Daily Devotional

Has your sleep ever been disturbed, as you stayed awake, worried about something that might happen the next day or the next week? Have you ever been exhausted from worry, unable to fully control a situation? Worry is an all-too-common phenomena that causes fear, loss of productivity, and exhaustion, among other things.

Jesus understood the pain that worry can cause a person in life. During the sermon on the Mount, Jesus asks the challenging question, “And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?” During this part of the sermon, Jesus compares us to the birds of air and how they have no worry in life and yet God cares for them deeply. The birds serve as an example for those who listen to Jesus. God cares, provides, and the birds are comfortable in their existence God has given them…

One of the challenging struggles of life is the struggle to draw closer to God. Throughout history, humanity has worked so hard to get close to God. We’ve developed religious practices, we listen to sermons, read devotionals, sing hymns, and praise songs. These are all good and right things to do, however, we often feel like we have not grown closer to God, even after all our striving.

The desire to connect with God can be a deep source of stress in our lives. We struggle to know that God is close. We worry that we are unable to connect because of our own shortcomings. We look for new ways to connect, but the truth is God is with us…

“Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:11

We cannot control how our life begins, or the circumstances in which we are raised, but we can live a life of purpose and meaning. Rehan Staton recently showed the world that our start does not dictate our future.

Rehan Staton grew up Maryland. He lived with his father, and they did their best to survive. Rehan’s father was a sanitation worker. He worked long and difficult hours to keep food on their table and a roof over their head. Rehan recalls that they experienced difficult times when they often worried about where the next meal would come from. When Rehan graduated from high school, he joined his dad at work. Rehan became a sanitation worker at a very early age.

Working on the back of a garbage truck was not Rehan’s dream…

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh, and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, “Let my people go, that they may serve me.”

I love you, Lord, my strength.

The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
    my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,
    my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

I called to the Lord, who is worthy of praise,
    and I have been saved from my enemies.

High school graduation is a significant milestone in any person’s life. Twelve years of education is celebrated in one special event where each person’s hard work, determination, and perseverance are acknowledged by family, faculty, and peers. Graduation is a big deal. That is why schools work so hard to make the graduation ceremony an exceptional event.

One of the ways schools work to keep the graduation ceremony a unique event is by enforcing a dress code on the students. This helps to maintain an environment that will allow for proper celebration, and allow each student a moment to be recognized.  When students break the dress code, they are often asked to not participate. That is exactly what happened to Daverius Peters when he arrived at his graduation in Boutte, Louisiana.

Hahnville High School required that students wear dress clothes for their graduation. Daverius did not realize that his expensive sneakers did not meet the dress code. He was turned away at the door for his dress code violation. Daverius was shocked, to say the least. As he walked away from the graduation..

Can you imagine what it must have been like to witness Jesus perform a miracle? How amazing would it have been to see Jesus defy the laws of nature? What was it like to see a prayer answered right before your eyes?

Matthew records the story of Jesus healing a paralyzed man. It is a beautiful story of a group of men who bring a paralyzed friend to Jesus. Jesus and his disciples had crossed over the Sea of Galilee. When they arrived on the shore, these men met Jesus with the hope that this man, who spent his days lying on a mat, would be healed. When Jesus witnessed this beautiful scene, he noted the faith of the men and extended mercy. Jesus told the man on the mat, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.” (Matthew 9:2)

When some of the teachers of the law who were present heard this, they immediately began to say negative things…

Mount Everest is the tallest mountain in the world. It is 29,031 feet above sea level. People from around the world seek to scale hazardous heights and become one of the few who have successfully reached the summit.

This past April, Hari Budha Magar successfully made the climb to the top of Everest. He will now be recorded in history as one of only 4,000 people to ever reach the summit. What makes Magar’s accomplishment noteworthy is that he is the first double above-the-knee amputee to reach the top. Hari made the climb with the use of special made prosthetics. Along with his team, Hari overcame the freezing temperatures, ice, and dangerous terrain.

Hari started the climb on April 17. This date was important because…

Unexpectedly, April of 2015 was one of the hardest months of my life. December of 2014 had been the best month of my life. I had been dating the love of my life, graduated college, accepted my new position at St. Luke’s. Everything seemed smooth sailing, until April of 2015 – I found out I was pregnant. Every plan I had laid out seemed shattered and was an incredibly dark time for me. I felt crushed, I questioned everything I had learned, what it was for, and where my life and next steps were going to be. Did I ruin everything?

The end of the American Civil War arrived in 1865.  The United States was finally at peace after four brutal years of conflict.  The end of the war brought peace on the battlefield, but the terrible loss experienced during the war was felt in every community in the United States. By the war’s end, over 600,000 men had lost their lives in the line of duty.

Not long after the end of the war, Henry Welles, a druggist in Waterloo, New York, approached several members of the community, including General John B. Murray, with the hope of finding a way to not only praise the living who had fought in the war, but to honor those who had given their lives in service to the cause. It was in May of 1866 that the first Memorial Day, known then as Decoration Day, was celebrated…