Note: In support of pediatric cancer awareness month, here's my perspective on how pediatric cancer affected our family.

I never expected pediatric cancer to hit our family, but when it did, it came with force and fury. Last summer, my family of five was vacationing with my younger brother’s family of four. One day, my nine year-old nephew, Jackson, complained of swelling in his neck and a painful spot on his arm. He went to the emergency room, and after a blood test, was transported to...

^{Photo courtesy of Lucxama Sylvain from Pexels}

Did you ever have a moment that made you come alive? When you felt like you could do this forever? When you started to dream about a life ordered around that gilded inspiration? We call that moment a spark of calling.

Three Remarkable People

Kypros Nicolaides was a medical student who didn’t care for medicine; he was in school to appease his father. Then a new professor brought an ultrasound machine to class. Kypros saw the image of an...

(Photo of Dr. Nicolaides courtesy of KU LEUVEN NEWS)

Many callings in life can be traced to a singular moment that changed everything. This happened for Dr. Kypros Nicolaides, a medical pioneer and world-renowned expert in fetal medicine. Due to his cutting-edge techniques and procedures, many babies have been born who otherwise wouldn’t be.

But you wouldn’t have seen this coming from his early days in college. Born in Cyprus in 1953, Kyrpos was sent to London by his father to...

Freedom almost didn’t happen. In 1780, William Wilberforce began his political career at the young age of 21. Four years later, he became an evangelical Christian and thought he should leave politics and enter professional ministry. He pondered this decision, fearing he would not be serving God if he stayed where he was.

For him, it was a pivotal moment. And a pivotal moment for freedom.

Writes poet Erin Hanson:

“There is freedom waiting for you,
On the breezes of the sky,
And you...

Today we know William Wilberforce as the great British politician who led the movement to abolish the slave trade in British territories. But did you know that it almost didn’t happen?

It’s easy to look back on a well-lived life that has made a mark in a certain well-known way and think it must have been completely obvious to him or her which way to go. But at the time, it's not that simple.

Discovering life calling takes many things, among them a process, discernment,...

Thank you to the reader who asked the question, “Is my job the same as my calling?” It’s a good question because it hits on the innate longing to become who you were made to be and do what you were made to do. I don’t know anyone who wants to live a wasted life, but I know many who want to live a fulfilled one. Living your calling is a way to get there.

Is your job the same as your calling?

I would say no, for three reasons.

Your calling is the purpose for which God...

We've been talking about different kinds of prayer to help you find your prayer strengths. This week's focus is Prophetic Prayer. (I understand this prayer type may raise some eyebrows, but please hang with us.)

An Experience

Several years ago I’m in a worship service when I get the feeling that God may want to communicate to me about someone in the room. It's a man I don't know.

I close my eyes and what do I see? A chubby beaver, furry with buck teeth, brown matted fur, and a...

We introduced the idea that there are different types of prayer and we can find our strengths in prayer. Prayer isn’t supposed to be the hard work; the hard work was already done by Christ to make us approved and accepted by God.

You’re going to lean toward different types of prayer—your sweet spot in prayer. The point is to discover your sweet spot so it can lead you into a deep and satisfying relationship with your Heavenly Father.

In order to help you find your prayer...

The first time I heard someone speak in tongues, I thought he was speaking Greek. That’s because I took Greek in college and wasn’t good at it. And because of that, I didn’t know what Greek really sounded like. After I figured out it wasn’t Greek, I realized that maybe it was tongues. I would have preferred Greek.

But tongues are what it was. Up to that point the only experience I had with tongues was something I read somewhere, and in the corner of my memory, a...

If you're like me, you've struggled with prayer. But I believe for the Christian, prayer isn't supposed to be the hard work. The hard work was already done by Jesus to make us approved and accepted by God. Now we get to relax in the river of grace and enjoy God.

Prayer is a means to do that. But what if our prayer lives become an obstacle to swimming in grace, enjoying God?

That's why I got so excited when I started noticing different types of prayer in the Bible.

For example, in the letters...