Month: November 2019

Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Luke 6:20 When I was in a teenager, looking forward to the future, I didn’t imagine going to treatment one day for an addiction to drugs. I planned, rather, on a comfortable life with a beautiful family. Those things aren’t necessarily wrong…
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In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. Luke 6:12 How did I get here? That’s what I asked myself in the disaster of my addiction. I hadn’t planned on the destruction. I’d planned on a comfortable life as a respectable physician, husband,…
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The scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find a reason to accuse him. Luke 6:7 As much as I don’t like to admit it, as a kid, I was a people-pleaser. I followed what I believed to be the rules, not because…
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Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Luke 5:32 Because I understand the misery of addiction, I daily pray for those I know to still be living in it. I know I can’t recovery for anyone else, but still, it’s difficult to watch those who so obviously…
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Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? Luke 5:30 Before I came to understand the depravity of my own nature through my addiction, I was often guilty of looking down on those who made such stupid mistakes. Even now, having been in recovery for a few years, it’s again easy to…
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Which is easier, to say, “Your sins are forgiven you,” or to say, “Rise and walk”? Luke 5:23 In contemplating today’s blog on the most important things in life, I’ve been thinking about my own perspective. How often am I distracted from the things that truly matter by the temporal, the tangible, and immediate gratification?…
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Some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus . . . Luke 5:18 It seems to me, that my life would be far easier, and that I’d be a better person, if I didn’t wrestle with lust, gluttony,…
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When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him. Luke 5:11 As a kid, growing up in church – my father is a pastor – we regularly celebrated stories of changed lives. It wasn’t uncommon to hear about someone who had lived a life of crime, only to find faith…
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Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. Luke 5:8 Whenever I fail in some personal struggle, it always makes it more difficult to return to God. It’s painful to face him after a fall, and so, I continue down my path, going even further in the wrong direction. As I was…
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All those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to him, and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them. Luke 4:40 I had a day off yesterday, which meant I finally got around to cleaning up the mountains of leaves that autumn has piled in my…
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