The Daily Memo

A modern poet described the time we live in as an “age of anxiety.” Our lives have only become more anxious, in part because the world has become characterized by the need for “more.” Advertising and information flood our senses and emotions, so when it comes to material goods, enough seems to be just out of reach. We may think this is unique to our lifetime, but is it? In Luke 12, Jesus’ assessment of His audience could have been written.…

One of the most important lessons we can learn is how to listen to God. In our complex and hectic lives, nothing is more urgent, nothing more necessary, and nothing more rewarding than hearing what God has to say to us and then obeying Him. You may ask, “Does the Lord really speak to us today?” The Bible assures us He does. The book of Hebrews opens this way: “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets … in these last days has…

Let’s face it, there’s nothing like marriage to allure us and at the same time make us spontaneously combust with fear or anger at a moment’s notice. In the middle years of marriage, youthful fantasies can give way to painful realities. Mike Mason spoke some of my favorite words on the disruptive power of marriage. A marriage, or a marriage partner, may be compared to a great tree growing right up through the center of one’s living room. It is…

Dale Earnhardt Jr. describes the awful moment he understood his father was gone. Motor racing legend Dale Earnhardt Sr. had just been killed in a horrific crash at the end of the Daytona 500—a race in which Dale Jr. had also participated. “There’s this noise coming outta me that I can’t re-create,” said the younger Earnhardt. “[It’s] this bellow of shock and sorrow—and fear.” And then the lonely truth: “I’m…

In his wonderful book Art + Faith: A Theology of Making, renowned artist Makoto Fujimura describes the ancient Japanese art form of Kintsugi. In it, the artist takes broken pottery (originally tea ware) and pieces the shards back together with lacquer, threading gold into the cracks. “Kintsugi,” Fujimura explains, “does not just ‘fix’ or repair a broken vessel; rather, the technique makes the broken pottery even more beautiful than the original.;…

“The sorrows of our lives are in great part his weaning process. We give our hearts over to so many things other than God. We look to so many other things for life. I know I do. Especially the very gifts that he himself gives to us — they become more important to us than he is. That’s not the way it is supposed to be. As long as our happiness is tied to the things we can lose, we are vulnerable.” This truth is core to the human condition and to…

Have you ever noticed that the more time you spend with someone, the better you understand where that person is coming from? Our relationship with Jesus is similar. When we have a close connection with Him, we’re not praying to some cold and distant deity “out there somewhere.” Instead, we are speaking with a God who loves us, sustains us, and molds us into His own image. That changes how we approach Him, doesn’t it? Peter, James, and John witnessed Jesus;…

‘‘This seemingly insubstantial fact revolutionized my life,” wrote Adrian Plass, author of The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass Aged 37¾. He continued, “I became a Christian when I was sixteen years old, but it wasn’t until I was thirty-seven that I absorbed an essential truth. God is nice and he likes me.” Sadly, deep down many people think that God is not that nice, he does not like us very much and he spends most of his time being…

Whatever you acquire outside of God’s will eventually turns to ashes.The deepest desire present in every human heart—the one thing we’re truly longing for— is to know God.You may not understand the longing within you to be a desire for God—in fact, you may simply feel dissatisfaction with your life. Maybe the relationship you wanted and attained isn’t everything you thought it would be. Perhaps you have everything you’ve ever wanted…