When You Feel Guilty for Enjoying a Season Others Are Struggling Through
He held his newborn daughter at two in the morning, genuinely happy in a way that surprised him even in his exhaustion, and then thought immediately of his brother, still waiting after four years of infertility treatments that had not yet produced the…
The Quiet Grief of an Empty Nest
He stood in his son’s old bedroom on a Tuesday afternoon, three weeks after move-in day at college, and found himself unable to explain to his wife why he had wandered in there at all. The bed was made. The desk was clear. Nothing about the room…
When Two People See Rest Completely Differently in Marriage
He spent his ideal Saturday hiking a new trail before sunrise, coming home tired in the good way, muscles worked and mind clear. His wife spent her ideal Saturday exactly where she started it, on the couch, a book in hand, nowhere to be and nothing…
You Do Not Have to Resolve Every Doubt Before You Rest
She lay in bed with the same question she had been carrying for months, turning it over again the way a person turns over a stone looking for something underneath it that was never actually there. She had read the books. She had talked to her pastor. She…
What the Bible Says About Rest for the Mind, Not Just the Body
She finally took the vacation she had been promising herself for over a year, a full week away from work with genuinely nothing scheduled. Her body rested easily enough, sleeping later, moving slower, sitting still by the water for hours at a time. Her…
The Sabbath of the Land: What Rest for Creation Teaches Us About Rest for Ourselves
She had run her small business at full capacity for eleven straight years without a genuine break, convinced that any slowdown would cost her everything she had built. When a health scare finally forced a two-month pause, she expected the business to…
What to Do When You Are Too Tired to Pray
He sat on the edge of the bed at eleven at night, phone dark, room dark, and could not find a single word to say to God. He had tried. He had opened his mouth in the quiet and nothing came, not even the ordinary requests he usually reached for without…
Fasting Is Not Another Discipline to Master
She tried fasting for the first time during a season when her prayer life had gone quiet, and she approached it the way she approached most things worth doing well. She researched the right method, chose a start date, warned her family, and treated the…
When You Feel Spiritually Dry During a Season of Blessing
She had everything she had prayed for years earlier, a healthy marriage, a home she loved, work that genuinely fit her, and yet her prayer life had gone quiet in a way that confused her far more than any hardship ever had. She almost felt guilty…
The Practice of Examen: Reviewing Your Day With God
He lay in bed most nights replaying his day in fragments, an email he regretted sending, a moment of impatience with his son, a small kindness from a stranger he had barely noticed at the time. None of this reflection had any real shape to it. It simply…