Why the world needs the unique person God created you to be. One of the devotions in Soul Weathered is called A Role Only You Can Play. It's built on a truth that has shaped the way I've looked at people for years. Long before you were born... before anyone knew your name... before your parents held you... God knew you. He wasn't surprised by your personality. He wasn't surprised by your gifts. He wasn't surprised by your struggles. He designed you with intention. He created

Hearing God's voice is not the destination. Knowing God is. One of the foundations of Soul Weathered is learning to hear God's voice. Not because hearing His voice is the goal. It's because God is always wanting to speak into our lives. No matter what's going on. No matter where we are. No matter whether we're facing a crisis or celebrating a victory. He wants to be involved. He wants to speak into our problems. He wants to speak into our successes. He wants to speak into how

Everything abandoned to God will be returned to us, either in this lifetime or in eternity. One of the devotions in Soul Weathered is called Abandoned to God. In it, I make a statement that someone recently asked me about. I wrote: "Everything abandoned to God will be returned to us, either in this lifetime or in eternity." Do I really believe that? Absolutely. Recently I had lunch with a friend I've known for several years. Twenty-six months ago, he made a decision that most

“Sometimes faith is walking away from the throne without an answer, knowing the question is safe with God” Why some questions must be carried with God before they can be answered Soul Weathered contains fifty-two devotions. One for every week of the year. There's a reason for that. It isn't simply because men don't like to read. It isn't because I thought people couldn't handle more. It's because I've learned something over the years about walking with God. Sometimes it take

There is a place where the life of Christ begins to flow effortlessly through you. One of the recurring themes throughout Soul Weathered is becoming the man God created you to be. Not the man the world tells you to become. Not the man your fears have shaped. Not even the man you think you ought to be. The man God imagined when He created you. For years, I wondered what that really looked like. How do you become that man? How do you move beyond simply believing in Christ to ac

Adventure taught me how to be a guide. God taught me how to be a man. If you've been reading Soul Weathered for very long, you may have noticed that I write a lot about the heart. About grace. About fear. Joy. Fatherhood. Walking with God. Sometimes I wonder if someone reading these reflections might think, "This guy writes a lot about feelings." And they'd be partly right. But I also want you to know something about me. I've been an adventurer all my life. From the time I wa

One of the themes throughout Soul Weathered is what I call our inner weather. Not the weather outside us. The weather within us. The emotions no one else sees. The conversations no one else hears. One of those conversations has followed me for most of my adult life. It's the way I speak to myself. I've always been impatient. Not just with traffic. Not just with delays. Not even primarily with other people. I've been impatient with me. For years, every little mistake became an

One of the things I wrestle with in Soul Weathered is mystery. Not because I enjoy unanswered questions. But because there are questions that simply don't have easy answers. Sometimes I wonder about the person who might pick up Soul Weathered—the agnostic, the atheist, or simply the person who has been deeply wounded—and think, This doesn't answer my questions. Honestly, I understand. Because I've asked many of those same questions myself. In my early thirties, I went through

One of the recurring themes throughout Soul Weathered is the relentless love of God. His pursuit of us. His kindness toward us. His fatherly care. Over and over, I've written about God's love flowing toward us. But recently, God has been showing me something different through my granddaughter. Something about how we love Him back. My granddaughter often spends the night with us. And like many four-year-olds, she likes to sleep close. Sometimes she sleeps between us. Sometimes

"Jesus died for you. God calls you. And eventually, there are steps of obedience only you can take." Jesus told a story about a shepherd who left ninety-nine sheep to go after one that was lost. I've heard that story most of my life. Usually, I heard it from the perspective of evangelism. The lost person. The person far from God. The one who needs rescuing. And that's true. But recently I've been wondering something else. What if the one is you? Not you as part of a crowd. No

One of the devotions in Soul Weathered is called Immortals. And if I'm honest, most of my Christian life I didn't think much about eternity. I believed in it. I believed heaven was real. I believed that through Christ I would spend eternity with God. But I didn't spend much time thinking about what eternity actually meant. Like many Christians, I think I viewed life as a bell curve. You are born. You grow. You reach some kind of peak. Then your body declines. And eventually y

I've been thinking about time. My time. My days. My plans. And honestly, whether I'm doing enough with any of them. Most mornings, I wake up thinking about what needs to get done. The calls I need to make. The projects that need attention. The responsibilities that seem to multiply faster than I can keep up with them. And if I'm honest, I often wake up with a subtle feeling that many men carry: I'm behind. Behind on my goals. Behind on my plans. Behind on where I thought I'd

Colorado River There’s a devotional in Soul Weathered called “Expectation.” And lately, I’ve been thinking about that word again. Not just spiritually. Practically. Daily. I was talking with my father yesterday, and later with my wife, about expectations. What do we actually expect from life ahead? From our future? From tomorrow? And honestly, what do we expect from today? I woke up this morning thinking about that. What is my expectation for this day? Do I expect joy? Do I e

There’s a section in Soul Weathered devoted entirely to grace. Not grace as a theological idea. But grace as something lived. Patsy Folk, my mom. Something seen. Something experienced in ordinary moments that quietly change the way you see people forever. One of those moments happened when I was a teenager. My mother worked at a Bible bookstore in Hickory, NC , and one day I was in the store looking through music when I started hearing raised voices. I looked over and saw an

One of the recurring themes throughout Soul Weathered is wilderness. The cover itself shows a man walking a trail into the fading light. And honestly, that image represents far more than hiking to me. It represents space. Silence. Invitation. The kind of places where a man can finally hear again. For the past 25 years, I’ve led men into wilderness settings through ministry. Mountains. Streams. Trails. Campfires. Remote places where the noise of life quiets down long enough fo

There’s a section of devotions in Soul Weathered centered around fatherhood. Not because I figured it out perfectly. But because raising my daughters taught me more about the heart of God than almost anything else in my life. When my wife and I first started raising children, we had a very clear idea of the kind of parents we were going to be. Or at least we thought we did. A lot of our thinking came from teachings on “tough love”—raising children with firmness, structure, co

There’s a word I never really liked growing up as a Christian: Wretched. Maybe because most of my early understanding of the Christian life revolved around one thing: Sin management. Trying harder. Doing better. Getting control of myself. Read the Bible more. Pray more. Try harder next time. And I did all of it sincerely. But the cycle usually looked the same: I would fail.I would sin again. I would feel ashamed.I would question myself. Then I would start over determined to “

What does it take to have the heart of a warrior? Most men might answer that with words like strength, courage, discipline, vigilance, sacrifice. And they would be right. But not completely. Because the longer I’ve walked with men, the more convinced I’ve become that the heart of a true warrior begins somewhere most men don’t want to go. Weakness. Not weakness as passivity. Not weakness as cowardice. Not weakness as giving up. But the kind of weakness that admits: I do not ha

One of the things I hear most from men today is this: “I feel behind.” Behind financially. Behind spiritually. Behind professionally. They look around at other men and quietly wonder: Am I where I’m supposed to be by now? And the older I get, the more I question the timelines we’ve accepted. Because our culture has a script for men. In your 20s, you’re supposed to figure life out. In your 30s, build your career and family. In your 40s and 50s, accumulate and secure things. In

As I’ve been rereading parts of Soul Weathered, I’ve found myself unexpectedly convicted by my own words. That may sound strange coming from the author of the book, but the truth is, those devotions came out of decades of journals, reflections, failures, prayers, and moments where God met me in real life. When I started putting the book together, I had hundreds of pages I could have included. Narrowing it down to 52 devotionals honestly came down to trust. Trusting the Holy S