This is 20.

As of now, I am no longer a teenager. I have been on the planet for two full decades. Weird! ….. ….. ….. Hello again, friends! I hope your first two-ish weeks of this year have been treating you well. I’ve got lots of good content planned for the coming weeks, and I hope you

Coffee Shop Thoughts from Paris

I’m back, ladies and gents! This post is a little different than most others I’ve published. While there’s been a lot that has gone on here in Paris that I hope I’ll get around to sharing eventually, there is a more pressing issue on my heart right now.

Truth Talk: Being a Christian at a Large Public University

Alright. Truth talk. Staying strong in your faith in college is hard. Staying strong in your faith at a large, public college is harder. Staying strong in your faith at a large, public college known for its reputation as a party school is, as you can imagine, a bit of a challenge. I’m not going

What Moving to College Was Really Like

I have been at college for seven weeks. I would like to tell you that so far, they have been the best seven weeks of my life, but that just wouldn’t be true. In fact, they have been stressful, terrifying, exhausting, overwhelming, confusing, and incredibly difficult. When the first of my friends left for school

Easy Ways to Give Back this Holiday Season

We’d all like to think we’re generous: we hold doors for people or hand a few dollars to the homeless man on the corner of the freeway exit. Some affiliate themselves with every charity they can get their hands on, while others feel that anything they could do would have no effect in such an aching world. No matter where

A Look at a First-Timer’s Mission Trip

Ten miles southeast of Ensenada, Mexico lies the small, poor village of Lomas Bonitas. For a decade now, my church has returned to this struggling community each summer on a missions trip. Some of the most notable accomplishments: in 2007, volunteers built a brand new church; last year, they constructed a house for the village’s

Today’s Laugh: The Struggles of Sincerely, B

Ready for a good laugh? #1: Physical Exhaustion. Anytime you want to work outside of your house, somewhere like a coffee shop, for instance, you have to bring all your materials with you. In my case, that means my laptop, charger, phone, notebook, journal, Bible, and pens. Which is fine except for the fact that the

Here’s the Deal with the Holy Spirit

Often times, we as Christians regard the Holy Spirit as if it is a lesser version of God, like some kind of Jesus Jr. What we tend to overlook, though, is that the Holy Spirit is not merely God’s messenger boy – it is the presence of God Himself. We need to learn more about

Humans are no Different than Goldfish

Recently, my youth pastor gave an incredibly insightful message…whether or not there is an actual name to the concept, I refer to it as The Goldfish Metaphor. Sitting on a folding table in my church parking lot last Tuesday evening were two large, rectangular fish tanks filled with live goldfish. One of the tanks, containing

When God’s Plans Aren’t Any Fun: Christmas Edition

‘Twas two weeks before Christmas, and B had a thought: “I’ll throw a Christmas party! I’d like that a lot!” She set a date, she made invitations, she baked sugar cookies and bought decorations. The day was approaching, the excitement grew. Only one day to go, and next thing she knew…