For the Journey Literature

So far I’ve highlighted my first four 30-Day Devotionals. I released my fifth one “Comfort from Psalms” in August of 2021. I still love the concept behind it. Life is hard. It just is. But, there is great comfort to be found in God’s Word. There’s far better comfort to be found within its pages than in retail therapy or binging on our favorite comfort foods, or in wrapping up in a warm blanket. God’s Word has the power to comfort our heart and soul, to give us peace even when we’re caught in fierce spiritual battles or going through hard times. So, as the title suggests, the goal behind “Comfort from Psalms” was simply to help others find comfort from the specific psalms chosen for the study.

And, for this highlight, I just had to go with Day 14’s devotional because it’s from a well-known psalm I always love to read and study. Plus, the illustration I used in the devotional to go with the text is special to me because it reminds me of wonderful summer memories from my childhood. So, I hope you enjoy “A Good Scrubbing.”

A Good Scrubbing

“Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.” –Psalm 51:2

Psalm 51

Growing up my Mamma always planted potatoes, and digging them was a family affair. We would start early while it was still moderately cool so we could finish before it got blazing hot like it does in the summer in Arkansas. Still, by the time we finished, especially we kids would be covered almost from head-to-toe in dirt and sweat and in desperate need of a good scrubbing.

When David penned today’s psalm, he was in need of a good scrubbing spiritually speaking. He had skipped out on his kingly duties, which led to lusting after another man’s wife, which led to sleeping with another man’s wife, which led to ensuring the man was killed in battle… Needless to say, he was filthy with sin, and the Lord sent the prophet Nathan to him to make him see it, to make him not just see it but feel it.

Fortunately, David knew where to turn for a good scrubbing. He turned to the Lord, acknowledging his sin (verses 3-4) and pleading with the Lord to wash him and make him clean (verse 2), to make him whiter than snow (verse 7), to give him a clean heart (verse 10), and to restore the joy of His salvation (verse 12).

Bringing that to us today, none of us are perfect. Sometimes, like David, we’ll mess up. Sometimes, spiritually speaking, we’ll look like we’ve spent a summer day in a potato patch. Thankfully, we can take comfort in the God who’s able to clean us up. Like David in his day, we can turn to the Lord for a good scrubbing, and He’ll blot out our sins and make us clean.

Take comfort in the God who can clean us up.

I recently noticed I kept running across a certain theme in writing Sunday School lessons. And, since I don’t believe in coincidences, I finally had to prayerfully consider whether God was telling me something. The theme that kept popping up was humility.

First, in writing middle school lessons from Genesis, it was Jacob having to humble himself before the brother he’d wronged. Then, in writing adult lessons from Deuteronomy, Moses, lest the Children of Israel get a big head, kept reminding them they weren’t chosen because they were the greatest or most numerous of the nations but rather because of God’s love and faithfulness to His promises. And, lest they be tempted to take the credit or give themselves the glory, he kept emphasizing to them that the nations in the Promised Land were stronger and mightier than them. It was only because the Lord was driving those nations out for their wickedness that Israel would be able to take possession of their land. Next, I started a new study for teens from Mark and, of course, found myself writing about John the Baptist’s humility. Even with his miraculous birth, his special God-given role that had been prophesied in the Old Testament, and his incredibly successful ministry, John was not prideful at all. He lived and ate humbly.  He insisted he wasn’t even worthy to unloose the shoes of the one so much mightier than him who was coming after him, than Jesus, the Messiah, the one able to baptize with the Holy Spirit. Like I said, the humility theme just kept coming up.

I think, if we’re honest, we all struggle with pride to some extent. After all, it was our first sin. We weren’t content as God created us but wanted the fruit He placed off limits so we would know good and evil like Him. We were, in pride, reaching above our station. And, we all appreciate compliments and words of affirmation more than we probably should. So, it’s not like I was under the impression that I never struggled with pride. Still, I didn’t really want to consider that I was walking around with a major pride problem. I didn’t want to think I had a big head or an inflated ego. After all, how off-putting are those personality traits?! 

As I was soul-searching, I couldn’t help remembering a certain yard-mowing incident from last week. Back in November, I caught whooping cough, and I cannot seem to get rid of the cough. Now, I don’t mean that I cough a little bit each day. I mean it’s not at all unusual for me to cough so much and so hard that I get light-headed multiple times a day. But, my backyard was turning into a jungle. It was a little past time for the first mowing of the year, and I didn’t want to let it reach the point that I had to sweet talk my Dad into bush hogging it for me. 

My mower, of course, hadn’t been started since the last time I mowed the yard last year, and thanks to all the coughing, I don’t exactly have an abundance of energy at the end of the day, so last Tuesday, multiple times throughout the day, I prayed about being able to get the mower to start because I knew I was not going to have enough left in the tank to mow the yard if I also had to tug and pull on the starter cord for 20 to 30 minutes. 

When I got home from work, I could see and hear that Dad was mowing my parents’ yard because they live across the road from me. I went inside to consume some food and caffeine for energy and then went back outside to mow. I got the push mower out of the shed, and it started on the second pull. I was so excited! (Sometimes, it’s the little things!)

I started mowing the backyard, and it wasn’t going particularly well. By that, I mean, I was pushing the mower with one hand while coughing my head off into my other elbow. Still, when my Dad finished their yard and came over and started working on my front yard while I was mowing in the back, I waved him off twice and hollered (between coughs) that I had it. Probably because he could hear my coughs over both of the running lawn mowers, he ignored me and kept mowing. 

I finished the backyard but used the rescue inhaler and took some cough syrup before finishing the side and probably would have hyperventilated or passed smooth out if Dad hadn’t mowed the front and the other side. 

It’s not surprising that this little adventure came to mind when I was soul-searching about a pride problem. I realized that, not only am I almost incapable of asking for help, but I don’t even accept it when it’s handed to me on a silver platter. After all, I had prayed for help starting the mower. The Lord did that and sent help with the mowing too. But, my self-sufficient, incredibly stubborn self received it, well, less than gracefully. Yep, there might be a pride problem there… Just maybe…

Sometimes, I think we’re too quick to dismiss it when similar topics and themes keep coming up in Sunday sermons or Sunday School lessons or our personal Bible study. We choose not to give it much thought because we don’t want to ask ourselves, “Is that for me? Do I have that problem?” After all, if we ask those questions, the yes might be too loud and resounding to ignore. Then, we’d have to face the humbling part–repentance, followed by the super challenging part–change. (At least, we would unless we chose to ignore the Lord’s correction, which is never a good idea.) But, it’s important to remember that the Lord’s correction and His nudging us to address areas where we need to change are expressions of His love for us. Does anyone want to have to admit to and address a pride problem or an anger problem or an honesty problem or fill in the blank with whatever problem? No. Are we better for it when we admit to our faults and failings and address them? Yes. Is it evidence of God’s goodness when He brings them to our attention? Absolutely. Conviction, though admittedly unpleasant to experience, is a gift. And, some prayerful soul-searching and asking, “Do I have that problem?” is never a bad idea. 

“For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” Hebrews 12:6

As crazy as it seems, we’re at the end of another month. I’m not sure how that’s possible, but the calendar says it’s so. And I would say it was a fairly productive one.

Monday morning verses this month came from the key verses from adult lessons from Isaiah, and the 30-Day Devotional highlight this month came from “Serving God and Others.” The trivia fun came from one of my absolute favorite books of the Bible–Ruth. However, the question was about Naomi. As much as I admire Ruth, I find Naomi more relatable, so that’s probably why it was about Naomi instead of Ruth.

There were also two devotional posts for the Facebook page this month. I’m not sure which one was my favorite. I needed them both. Go check them out if you missed them!

Early in the month of March, I panicked a little when I realized how much I still had to do if I planned to be able to offer new VBS literature this year. After my momentary panic, however, God allowed me to tackle the most challenging part of VBS literature for me as well as my favorite part in a manner of a few hours one evening. And, a few days after that special blessing, I was very happy to wrap up “Adventures on the Sea” and announce that it’s ready. I did opt for only doing a Super Saturday option this year. (By the way, didn’t the ad turn out super cute?)

I also wrote several adult lessons from Deuteronomy and a few devos for my next devotional study. I’m really enjoying working on the Sunday School lessons from Deuteronomy, and I’m getting very close to the halfway mark on my next 30-Day Devotional, so that’s exciting.

In case you need a laugh… I lost almost a week this month because I was really sick with a nasty stomach bug. During that time, I did attempt to catch up on some proofreading. Now, usually, while proofreading, I catch mistakes like accidentally typing there when I meant their, or sometimes I catch where I accidentally looked over a line while typing the lesson and have to go back to my hand-written originals and find what’s missing. But, I don’t usually find statements of heresy. Well, while typing a middle school lesson from Genesis, I apparently accidentally typed, “Leah gave birth to God.” Even my foggy, sick brain was screaming, “GAD! GAD! She gave birth to GAD! Definitely not God!” You just have no idea how glad I am that I caught that mistake in the proofing stage. No idea.

Hmm…let’s see… I also printed an order and caught up on some typing while watching the World Figure Skating Championships. And, no, I don’t type as fast when I’m watching figure skating at the same time…

Anyway, that was March. Can’t wait to see what April has in store!

Time for another 30-Day Devotional highlight!  My fourth one was “Serving God and Others” and was originally released in April of 2021.  I had a harder time settling on a devotional to highlight from it.  I got caught up rereading parts of the study and remembering the circumstances and situations that inspired some of the illustrations.  So, I wound up spending more time choosing than I probably should have.  I finally settled on the one below probably because I’ve had a very low tolerance for complaining lately.  Thus, I needed the reminder that, as Christians, we are called to love and serve even those who will never be happy and who will always find something to grumble and complain about.  And, even if you haven’t struggled lately with whining grating on your nerves more than normal, I hope you enjoy the read.

Constant Grumbling

“And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” –Exodus 16:3

Exodus 5:20-21; 14:10-12; 16:1-3; 17:1-4

When I read the account of the exodus and the Children of Israel’s wilderness wanderings, I can’t help feeling sorry for poor Moses. After all, he was far less than eager to take on leading his people to begin with and tried, albeit unsuccessfully, all kinds of excuses to get out of it. Then, he had to deal with the Children of Israel’s constant grumbling at every turn.

In the very beginning, after Moses and Aaron’s first encounter with Pharaoh, they were just making everything worse. On the shore of the Red Sea, Moses had brought them out of Egypt just to die. Then the people were starving… Then they were thirsty… At every turn, they should have stayed in Egypt where they had food and water. Slavery was so much better, and it was all Moses’ fault for bringing them out…at least according to them.

Still, in spite of all their grumbling, Moses continued to faithfully lead and serve his people. He continued to take their complaints to the Lord, continued to intercede for them and be the leader God called him to be. Was he perfect? No. Did he make mistakes? Yes. But, he did keep serving even when it was often a thankless job.

Today, our world is full of people who, like the Children of Israel in Moses’ day, grumble and complain a lot. We need to serve them anyway. We need to, in love, strive to do all we can even for people who are never going to think we did enough or did what we did in the right way and who are always going to have a new complaint the next week (or possibly the next day). We need to be like Moses and serve as we’re called to serve even when we feel underappreciated because we don’t answer to those grumbling and complaining about what we did and how we did it. We answer to God, and He’s called us to love and serve even those who make that difficult.

Serve even the grumblers.

I feel like February is always a bit of a whirlwind. It’s a short month anyway and one that includes printing orders for me, so it always seems to be gone before I know it.

Speaking of printing orders, this month’s were printed on a new printer. I don’t know if this is true for everyone or just my less than tech-savvy self. But, setting up and using a new printer never goes smoothly. That means printing February orders was not without its challenges. But, the orders got printed, and I still have hair, so I’m going to count that as a win.

Other than orders, I did make time for some fun VBS crafting on a snow/ice day and am very pleased with the results.

I also worked a bit more on my next 30-Day Devotional. It’s progressing–slowly.

And, at the end of the month, I squeezed in a bit more work on my next Bible Study Guide. It’s also progressing–slowly. That seems to be how everything is going lately. It’s a little frustrating for someone who tends to rush around and run 90-to-nothing at all times, but focus has been a serious struggle lately… I’m praying that improves sooner rather than later.

I had to finish my adult study from the parables of Jesus before printing orders and then started a new adult study from Deuteronomy. It’s the first time I’ve ever written from Deuteronomy for any age group, and that’s always a special experience for me. In fact, both of the short devotional posts for my For the Journey Facebook page this month came about from outlining Deuteronomy lessons. I don’t know which one was my favorite. I needed them both. If you missed them, visit the page and check out “Remembering and Believing” and “Ouch!” I also worked on a couple of middle school lessons from Genesis this month.

There was more trivia fun, and Monday morning verses for the Facebook page this month were taken from the key verses from teen lessons from Romans. I also highlighted my third 30-Day Devotional “In the Waiting.” If you missed that post, just keep scrolling after you finish reading this one.

That just about covers February. Can’t wait to see what March has in store!

My third 30-Day Devotional “In the Waiting” was not a project I undertook with great enthusiasm. And, being honest, it’s the only writing project I look back on with real regret. Don’t get me wrong. The end result wasn’t bad. It has merit and was actually one of my more successful devotionals. But, I still look back on it with regret because I wasn’t quite obedient when writing it, and not quite obedient is the same as disobedient. I don’t like waiting, and it’s a deeply personal struggle for me. Thus, I don’t want to talk about it, and I don’t want to write about it. Hard pass! 

So, as I was writing a devotional study about waiting because I felt led to even if I didn’t want to, there were times I would purposefully change illustrations to be less personal, or there were times when I wasn’t as honest or open as I knew I should have been. And, the few times I was obediently open, I did so begrudgingly at best. That’s why I look back on the project with regret. I can’t help wondering what more God might have had for me in the experience of writing it if I had been more obedient and possibly what more He might have had for those reading it. Needless to say, those wonderings do not evoke warm and fuzzy feelings. (I know, some highlight this is turning out to be…) 

At the same time, I’m sort of glad I have that one project I can’t remember without a twinge of regret because it nudges me to be obedient, to get over myself and follow the Lord’s direction, when the non-sharer, closed-book part of me who’s more open in writing than in conversation but still struggles with that wants to tweak illustrations and hold back, to not be quite honest. Sometimes I need that. I don’t want another project that I know I didn’t go about with the right attitude or write the way I should have. So, I’m genuinely grateful for “In the Waiting.” After all, hard lessons are still lessons.

As with the highlights from “Do You Believe?” and “Standing Strong,” below is one of the devotionals from “In the Waiting.” It’s one that the pessimist in me really needed to go back and reread as I was trying to select one for this post, and I hope it blesses you too.

Days without Hope

“My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.” -Job 7:6

Job 7:1-21

Recently, I’ve been studying Job in my personal Bible study. Everyone is really familiar with the beginning of Job and of course the ending. The middle, however, sort of gets lost.

Our passage for today comes after Job has lost everything—his livestock, most of his servants, all his children, and his health. It also comes after his incredibly supportive wife urges him to just curse God and die, and after Eliphaz becomes the first of his “friends” to tell him his suffering is the result of some secret sin in his life. Thus, Job is, understandably, in a place of complete despair. His days are spent without hope (Job 7:6). He believes he’ll never see good again (Job 7:7). His spirit is in anguish, and his soul in bitterness (Job 7:11). Even in sleep, he finds no escape, no comfort or relief (Job 7:13-14). And, he’s waiting—but not for things to get better, not for physical healing or any kind of restoration. No, he has no hope of that. At this point, Job is waiting for death. In his complaint to God, he makes the statement: “…my soul chooseth strangling, and death rather than my life. I loathe it; I would not live always: let me alone; for my days are vanity” (Job 7:15-16). Later, he adds, “…for now shall I sleep in the dust; and thou shalt seek me in the morning, but I shall not be” (Job 7:21).

Job honestly thought all hope was gone. He honestly believed he was nearing the end of his life, that he would never know joy or happiness again. But, Job was wrong. There was so much going on behind the scenes that he didn’t know about, and God had a far better ending to his story in mind.

My point: When you feel like your days are without hope, when you’re bitter and broken and tempted to give in to despair and believe things will never get better, choose instead to wait in hope. Choose to believe God is at work behind the scenes writing a better ending. Even when it’s hard, even when it hurts, choose to hope because, as long as there’s a good God in Heaven (and there always has been and always will be), there will never be so much as a single day that is truly without hope.

Wait in hope.

So, January was a month of doing a little bit of everything.  I might have accomplished more if I had focused on one or two things, but oh well.  Instead…

There was some crafting for Sunday School lessons and VBS.  

Sometimes my crafts actually turn out the way I imagined them in my head, and I just love it when that happens! The one above may be one of my all-time favorites.

I also worked on my next Bible Study Guide a little, which is on Ephesians.  Working on it started out a little rough.  The flow just wasn’t there like I wanted it to be, but I’m starting to get excited about it.  So, hopefully, it will continue to progress.

I started my next 30-Day Devotional study “From the Writings of Paul” what feels like forever ago.  Unfortunately, devos has been listed on my weekly to-do list every week since then, but week after week, I haven’t checked it off.  So, it was nice to get back into it again and write a few devotionals this month.  I’m still nowhere close to releasing it, but I’m closer.

You know it’s been awhile since you recorded a podcast episode when the software has completely changed and you have to basically relearn everything.  The episode “When the Journey is Filled with Waiting” published this month was not all that long, but it felt like it took forever.  The English major in me enjoyed the fact that it was inspired largely by a Longfellow poem, but I tried not to be too much of a lit nerd in the episode.  If you missed it, the link is shared on my For the Journey Facebook page, so you can go back and give it a listen if you’d like.

I guess I was a bit of a slacker on short devotional posts for the Facebook page this month.  I only wrote one, but it was a tremendous blessing to me.  If you missed “Keep Turning to the Cross,” go back and check it out.

Most of the Sunday School lessons I wrote this month were adult lessons from Jesus’ parables.  I have really enjoyed writing them and am sort of sad to almost have the study wrapped up, but it’s a good thing because I have to finish it in time for orders next month.

January was also the second month of honoring 10 years of For the Journey.  The Monday morning verses were taken from key verses for adult Sunday School lessons from Psalms.  I do think I succeeded in making the trivia question a little bit easier this month.  And, I highlighted my second 30-Day Devotional “Standing Strong” on the website.  You can keep scrolling after reading this month’s review if you missed it.

That pretty much sums up January.  It was an a-little-of-this-and-a-little-of-that kind of month, and while that seemed to mean less noticeable progress, I had fun doing all the things.

Last month, I highlighted my first 30-Day Devotional “Do You Believe?” as part of celebrating 10 years of For the Journey Literature.  I followed that devotional up with “Standing Strong.”  I don’t have very many vivid memories from writing it like I do from writing the first one.  I originally released it in August of 2020, so COVID was changing the world.  (Yuck!)  I do remember managing to squeeze in an illustration using one of my all-time favorite figure skaters.  That was fun for me.  And, one of the devotionals in “Standing Strong” is definitely among the most memorable of all the devotionals I’ve written.  It challenged and convicted me so much that it still haunts me in a good way to this day.  However, that is not the one I’m sharing in this highlight because I’m pretty sure I’ve shared it before.  I went with a different one, which I hope you enjoy reading for the first time or rereading it if you purchased and read “Standing Strong” back in 2020.

Success Will Come

“And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand. And I will stretch out my hand, and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst thereof: and after that he will let you go.” -Exodus 3:19-20

Exodus 3:16-22

In today’s passage, God gives Moses the task of gathering up the elders of Israel and going before Pharaoh with them to ask Pharaoh’s permission for them to journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord. Then, God tells the already very reluctant Moses that Pharaoh’s going to say no. Yep, He tells Moses his first mission before Pharaoh will fail, adding that Pharaoh will not let the Children of Israel go until after He stretches out His hand and smites Egypt with all His wonders. God promises that then, and only then, will Pharaoh let the Israelites go and that they will even spoil the Egyptians as they leave. Thus, God promises Moses success, but He also promises it won’t be immediate. It won’t come easy.

Though we didn’t read that far into the narrative, if you’re familiar with the story of the Exodus, you know things get much worse for the Children of Israel after Moses’ first interaction with Pharaoh, and you know they don’t like Moses very much because of it. However, Moses continues to seek God and follow His instructions, and eventually, success does come just as God promised it would. Moses and the Children of Israel leave Egypt in victory. But, to get there, Moses had to stand strong even when that was hard, even while watching his people suffer and quite possibly feeling like he caused it.

In life and in ministry, immediate success is nice, but it’s also pretty rare. Most of the time success comes only after hard work and after suffering a few bumps and bruises and going through some rough patches. Therefore, we can’t expect everything to be easy, and we can’t give up after one failed mission. We have to stand strong and keep putting one foot in front of the other even when that’s hard. Just think of all the blessings Moses would have missed if he had run back to his life of keeping his father-in-law’s flock when Pharaoh said no that first time. We’ll miss out on a lot of our own blessings if we’re too quick to give up and quit when it comes to the work God has for us to do. Even when success is slow in coming, stand strong and keep working.

Stand strong even when that’s hard.

It’s been a whirlwind, crazy busy kind of month, but honestly, it was also kind of wonderful.  I feel like this month, even though there were late nights and days when I was completely exhausted, the work held more joy and excitement than it had for a long time.

I’m going to get a little more personal than I usually do, which makes me uncomfortable, but here goes anyway…  The day after the night I cried my eyes out writing last month’s review, I started writing a short story.  It was like a compulsive thing I had to do.  Over the next few days, when I wasn’t working on it, I wanted to be working on it because the flow was there, and I just had to get it out on paper.  Now, I don’t really write short stories.  I did as a teen.  They were never any good.  I wrote a couple in college.  One of them I don’t think I ever even typed, and I know I didn’t let anyone read it, but I sort of think it saved my life or at least my sanity.  I’ve maybe written a couple of others since then.  But, as much as I would like for it to be, as much as I long for the free time to give it a fair chance, fiction isn’t really my thing, unless you count church skits.  That’s why it’s kind of odd that God used a short story to make me really passionate about writing again, but I’m so grateful He did–grateful and maybe even a touch hopeful.  

Moving on, the first part of the month included printing a couple of orders, which always makes my heart happy.  The writing is my favorite part, but it can’t touch hearts if it’s never in the hands of others, so orders are always a blessing to me.

This month was also the first month for some new things in honor of 10 years of For the Journey.  That included Monday morning verses, which were taken from some of the key verses of adult Sunday School lessons from a study on James.  (Have I mentioned James is one of my favorites?  But, I have a lot of favorites.)  I also did a monthly trivia question; however, I was informed that it was a little hard.  I do find it slightly ironic that the person who told me it was difficult was also the slave driver about homework, grades, and my GPA growing up, but I’ll try to make it a little easier next month.  Maybe…  (Love you, Mom!  I just also love to harass you.)  And, I highlighted my very first 30-Day Devotional “Do You Believe?” by sharing a little about writing it and one of the devotionals.  Keep scrolling after reading this post if you missed it.

Also (and this is huge), around the middle of the month, thanks largely to a weekend dog-sitting Abby for my sister and brother-in-law, for the first time in longer than I can remember, I was caught up on typing lessons!  There was no stack of hand-written lessons hanging over my head that I needed to make time to type.  Not a single one.  It was so exciting.  (It lasted for all of 24 hours, but we’re not going to dwell on that…)  Even more exciting was the fact that wading through the pile inspired my favorite short devotional post to the For the Journey Facebook page and Instagram this month, which was titled “Some Kind of Faith.”  It challenged and convicted me in the best of ways, and I really think it would be worth your time to go find it if you missed it.

Other than that, there was another short devotional post on the Facebook page titled “Unchanged by Forgiveness” early in the month and, of course, Sunday School lessons.  I’m really excited about the new adult study I’m working on currently from the parables of Jesus.

At the end of the month, I devoted some time to children’s lit crafts and illustrations. 

Fun fact:  That was attempt #5 or 6 on the ram.  Regarding the other attempts, think less little-kid-cute and more terrifying to small children, which is why they were promptly crumpled and tossed.  Sometimes my artistic abilities are a little lacking…

So, that was December.  It was fun.  It was exciting.  And, especially considering the fact that it’s like the busiest month of the year because of Christmas and all the Christmas-related activities and events, I would say it was pretty productive.  It was nice to end the year on a positive note, and I can’t wait to see what 2025 will hold.

In my review of last month, I warned you there would be some trips down memory lane in celebrating 10 years of For the Journey Literature, and I guess that starts here…

I don’t think I’ve ever played the role of annoying little sister better than when I was writing my very first 30-Day Devotional study “Do You Believe?” I was nervous about how it would turn out and about whether I could complete it. That meant the only person who knew what I was working on pretty much until I had finished writing it was my older sister. So, she was constantly receiving updates via text messages. I would just randomly send her, “I’m up to Day 12!” or “I’m halfway there!” or “I only need to write five more!” until the day I finally got to text her, “I have 30 days!!! That means I’m finished! Well, I have to proof it and edit it and print copies and all the things, but it’s written!!!” She probably thought my enthusiasm was a bit over the top, but she was always encouraging, and it was fun (at least on my end) to share the writing journey with her.

At the time I was writing it, I needed the excitement of something new, something different, but I also needed the way it challenged me to grow in my faith, the challenge to believe without wavering.

I don’t know that I would say it’s the best of the 30-Day Devotionals I’ve written or even that it’s my favorite. But, as the first, it definitely holds a special place in my heart, and from a purely statistical standpoint, it performed the best (for what that’s worth). I’ve included an excerpt below for readers who maybe weren’t familiar with For the Journey back in May of 2020 when “Do You Believe?” was originally released. It’s actually Day 30, so the devotional I wrote right before I got to send that crazy excited “I’m sort of finished!” text to my sister.

Count the Cost

“And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.” -Luke 14:27

Luke 14:25-33

Today’s is a somewhat difficult passage. It plainly states that if our love for God isn’t so strong it makes our love for our own family seem like hate, we can’t be a disciple of Jesus. It teaches that we have to hate our own life and also states we must bear our cross and follow Jesus. Um, besides the fact that crosses are heavy and awkward to carry, in Jesus’ day, people carried a cross to die on it… Just let that soak in for a minute.

This passage teaches that we have to be like the builder who knows he can finish the tower because he counted the cost and like the king who knows whether or not to go to war because he counted the cost. We have to count the cost before we can follow Christ. Jesus isn’t interested in disciples who aren’t prepared to finish the journey, disciples who are going to turn back when things get rough. He wants disciples who have counted the cost, who believe it’s worth the cost, and who are going to follow to the very end.

Make no mistake, following Jesus comes at a cost. It may be your future plans. It may be your hopes and dreams. It may be relationships. Someday it may even be your life. Believe it’s worth any cost and follow anyway. I promise you, when you stand before God and hear, “Enter in my good and faithful servant,” if the cost crosses your mind at all, it will only be to think that it was more than worth it.

Believe following Christ is worth the cost.