We have become extraordinarily practiced at contempt.
It is different from disagreement. It is different even from anger.
Anger says, “What you did is wrong.”
Contempt makes a judgment about what you are.
It is the eye roll. The sneer.
The little laugh when somebody we dislike says something foolish.
It is the pleasure we feel when someone on the other side gets humiliated.
It is taking the worst example of a group of people and using that person to explain everybody in the group.
A player misses the shot, drops the pass, strikes out, or makes the mistake that costs the game.
Within minutes, strangers who have never met him are flooding his social-media accounts.
You're worthless. You should never play again.
Sometimes they go after the player's spouse or children.
Think about that.
A human being failed at something while millions of people were watching.
Something every one of us has done—failed.
And our response can be: Make him hurt. That is contempt.
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The problem is that when we examine our own hearts—we find God's good seed and the bad seed growing together—both are present.
Every one of us knows what it is to love generously one day... and act selfishly the next.
The field isn't just out there. The field is in here. Inside our hearts.
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The Bible has a name for this: sin. It is not simply the things we do wrong, but the power within us that twists what is good. Sin is the power that turns freedom into selfishness. Sin is the power that turns love into possession, justice into vengeance, and neighbors into enemies.
If the problem were ignorance, we'd need better education. If the problem were bad laws, we'd need better legislation. If the problem were lack of discipline, we'd need more willpower. But if sin has taken hold of the human heart, then we need more than advice—we need redemption.
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Every day, voices around us tell us what deserves our fear… our focus… our devotion.
We live in a world filled with noise—
constantly demanding our attention and telling us where to look every hour of the day.
Look at what you lack.
Look at who is winning.
Look at who is failing.
Look at who to fear.
Look at who to blame.
But what we keep looking at… has the power to shape us.
If we spend our lives staring only at anger… we become angry.
If we stare only at fear… fear begins to rule us.
If we stare only at what is broken… despair slowly settles into the bones.
But we have the power to look up—
to see the heavens opened—
and Jesus standing before us…
claiming us…
strengthening us…
so that fear and violence don’t get the last word.
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Saved From the Grave
What do you do when God feels late?
In John 11, Mary and Martha send for Jesus as their brother Lazarus lies dying. They believe he will come. They believe he will heal.
But he doesn’t.
By the time Jesus arrives, Lazarus has been in the grave four days—beyond hope, beyond help, beyond anything they imagined God might still do.
We know this place.
The place where prayers didn’t turn out the way we hoped.
The place where something we loved has come to an end.
The place where we have sealed the stone and tried to move on.
And yet, Jesus stands at the edge of the tomb and says, “Take away the stone.”
This episode explores what it means to trust God in the waiting, to face what we’ve buried, and to hear Jesus still calling us—by name—out of fear, despair, and everything that has held us bound.
Because the fourth day is not the end.
The grave does not get the last word.
Jesus does.
Come out… and live.
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Blessed are the weary, those living with more than they can name.
Blessed are the brokenhearted, whose love has outlived what they lost.
Blessed are the small and quiet ones, whose gentleness goes unprotected in this world.
Blessed are the ones who carry deep longing, who feel the world’s fracture in their bones.
Blessed are the tendersouled, raw from caring so much.
Blessed are the ones with open hearts, aching for clarity, aching for God.
Blessed are all who breathe and break and yearn—for God calls you beloved.
Not someday. Not once things improve. But now.
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“A decree goes out. Not a conversation. Not a question. Not a community forum. A decree. A registry. A journey demanded. A law passed in an office far away from those it would affect.
No one asked if Mary was tired.
No one asked if Joseph was worried.
No one asked where they’d sleep… or what they’d eat… or who would be there when the baby came.
Empire never asks those questions.”
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Text: Habakkuk 1:1–4; 2:1–4
“Faith doesn’t always look like certainty.
Sometimes it looks like standing your post—
weary but still watching, hurt but still listening.
Habakkuk stood in the watchtower and said,
‘I will wait to see what God will say.’
Maybe that’s what we’re called to be:
a watchtower people in a restless world.
People who keep hope visible—
who act as if mercy still matters,
who speak as if peace is still possible,
who believe that grace is still stronger than hate. Because it is.
