Today I’m struck by the word "steps." It’s almost as if I’d never given it my heart’s attention. I know God has a plan for us. But he has a plan for every step we take? This leads be to believe God is not just in the big events of life, but every single step we take, the minute details. That is so reassuring, and that is such a different view than the one with which I approach each day.

Honestly, that is hard for me to grasp. God, Do you really have my whole life scripted? Do you have a specific plan for everywhere I go, and everything I do? Each step?

That is such a better view of God, a view where he is engaged with us and intimately involved in the world and in our lives. As I think about it now, I think I have been something of an unconscious deist. God is there, but I’m doing my "best" down here while he is sort of smiling down on me, not really engaged in the details. That view is not true of him, and it is an awful way to live.

The question is, will you follow God, as opposed to just going on your way into each day? That is the transition to a better life. To be asking him where he is headed and what he is doing throughout the day. So that while he is going on ahead of you, you are following.... not just in the critical junctures of life, but in every step."

"Will you let the Holy Spirit lead you in a practical way—day by day? Step by step?  Will you pause long enough to ask his opinion on things? And obey?"

When God says faith, hope, and love last forever, he names them as immortal powers. A life without faith has no meaning; a life without love isn’t worth living; a life without hope is a dark cavern from which you cannot escape. These things aren’t simply "virtues." Faith, hope, and love are mighty forces meant to carry your life forward, upward; they are your wings and the strength to use them.

I believe hope plays the critical role. You’ll find it pretty hard to love when you’ve lost hope; hopelessness collapses into Who cares? And what does it matter that we have faith if we have no hope? Faith is just a rigid doctrine with nothing to look forward to. Hope is the wind in your sails, the spring in your step. Hope is so essential to your being that Scripture calls it "an anchor for the soul" (Hebrews 6:19).

In an untethered world, we need a hope that can anchor us.
Hope is unique; hope looks forward, anticipating the good that is coming. Hope reaches into the future to take hold of something we do not yet have, may not yet even see. Strong hope seizes the future that is not yet; it is the confident expectation of goodness coming to us.

"Pause and ask yourself, How is my hope these days? Where is my hope these days?"

Excerpt From: John Eldredge. "Restoration Year."

Lots of emotions come to the surface when someone asks me that question. Is something wrong? Are they mad at me? Or better yet, they must be trying to sell me something I don’t need. Believe it or not, one minute of your time is very valuable. I’ve heard it said, time is the only non-renewable resource in the world. You can get more money.. even more stuff.. but time is hard to buy nowadays.

In a world in a hurry, one minute can feel like an eternity. You honestly may not have one minute in your day to spare. How busy are you these days? A few years ago, a friend gave me some of the best advice I’ve ever been given.. "You’re in a hurry, and hurry will hurt you." Carl Jung said it like this, "hurry is not of the devil, it is the devil."

Maybe that’s why Jesus said in Matthew 28 "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest." He knew there would be a day where people were so busy, rest would optional.

Now here is my challenge to you. Take one minute today at some point, and do nothing. You heard me right. Absolutely nothing. Turn your phone off, tv, iPad, all the noise machines, and get quiet for one minute. I’m finding it’s the pauses in life where God really speaks. But unfortunately, many people don’t have a minute. I want to give you a prayer that has helped me. In that one minute, while your quiet and disconnected, simply pray "I give everyone and everything to you, God." It’s a simple prayer, but a powerful one.

If a bird loved a fish, where would they live?

It’s an old proverb, but is still so relevant today. If a bird and a fish fell in love, how would they make it work? I mean, what the fish breathes would kill the bird. Where the bird sings, the fish would suffer. How long would the relationship last? Who would be willing to compromise to make their home in the other’s world. Is it even possible?

There are may interpretations to this old proverb. Most people interpret it as love is not enough. You can be in love, but if you are from one world, and your partner is from the opposite side of that world, it will never work. Compatibility is important, but is it everything?

I grew up in the notebook generation. What is the notebook generation? I am glad you asked. It was a great movie, but a little of a stretch. It’s the crazy idea that there is only one right person in the world for you. Some call it your "soulmate." The person who is going to complete you. Your missing puzzle piece. And you know, I believed this, for a while… until I realized if one person ends up marrying someone else’s soulmate, well then the other 7 billion people in the world are hopeless. It would cause this mass domino effect, ruining the chances of millions and millions of people ever finding their true love. Do I Believe in soul mates? True love? Absolutely! But I believe now, your soul mate, and true love, cannot be limited to just one person. Because the reality is, love is a choice. It’s a decision you make every day. It’s not a wagon you "fall out of" when the road gets rough. It’s not an option. It’s a decision you make, and manage for the rest of your life. Love is a decision.. and to be honest, if we are waiting on someone to complete us, we are setting our lives up for disappointment.

So if a bird loved a fish, where would they live? I don’t know. But what I do know, and as the writer of the song of Solomon put it so eloquently, Love is invincible facing danger and death. Passion laughs at the terrors of hell. The fire of love stops at nothing—it sweeps everything before it. Flood waters can’t drown love, torrents of rain can’t put it out. Love can’t be bought, love can’t be sold—it’s not to be found in the marketplace.

If you find yourself at a crossroads today, I would encourage you to choose love. Love the people God has placed beside you, in front of you, around you. Love people even when they don’t deserve it, and when they least expect it. Love people when they are right, and when they are wrong. And let love lead you, deepen your connections, and be the driving force in your search for purpose and meaning on this side of eternity.

Did you cringe at the announcement of a "group project" in school? If you did, you are not alone. Often times, it is easier, quicker, drama-free, and less painful to just do it on your own. But that is not how God designed us. When He created the world in 6 days, each day He sat back and said "it is good." Yet, on the final day, he saw something was missing. These words were spoken thousands of years ago, and still ring true today, "it is not good for man to be alone." And so, God made Eve, out of Adam, reminding us that life is not an independent study, but a group project. We need true, deep connection.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get the luxury of having God create our soul mate for us, with no one else on the planet to choose from! For most of us, relationships have been tricky. Friendships, work relationships, family relationships, intimate relationships — you name it, and we’ve had one go wrong. We’ve all been lonely, with no real connection… we’ve all had bad connections, that have led us into painful situations… we’ve all had fake connections, leaving us alone when we really needed them. These experiences cause us to want to do life without connection. But without relational connection, nothing new can come into our life. Just like in the natural realm, connection brings new life. Scientists call it pollination, but when it comes to relationships, it’s the same way. We cannot bring anything new into the world, or our lives, without connection.

Thankfully God has a lot to say about connection. The connection we all need, and search for from the cradle to the grave, is true connection. This type of connection allows us to be open and intimate with someone, without fear of rejection or judgement. For Adam and Eve, they were naked and unashamed. For me and you, that means we can be our true selves, authentic and open. It’s hard to find a relationship like this in our world today. But when we do, we must nurture these relationships.

As exciting as it may seem, God never intended us to live life on an island to ourselves. But rather, His way, and the best way, is to live in deep community, with true connection. When we live life connected to the right people, we will see the new begin to flow into our life.

How’s your hope these days? That was a strange question to me. I really hadn’t thought about it. If I was to be honest, I’d say it was about a 3 out of 10. But you know, I felt obligated to answer appropriately with "It’s great!" In a season celebrating the arrival of hope, it can feel very hopeless. Even though it’s Christmas time, it can feel very lonely.

How important is hope? Is it really something we should prioritize, or is it more of a feeling of sorts. Is it rooted in emotionalism, or something solid? I’m starting to realize, hope is a necessity to life. I’ve heard it said, a man can live a few weeks without food, a few days without water, a few minutes without oxygen, but not one second without hope.

We know three virtues transcend this life into the next. Faith, hope and love last forever. We tend to focus greatly on faith and love, but rarely hope. I think faith is rooted in our past; knowing that if God has been faithful once, He will be faithful again. Love focuses on the present. It takes love to interact and have community with the people in our lives. But hope—it’s a little different. Hope focuses on the future. Hope is the expectancy that goodness is coming. Hope is having something out in front of us to look forward to. When we have no hope in the future, we lose all power in the present.

Thankfully, even when this season can feel hopeless, we know feelings can’t be trusted. The truth is, we have hope. We have hope of a better tomorrow. We have hope of a brighter future. We have the hope of heaven, and the reality of God’s abiding presence. So, how’s your hope these days? Find something out front and expect for God’s goodness to spring forth in your life. And know this, we have a hope, so secure and true, that it anchors our souls. This hope is Jesus.

If there is one thing we all share, it’s the will to win. No one, in the history of competitive sports, enjoys losing. I mean, isn’t winning the point to playing the game? This time of year, competition is in the air. Whether it’s your alma mater, or your hometown heroes fighting it out on your turf, we all enjoy watching a good game.

When it comes to life, I think it’s the same way. We want to win. We want things to go as planned. We want to run the play, and for that play to put points on the board. Unfortunately, you win some and you lose some. Or some seasons, you win a few but you lose most. Or, when you’re really having a bad year, you don’t get to enjoy any wins at all!

Insert Jacob. Jacob was an underdog, but he had the will to win. He would do whatever it took. He had a womb mate, named Esau (his maternal twin). During childbirth, Jacob grabbed the heel of his brother, Esau, trying to come out first. Later in life, he took advantage of his brothers weakness and traded him a bowl of soup for Esau's birthright. To make things worse, he tricked his Dad, Issac, into giving him the family inheritance instead of his brother. Jacob was not a very nice person. Honestly, he lived up to his name… deceiver. He was going to find a way, or make a way to win. No matter what. Do you know anyone like that?

One day, Jacob’s winning streak ran out. He tricked and deceived his way to decades of nonstop wins, but it caught up with him. You know, I think God wants us to win. He wants you to win. Unfortunately, how we win is very important. For Jacob, he won by deceiving, lying, and taking life into his own hands… and this worked, for a while. But this night in Genesis 32, it all changed. The sins of his past caught up with him, and his brother Esau showed up with 400 men and was looking for blood. Jacob in a panic, splits his family up, and prepares for his funeral. He thought this was the end of the road… but God had a plan.

That night, someone showed up in his crisis. We don’t know if it was God himself, an Angel, or who it was. But Jacob wrestled all night with this person. He fought, he struggled, and he incurred some battle wounds. Somewhere in the night, in the wrestling, Jacob made one key decision. This one decision, changed his name from "Deceiver" to "God is Victorious." This one key decision saved his life. He surrendered. He gave up. He stopped striving, and just gave up…not on the win, but on the internal war. The war we all fight of trying to figure this life out on our own. The war of trying to make sense of things, of how life turned out. The war of sins from our past, and mistakes that keep trying to define us. He waved the white flag, and that’s exactly what God was waiting for.

Friend, if you are reading this, the best thing you can do with the life you have is to lose it. I know this sounds like an oxymoron, but I’m reminded of the words of Jesus, in Mark 8:35. "If you try to hang onto your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it." Sometimes in life, we win by losing. It takes humility, it takes trust, but every now and then, we need to tell God "I give up."

Fall is my favorite time of year on the Florida panhandle. The Caribbean blue waters show up on our shores from the predominant east winds. The first fall breeze pushes through with north winds and dryer, colder air. The axis of the earth tilts, and and the sun begins to set into the Gulf of Mexico. To me, it’s the best season of the year.

As a kid, I knew the fall was prime season for bottle hunting. I grew up on Robinson point road right near Black Water Bay. During the fall, when the north winds would blow, and the tide would suck out low, it would expose all kinds of treasures in the bay. There was an old Civil War hospital right close to where I called home. The greatest memories I have as a child was exploring the bay, looking for bottles and all sorts of other treasures left behind from the Civil War.

It always seemed my Dad would find way more treasures than me. With my imagination running wild as a kid, I would be looking for canon balls, rifles, and the occasional sunken treasure chest. Unfortunately, I never found any of those. But my luck began to shift from some wisdom my Dad gave me. He would tell me, "Son, look for the small stuff; the buttons, coins, marbles, etc. If you look for the small stuff, the big stuff will just appear." And you know, he was right. While I was running around looking for treasure chests and canon balls, I was walking over coins, buttons, and all sorts of valuable things.

There is a verse in Colossians 3 that says, "Stay alert, with your eyes wide open in gratitude." I have found in life, if I can see the small stuff, be grateful for the small stuff, the big stuff just appears. It’s the small, hidden almost, everyday blessings that we seem to walk over every day. I am learning to slow down a bit, look a little harder, and find those hidden treasures in life that most people walk right over. So my challenge to you during this fall season, and heading into Thanksgiving, is too look for the small stuff. Thank God for the crisp cold air, the beautiful orange sunsets, and a dinner table full of family and friends. And before you know it, you will begin to find more in your life to be thankful for.

Eternal life—you tend to think of it in terms of existence that never comes to an end. And the existence it seems to imply—a sort of religious experience in the sky—leaves you wondering if you would want it to go on forever. But Jesus is quite clear that when he speaks of eternal life, what he means is life that is absolutely wonderful and can never be diminished or stolen from you. He says, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full" (John 10:10). Not "I have come to threaten you into line," or "I have come to exhaust you with a long list of demands." Not even "I have come primarily to forgive you." But simply, My purpose is to bring you life in all its fullness.

In other words, eternal life is not primarily duration but quality of life, "life to the limit." It cannot be stolen from you, and so it does go on. But the focus is on the life itself. "In him was life," the apostle John said of Jesus, "and that life was the light of mankind" (John 1:4).

Pause and ask this: "God I need Life! Come and fill me with your life today! I give my life to you to be filled with your life!"

Excerpts From: John Eldredge. "Restoration Year."