(first written January 22, 2024) Pilgrims on earth. Pilgrims in a world we should “not love,” full of “vanity of vanities” we should not lay ourselves up for its treasures. Misinterpreted, these verses can even a faithful Christian devolve into a nihilistic outlook on our earth life, thinking “what’s the point” of trying hard if this isn’t our forever home. Once I realized that true peace came from Christ only, I felt lost in day-to-day life—accepting that I would find no satisfaction in achievements or healthy escapism because my life seemed directionless. 1 John 2:15-17 King James Version 15 Love…

(first published November 7, 2021) “We have two lives, and the second begins when we realize we only have one.” Yet we spend the now — all we ever have — wishing, escaping, envying, and complaining it away — ad infinitum. A mind controlled by ephemeral external circumstances and validation is a mind of no peace at all — it’s a reactive mind that lets inconveniences and outside pressures dictate your daily mood. Peace of mind isn’t externally created, as both research, and the Bible instructed us. To think happiness — an ephemeral response — is a buy, drink, night,…

(first published August 22, 2019) Merely riding an undetectable pale speck on a universe spanning 93 billion light-years, our existence falls victim daily to our insignificant human conceits. Our psyches attempt to confront this vast, cosmic glory by assigning inordinate, life-or-death value to every inconvenience. We convince ourselves we are special, inherently cursed snowflakes, instead of humbling ourselves before the universe and our Creator. The truth is pride is the root of all insecurity, and you are not special therefore the world is not out to get you. A gracious and humble mentality is the antidote to low self-esteem. It…

(first published July 28, 2019) Your early 20s — the mental limbo of feeling like a teenager yet being treated like an adult while thrown into the unpredictable, proverbial abyss. Now imagine the added confusion and pressure of being apart Generation Z and ignoring worldly ways. Forget the “quarter-life-crisis,” 20 is the new age to ruminate over every career, life, and spiritual decision before it even takes course. College hasn’t prepared you for the identity crisis and self-ownership of paying bills, figuring out “office culture,” and navigating life defined outside of the ephemeral “student” label. On a standard of life…

(first published October 3, 2021) No amount of self-care or escapism will ever change what only exposure therapy and stepping outside of your comfort zone by walking by faith does. Escapism will not yield growth, and withdrawing won’t cast out anxiety — it only deepens it. Anxiety is a fear-based unreliable narrator that rejects you before people and opportunities do. The only way out is through those fears. Confidence isn’t magically bestowed, but built by risk-taking. Out of vulnerability comes growth. Walking by faith, not fear delivers us. If nothing changes, nothing changes. Anxiety’s strangle-hold creates a comfortable pattern of…

(first published April 11, 2020) In our ever increasingly competitive job market how can we confound our unquenchable drive for success with humble gratitude and labor not in vain? How can we live an ethical life amid a “hustle culture” that demands we monetize our every living breath and action and compare ourselves against others who do? How can we labor, but not in vain or in self-idolatry? Ambition, success, prestige, or money will never bring us the inner peace that only knowing Jesus Christ can. As a college student and Christian graduating in a month amid a pandemic-induced global…

(first published December 29, 2015) “So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen (Matt. 20:16).” The blessed apostles who served God and not mammon were penniless, persecuted, imprisoned, Lazarus the greedy rich man burned while the beggar was carried to Abraham’s bosom, Jesus overthrew the moneychangers from the church and fed the most needy in society. Yet modern-day prosperity gospel led by private-jet-begging charlatans, offers the destitute nothing more than the spiritually-weakening notion that poverty and struggle is a spiritual failure — a lack of blessing. This great deception that has…