What would happen if, for just a few minutes, we set aside all of our reservations, all of our excuses, all of our hesitancies, and what if we got curious? What if we simply asked the question, “Jesus, would you teach us to pray?”

How do we experience life to the full? Is it possible? Could we potentially be overcomplicating it? Jesus himself said that, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10b, NIV). But what does that mean? How are we to actually experience this life to the full?

You ready for some good news? The overarching thread of the Bible is this: Wholeness. Brokenness. Repentance. Redemption. Restoration. And on and on it goes until Jesus Christ returns. The book of Micah begins with what feels like this doomsday message of judgement but eventually, hope is given.

Do you pray?

It’s a fairly simple question that often generates a complicated answer. “Well, sort of.” “I mean, I guess.“Sometimes.” Now, I get it. For many of us, our first reaction—if we’re not the praying type—is guilt.

Discipleship to Jesus is misguided at best, pointless at worst, if we are unclear on what exactly it means to follow Him. To be a disciple—in Hebrew—is this word talmidim. A better translation could be, “an apprentice” (more on that in a moment). So what does it mean to follow Jesus?

For just a moment, ponder your relationship with God. Where are you at with Him right now? Honestly assess your soul. Where are you at with God right now?  

What is God’s will for my life? An age old question. But a question that I believe has a clear answer.

Have you ever found yourself needing to repent? Have you ever been at a point in your life where you’ve deeply hurt or wronged someone, and you knew you needed to apologize? Perhaps today, you’re reading this with the weight of conviction on your shoulder.  

I was 12 when I met my friend Fishback. His real name was Michael, but everybody called him Fishback. It was a typical 90-degree Tennessee Summer Day, and I had made my routine two mile walk from my house to the local YMCA for a day’s worth of pickup basketball.

What if the ability to achieve peace—to take heart—is actually accomplished through slowing down and being still? What if we became a community of people who—in a world addicted to noise and busyness—slowed down and learned silence and solitude? Not isolation. Not being alone while distracting ourselves. Rather, developing the ability to spend uninterrupted time, alone, in silence, with God in an effort to be transformed into people of peace?

I love how Paul says in Colossians 3:17, “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Whatever you do. It may be hard. It may difficult. There may be suffering, or heartache, or loss, or brokenness involved. But the fact remains, (cue the cliché) God called you to it and He’ll see you through it.

Edwin Friedman, in his incredible leadership book, Failure of Nerve talks about how when humans are grouped into an unhealthy emotional system, we tend to develop this herd mentality where we get swept up and away in the general consensus of the population without critically thinking and discerning whether what we’re thinking, or acting on is inherently positive, productive, true or good.

Every single one of us has been created with incredible detail. From the color of your eyes, to the length of your toes, to your ability to draw, or write, or put a ball in a hoop, to mix elements in a lab, or solve complex math problems, or to understand computer programming, astrophysics or engineering. Each of us have these unique gifts and abilities that stem from the calling or purpose that God has placed on our lives. What’s yours? I mean, deep down, isn’t that what we’re all truly craving to know?

Jesus’s vision for the Church is that of a family. He calls the Church, “the bride of Christ.” He claims himself as the groom. Jesus says that whoever does the will of God is his brother and sister and mother. All throughout the New Testament, the apostles greet one another as, “brothers and sisters in Christ.” We call God what? God the Father! So, just to reiterate, Jesus is not anti-family. But he is anti-partial allegiance. He’s anti-“luke-warmness,” as he calls it.

I don’t think it’s a secret that we live in the most connected society ever. At the snap of a finger, we can pull up—on our devices—a friend from Norway or China or India. In an instant, we can send a message of communication literally around the world. Our ability to connect and accessibility to the world has never been higher. Simply put, there’s never been more opportunities to be a witness to not just the world, but to those all around us. With one message, one tweet, one snap, we could potentially have communicated with every single person in our immediate sphere. The potential for relationship has never been greater and yet, many of us are lonelier than ever. How can that be?!

Jesus didn’t avoid those who looked different, lived different or acted different from him. He didn’t hole himself up in a church or synagogue and live his life safely in the confines of other Bible-believing Jews. Jesus went to the margins of society and sought to LOVE those who were deemed different, less than or inferior to him. Jesus believed in the power of presence. What about us?

There’s something powerful about the practice of generosity. Oftentimes, generosity is a front door vehicle for us—as followers of Jesus—to deliver the Good News. To help someone in need establishes credibility in a relationship to teach and preach about Jesus. I want to get super practical this week and offer 5 simple ways that you can begin practicing generosity right now.

One of my favorite figures in the faith is a guy by the name of St. Francis. Francis of Assisi is well-known for many reasons. At the top is his explanation of what he calls, “perfect joy.” I love this. It’s riveting.

Why are we so afraid to love those different from us? How do we step into a different cultural, ethnic, societal, socio-economic, popularity relationship and lean into the tension that’s present? How do we love the person whom society would deem—either explicitly or implicitly—“the other?”

According to World Vision, 698 million people live on less than $2.00 a day. Just for context: You can barely buy a candy bar for $2.00 anymore—you couldn’t even buy a gallon of gas for $2.00 if you wanted to.