Jim Daly

Although Halloween is still ahead of us, Christmas music may already be playing at your local stores. Some say October is too early, but I love it … because, for me, the music of Christmas conveys the message of Christmas.

Christmas is about hope – something we’re all searching for. C.S. Lewis turned Christmas into a powerful metaphor in his classic novel, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. In the story, a little girl named Lucy stumbles into the wintry land of Narnia through a magic wardrobe.

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David Ring often says, “I have cerebral palsy. What’s your problem?” In other words, we all face problems of one kind or another. We can choose to be defeated by adversity, or we can live victoriously in Christ.

David developed cerebral palsy after not receiving enough oxygen at birth. Throughout his life, he endured excruciating pain, physical struggles, and constant public humiliation. Orphaned at age 14 when both of his parents died of cancer, David was cast about from family to family with nowhere to call home.

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It’s amazing what you can learn about yourself when life gets messy.

My son Troy and I were once on a camping trip, filled with horse rides and hikes through the woods. But one night, just as we were about to hit the sack, I noticed Troy looking a little green. When I asked him how he felt, he said, “Not so good.”

That was just the beginning. Later, at about two in the morning, I awoke to the sound of Trent retching.

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Author Cynthia Tobias humorously says that every strong-willed person lives according to the same motto: “I’m not bossy. I just know what you need to do.”

She didn’t always consider it a joke. In fact, it used to cause her trouble. Like an incident that occurred while she was working in law enforcement. She was working alone and pulled a guy over running a red light. Before she got to his door, he had rolled down his window and was yelling at her, “You can’t give me a ticket.

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I’m not sure what’s more astonishing: the magnificence of the universe … or our ability to be oblivious to it. I mean, when was the last time you thought about the sun? Except for deciding whether to grab a jacket, you probably don’t.

Did you know that the sun is so large that you can fit 1.3 million earths inside of it. The sun doesn’t seem that big because it’s 93 million miles away from us.

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Albert Einstein once said, “Only two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity … and I’m not sure about the universe.”

Einstein’s pessimism about humanity was well-founded. We see ourselves as sophisticated, intelligent, and basically good at heart. And yet the history of the world is a devastating indictment to the contrary. Humanity’s potential for brutality and evil is astonishing.

Secular thinkers explain our potential for evil as some ancient evolutionary mechanism we can’t shake.

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One of the hardest things about life on this side of eternity is unexpected trauma. We can be blindsided by a terrible accident, a frightening diagnosis, or any number of unforeseen circumstances, experiences that can shake our faith.

All of us have pondered the question of why bad things happen to good people, including those of us who seek to serve a good God. Answers to that question and others are messy and difficult by definition.

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