There’s nothing quite like the frustration of spending endless hours trying to resolve an unfair situation and getting nowhere. Especially when it involves hours of being on-hold an 80's jazz song on endless repeat interrupted every minute by a robot voice informing you that “call volume is higher than usual.” 

God regularly speaks to us through story. And in today’s world, that primarily happens through the movies and series we watch. 

When past explorers discovered new lands, they often arrived by boat. The captain knew when things got hard, the crew would be tempted to sail home. 

The worldview of young adults is under assault in unprecedented ways. Practically every aspect of social media, entertainment, and even education is infused with incessant indoctrination.  

Faith is held up as a really good thing. But I would say, it depends. 

If that sounds heretical, stay with me.

I’ve noticed a troubling trend that’s infected most graduation speeches. The speaker—whether a school president, celebrity, or honor student—all stumble while trying to eloquently define real success or the reason to be hopeful for the future.

Graduations aren’t limited to high school and college ceremonies.  

We’re all students of someone or something. We learn and grow by staying curious, humble, and pushing through against great odds…regardless of our age or stage of life. 

As new creations, we have no reason to keep pursuing our creativity in old, formulaic ways.

People often talk about God as if he’s way up there, somewhere in the clouds, and we’re way down here, left to our own means. Or that if we want to find God, we need to search for him or wait until church on Sunday morning. 

It’s important to own physical copies of the books that matter most to you. This is especially true for your personal Bible. Here are three reasons why. 

One of the best ways to grow your creativity is to become more curious. Doing so adds a sense of wonder and awe to how you see yourself and infuses your art with new life.

When hard times hit, we lose perspective if we focus on the wrong thing…the problem. 

It’s human nature to give our full attention to the issue right in front of us. Yet doing so never works. Why? Because we’re approaching things backwards. 

C. S. Lewis made a fascinating observation about how all cultures have specific blind spots unique to their specific moment. Ours certainly does. Thankfully, Lewis doesn’t just state the problem but proposes an intriguing solution. 

The core issue in our walk with God is always the battle for intimacy. Will we choose God to fill all our desires…or look to someone or something else? 

At the start of a new year, anything seems possible. So we make our plans, knowing we have 365 days to make it happen.

Writers often try to measure their creativity by the wrong metric—the number of words written that day. It’s about as helpful as evaluating your last vacation based on the number of steps taken while there. 

We’ve all had those awkward moments when—while listening to a song or watching a scene in a show—we’re suddenly overcome with unexpected emotion.  

The sun wasn’t up yet, but I was. My daughter had a 12-hour drive back to college and I was in dad mode to make sure her vehicle was trip-ready. That involved scraping ice off her windshield, filling her gas tank, and checking the fluid levels and tire pressure. 

I often hear from readers how these messages in a bottle wash ashore at just the right time…with just the right words. I love how God uses these daily readings to encourage the hearts of creatives. 

God gave us a memory and an imagination. When they work together according to his design, we see our story more clearly. When they don’t, we find ourselves stuck in the wrong story.