Pathway of Purpose

  “He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care.” —  Isaiah 53:3, NLT Pain That Shapes Us Suffering is the one universal language we all speak. Whether it’s quiet disappointment or soul-crushing loss, every human life is marked by pain. And yet—when the ache comes, we often believe God is absent. As if joy is His native tongue, and sorrow is a language He doesn’t understand. But the gospel tells another story. It tells of a God who bleeds. A Savior whose glory is revealed not only in resurrection but in crucifixion. A Comforter who does not bypass pain but walks straight into it with us. Sacred noticing in suffering is not pretending we are okay—it is realizing God is already there.  Present. Tender. Weeping alongside us. Jesus and the Wounded Places The story of Thomas in  John 20  is striking. After the resurrection, the disciples tell Th...

  Photo by  Content Pixie  on  Unsplash “Then Jesus served them the bread and the fish. This was the third time Jesus had appeared to his disciples since he had been raised from the dead.”  —  John 21:13–14, NLT The Glory of the Everyday If God is only found in the big moments—mountaintop experiences, burning bushes, and parting seas—then most of us will spend our lives feeling like we missed Him. Because most of life isn’t miraculous. It’s Monday morning. It’s dishes and emails and walking the dog. It’s answering the same question for the fifth time. It’s grocery runs and gas tank refills and waiting in line at the DMV. Most of life is breathtakingly, frustratingly  ordinary . But what if that’s the point? What if the ordinary isn’t the backdrop to our spiritual lives, but the very place God wants to meet us? Breakfast by the Sea After the resurrection, Jesus didn’t gather His disciples for a conference or send them on a spiritual retreat. He cooked t...

“So I am going to allure her; I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her.” —  Hosea 2:14, NLT The In-Between Space There are seasons in life that feel like spiritual standstills. The doors don’t open. The prayers don’t get answered. The next step remains unclear. You’re not where you were, but you’re not where you hoped to be either. It’s disorienting. Quiet. Lonely. This is the wilderness. We tend to think of wilderness seasons as wasted time—places of exile, silence, or discipline. But in Scripture, the wilderness is  rarely a punishment . More often, it is  preparation . The in-between space where something new is being formed— not in the spotlight, but in the shadows. And if we learn to notice, we’ll begin to see that what feels barren may actually be a  birthplace . In God’s hands, the wilderness becomes a womb. Biblical Reflection: The Pattern of Wilderness The wilderness is a central motif in the biblical narrative: Moses  meets Go...

  “Then Jesus said, ‘Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.’”  — Matthew 11:28, NLT Introduction: The Rest We Resist We rarely stop because we’re afraid of what we’ll miss. In a culture addicted to acceleration, where value is often equated with visibility and hustle is worn like a badge of honor, rest feels irresponsible. Even our spiritual rhythms can be infected by productivity—quiet time becomes a checklist, sabbath becomes optional, and ministry becomes performance. But Jesus isn’t recruiting high performers. He invites the weary . His call to rest is not a suggestion—it’s a command. An invitation to a countercultural life that flows from abiding, not striving. In a world that tells us to “push through,” Jesus says: “Pause. Let Me carry you.” This kind of rest is more than self-care. It’s a spiritual rebellion —a refusal to find our worth in what we do and a re-centering of our lives in the truth of who we are: dee...

The Life Model: Living from the Heart Jesus Gave You  is not just a book—it is a framework for healing, discipleship, and community formation that fuses the fields of neuroscience, theology, trauma recovery, and spiritual maturity into a single, relationally vibrant vision. Written by a team of clinicians, counselors, and pastoral leaders, the book presents a compelling case for reimagining spiritual growth as deeply relational and rooted in joy-based connection. This book is not only theological in nature but intensely practical, challenging standard discipleship models and offering a roadmap for helping people grow from emotional infancy to spiritual maturity. At the heart of the book is the idea that every believer is designed to live from “the heart Jesus gave you”—a heart formed by joyful attachment, secure identity, and emotional resilience. However, most people, even within the Church, live from a “false heart,” one formed by trauma, shame, or relational neglect. The Life Mo...

“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed planted in a field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but it becomes the largest of garden plants; it grows into a tree, and birds come and make nests in its branches.”  — Matthew 13:31–32, NLT Introduction: The Kingdom in the Cracks It always begins small. God, it seems, delights in planting eternity into the tiniest soil of time. A whisper at creation. A baby in a manger. A fisherman’s lunch. A widow’s coin. A prisoner’s letter. A mustard seed. Yet smallness is rarely attractive to us. In a world that idolizes the big, the bold, and the instant, we often overlook the places God most frequently shows up— the small. Our culture of spiritual urgency and self-optimization has a bias against beginnings. We celebrate outcomes, milestones, and platforms—but Scripture invites us to pay attention to seeds. Jesus didn’t say the Kingdom resembles a tree. He said it is like a mustard seed. In that comparison, we are called to notice what...