it wrong in the church when it comes to anger at God. Many have believed feeling angry…
Learning from How Jesus Handled His Need for Intimacy
Jesus is so many things to us. He is our Savior, Redeemer, and King, our Elder Brother, and the Head…
The Key to Filling Your Empty Soul
How do you deal with your empty soul? Do you retreat into a hole, waiting for someone to pull you…
Bringing Every Part of You to Jesus
Oh, to be whole-hearted! To have every aspect of your inner being aligned in one clear direction, with no parts…
Safe Enough: The Kind of Relationship You Actually Need
Just yesterday I was talking with a young woman who said, “People aren’t safe.” There’s a real sense in which…
Lonely in a Connected World: The Intimacy Your Soul Is Missing
Today’s AI-saturated world has many, especially young people, trying to fill their longing for connection through digital means. Harvard Business…
How to Develop a Healthy Internal Picture of God
What do you imagine when you think of God? I don’t mean the facts you intellectually know about Him, but…
Hope For When Christmas is Hard: 5 Ways to Rediscover Joy
Not everyone feels “merry” around the holidays. You’re “supposed” to enjoy this season of lights, music, giving, and family. But…
Is God Good? Healing your Connection with God
Is God good? Your initial response may be the one you learned in church or Sunday school; “God is good.…
Disappointed in an Empty Life: Is This All There Is?
Ever feel disappointed with your life, wondering Is this all there is? Get up and go to church. Serve on…
This Relationship Won’t Fix You
You are wired to need people. You can’t get away from that even if you try. But many may find…
4 Tensions to Manage so you can Experience Authentic Intimacy
I can’t be vulnerable; people will walk all over me. … People don’t like my honest self, so I have…
Intimacy Gone Wrong: the Biggest Obstacle to Connection with God
You were created in the image of God, with the need, desire, and capacity for intimacy. That need is part…
Five Reasons Why Intimacy Is Hard: What No One Tells You
One might think that something as vital to our wellbeing as intimacy is wouldn’t be so hard. But it is.…
When Church Hurts a Woman’s Relationship with God
Church should be the safest place on earth. The family of God should be the place where every single human…
Being WITH Jesus in Ways that Bring Transformation
You’re sick and tired of trying harder and failing. It would be so freeing to be more like Jesus without…
The Lies, Wounds, and Empty Places that Messed You Up
The human heart is not a pretty place. At least not after living in this world for any length of…
How Does God Feel About You?
With some frequency I ask people, “How do you feel God feels about you?” I’m not looking for an intellectual or…
Your Love Life Doesn’t Have to be a Fight (This is NOT About Marriage)
Maybe your marriage and your married sex life does seem like a fight. But that’s not what this article is…
The Power of Gratitude: Three Unique Blessings I’m Thankful For in 2024
Today is Thanksgiving Day in the United States. Research continues to demonstrate how gratitude is good for you; it improves…
How to Find “Your People” When You Need Help
Isolation is dangerous. But connecting is often hard. In my work with people this is almost always the most challenging…
How to Live Well Even in the Face of Unfulfilled Longings
Perhaps some days start out good. You slept well, the sunrise is lovely, and your coffee tastes great. But sooner…
How to Pursue Intimacy Whether Married or Single
Your heart craves connection. Humans can’t survive in isolation. The irony is that today we can be more “connected” than…
Stop People-Pleasing: Embracing Authenticity in Relationships and Parenting
Perhaps you’ve recognized that you need to stop people-pleasing. Other people are good at taking up all the mental real…
Human Relationships: What People Can and Can’t Do For You
Loneliness is an epidemic. And it’s dangerous to your physical, mental, and spiritual wellbeing. God Himself said that aloneness was…
Healing After Betrayal: How to Rebuild Your Life and Move Forward
My friend had been betrayed. “It was a sucker punch in my gut.” I’m not sure there’s anything humans can…
5 Ways to Befriend Your Feelings as a Follower of Jesus
Feelings are fickle. They’re real, but they’re unreliable. Emotions can be affected by everything happening both inside you and around…
How Your Sexual Story Affects Your Mental Health
We live in an epidemic of mental/emotional health issues. There are many factors involved, and it’s impossible to completely differentiate…
Why Selfishness Doesn’t Work, and What to Do Instead
Being unselfish is in many ways quite “selfish”. That is, unless your goal is to live isolated and miserable for…
What’s the State of Your Heart?
Think of someone you love to be around. How would you describe their heart? Chances are their inner being is…
The Difference Between Lust and Healthy Desire
When the enemy can’t get you to fall into the ditch on one side, he’ll work hard to hurdle you…
Getting God from your Head to your Heart
Some of us (me included) naturally approach life first from the head. We studied hard in school, and when a…
Sex, Love, and Intimacy; How do They Connect?
Sex, love, and intimacy are (or should be) related in some ways, but they’re not the same. Too often people…
Four Big Lies About Sex, Relationships, and Intimacy
Many of the best lies are almost true; they contain just enough truth to give them plausibility. Such a lie…
Beyond the Valley: Moving Forward When You’ve Lost Trust in God
It didn’t require a genius to hear the pain in her words; “I’ve lost trust in God.” If you feel…
A Birthday Gift for Jesus
A few years ago a friend shared with me an important part of how she celebrates Christmas every year. When…
The Practice of Being Grateful For in a Difficult Season in 2023
The fourth Thursday of November is Thanksgiving Day in the United States. And that’s today! As good-for-the-soul as food, family,…
What Have You Done With Your Need for Intimacy?
For starters, intimacy is not sex. Our sexualized culture has mostly said “express yourself; anything goes.” But people are lonelier…
An Apology from the One Who Hurt You as a Man or a Woman
Who do you need an apology from? Who has wounded you? Our deepest hurts often come from those we “should”…
Boundaries and Freedom: Embracing What You Can and Can’t Do
You are not God. You are not all-powerful. Sometimes that’s a revelation; you are not the center of the universe.…
4 Reasons Everyone Should Have Close Friends, Married or Single
Every human being is made by God with the need, desire, and capacity for intimacy. And that need is real…
The Loneliness Epidemic Got You? How to Find Peace and Connection
You can feel lonely in a crowd or a friendship or a marriage, and you can feel perfectly happy and…
How’s Your Soul Doing, Really?
At breakfast with a friend recently I asked her, “How’s your soul doing?” That led to conversation about some really…
How Your Relationship Status is Always Complicated
Perhaps the only good thing Facebook has ever done was to allow the relationship status “It’s Complicated.” And is there…
Why Healing from Intimacy Gone Wrong Requires Forgiveness
Forgiveness is a big deal. Your head knows Jesus forgives you, but your heart still wonders, especially when you keep…
How Sex Has Lost its Glory: Intimacy Gone Wrong
God created you for something good, a level of goodness we can only begin to imagine now. He built into…
