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

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