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…
transformation
Living a Larger Faith: What 2,000 Years of Christians Can Teach Us
The world in which I’ve spent most of my time is the Western evangelical stream of Christianity. For all of…
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…
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,…
Training, Not Trying: The Secret to Spiritual Growth
Trying harder just wears you out. And trying to become like Jesus can feel especially discouraging. But there’s a very…
Becoming Who Your Relationship Needs You to Be
What do you need to do in order to bring your best self to the people who matter most? What…
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…
Can People Tell You’ve Been with Jesus?
One day shortly after Jesus returned to heaven Peter and John were coming into the temple. Seeing a lame beggar…
The Human Race Has an Intimacy Disorder
Perhaps it’s my training as a physician, but I often think in terms of diagnosis and treatment. If you don’t…
Learning Trauma Care from Jesus for Survivor or Helper
Some people who are deeply hurting have found the body of Christ to be a safe haven, a refuge from…
You Can’t Fix Right Brain Problems with Left Brain Tools
I continue to be fascinated with how modern neurobiology shines the light on what God has been working to do…
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…
Faith and Healing After Relational Trauma: How to Move Forward
You have been deeply hurt in relationship. And you will also be healed in relationship. The trauma that comes when…
You Didn’t Choose Your Trauma, But You Can Choose Your Healing
Nobody wakes up one morning and says, “Today I think I’ll mess up my life and the lives of those…
A Holy Week Reflection: Three Aspects of Our Redemption
This week Christians around the world are remembering and celebrating the most momentous event in history – the death and…
Developing a Rule of Life for an AI-Saturated World
Our Relationship Prescriptions podcast has just completed a short series on AI and the Soul. These conversations have challenged me…
Digital Is Not Enough: Why Technology Can’t Transform Your Soul
I spend hours a day on screens. That’s both good and bad. Because of such technology I can write and…
What’s the Goal of the Christian Life? (It’s Not What You Think)
What goal are you after? And most especially as a Christian, why do you do what you do? What’s the…
Real Education: Five Life Lessons I’d Tell My Younger Self
When you’re 20 the world mostly revolves around you, and you’re the smartest person alive. But by the time you’re…
What’s Shaping Your Soul Right Now? How God Transforms You
You are in a process of spiritual formation. The question is not whether you are being spiritually formed, but who…
More Than Forgiveness: God’s Bigger Vision for Salvation
Clean as fresh-fallen snow. The debt you had no hope of ever satisfying – paid in full. Chains that had…
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…
When You Might Need a “New God”
Let me be clear; you don’t get to have any God you want. You don’t get to make God in…
Favorites for 2025: Books, Podcasts, Organizations
Each year I love sharing with you some of my favorite things – books, podcasts, and organizations I’ve enjoyed reading,…
Three Important Things You Should Pay Attention To
What is occupying your mind right now? What has your attention even this very minute? There are millions of things…
If Your Christian Life Isn’t Working, Here’s What’s Missing
If you’ve been in church for any time at all, you know people who you wouldn’t want to spend an…
Let the Light In: Choosing Beauty and Goodness in a Dark World
You can’t get rid of darkness by raging against it; you must turn on the light. A bucket of dirty…
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…
Transformation Starts Here: Following Jesus in Your Actual Life
What would following Jesus right now, today, look like? In the life you actually have. With the history, traumas, strengths,…
Do You Have the Same Effect on People that Jesus Did?
What’s it like to be on the other side of you? If you were your friend, husband, wife, child, employee,…
Why Sex and Intimacy are a Big Deal, and What to Do About It
God created you as a sexual being regardless of gender, age, or relationship status. But why? Some people are tempted…
5 Ways You May Be Afraid to Change and What to Do About It
A husband I’ll call George feels paralyzed. He knows things aren’t well in his soul or in his marriage, but…
When Love Feels Broken: God’s Healing for Your Marriage
Every marriage has troubles. Every single one! And yet when your relationship struggles it’s easy to wonder if healing for…
Your Fragrance: How Your Inner Life Affects Others
You are not an island. You have an impact on other people whether you realize it or not, and whether…
Purity: More About the Inside than the Outside
Some words are pregnant with emotional weight. Purity is such a word. At its best, it conveys the idea of…
Healing, Repentance, and Deliverance in Becoming Whole
Feeling stuck in your Christian life? Repeatedly asking for forgiveness only to keep falling into the same sins? Are the…
How to Consecrate Your Sex Life to Jesus Daily
Many people who are seeking to follow Jesus struggle with their sexuality. You might be like Paul, doing what you…
What Does Sexual Wholeness Look Like?
What is Jesus inviting you into? Steve imagined a life of striving and trying harder, never feeling like he could…
You’re Not Too Far Gone: The Hope That Changes Everything
When the sun sets, how often do you worry that it’s gone forever? Probably never. If you’re sick or lonely,…
What Happens When Jesus Shows Up?
It’s incredibly exhilarating to watch God do something miraculous. When Jesus shows up and heals a troubled soul – there’s…
Your Body: Friend or Foe?
Your body can be a touchy subject (no pun intended). Is your body a friend or foe? Many if not…
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…
What If Everything You Learned About Relationships Was Wrong?
If you’ve ever had an original thought, you’re one of very few humans who have. We are great mimics, learning…
How to Find a Friend: Who is Your Peter, James, and John?
Everything’s fine? Great! I’d love to meet you! But for the rest of us, the whole world doesn’t need to…
How to Write Your Story with God as Your Co-Author
You have a story. Perhaps you’ve made partial peace with some of the previous chapters of your story. But what…
Where Is God in Trauma? Jesus’ Message to Survivors
Trauma is a hot topic in culture today. Even if that word is perhaps overused, the statistics are clear; a…
How to Consecrate THAT Part of You to Jesus
Recently I mentioned a concept that got a lot of response; “consecrate that part of you to Jesus.” For whatever…
How to Experience Jesus’ Presence and Find Real Transformation
If you’re a parent, you know what this is like. Your little one is learning to sleep in their own…
Messed Up Again? Use Your Slip to Fall Forward
Jesus loves repeat sinners. (Are there any other kind?) It’s not that slips are OK; they’re not. But what do…
