Every morning I drink a large glass of room-temperature water. It’s one of the first things I do. I’ve done it for almost 30 years. I do it without thinking. That is the power of habit. Good habits are an asset. They do two things that super-charge your life. First, because a habit is done automatically and repeatedly, life is set up for it. When I go to bed at night, I make sure a 16-ounce glass is on the kitchen counter with a jug of spring water next to it. In the morning, I fill the glass and guzzle. It’s quick, simple, efficient. Second, a habit doesn’t burn emotional energy. There’s no considering or deciding. At a certain place, at a certain time, it’s done. I don’t agonize over my dr
Can genuine joy coexist with heart-rending grief? I doubted it. Not until I experienced it myself would I have believed joy could be so fresh, so vibrant even while grief was so devastating, so painful. It was February 2011—a mere two months after our son’s death. I wondered if the worst of the grief could be passed. While my guess was wrong, my experience of joy and grief coexisting was real. That same month, I met a friend for lunch. While I shared the difficulty of facing my son’s death, I also explained how real God’s Word was to me. It was as though the rawness of the grief and the overwhelming sense of my need for God gave me a fresh perspective to feel God’s comfort, appreciate God’s
“They’re not angry. They’re just grateful.” That was how one volunteer described the desperate people he was rescuing from Hurricane Harvey’s flooding. I watched as the news showed two Good Samaritan’s navigating flooded Houston-area streets in a motorboat. Images flashed across the screen. Victims who had been rescued—a baby in his mother’s arms, young children drenching wet, and bewildered older women. Shortly after seeing this short news clip, I went to bed. Ninety minutes later, I was up, unable to sleep. Again. It was discouraging. When I can’t sleep, I can’t get up on time. I can’t get my work done. I’m more stressed. Then I remembered those two simple sentences: “They’re not angry. Th
