GraceNotes Podcast

Before we ever learn to speak or find some syllables of thought, we learn that how we’re loved depends on how we live. As infants, we adapted to what brought us comfort and attention. As teens, we found affection best by mimicking what offered hope of friendship. And though we’ve grown in years and size, we still build contracts meant to bring us love. The world teaches us that love comes with con...

Every day beside the Jordan, can you hear the “hallelujahs”? Can you hear the joy of angels in their vast, euphoric choir as you give your life—again—to Jesus and walk down into the water? Can you feel the hug of heaven as you leave your past behind you—leave your sins and all your merits, held by grace and grace alone? Can you hear the words cascading: “This one’s Mine, My lovely child, of whom I...

Grace is rarely just a moment; more often, a long season; and ideally, your forever reality. We focus on the moment when a person comes to faith in Christ as though that were the starting of the story: “I was saved at 6:14 p.m., on Sunday night, May 5.” But we at length discover how our eyes were truly opened—how the Spirit had been softening our hearts, erasing our old prejudices, and nudging us...

We search for friends with whom to share the deepest joys we know. Our happiness is multiplied by those who join our gladness. But friendship rests on more than witty fun or shared experience. We form a kind of covenant that pledges virtues we can’t naturally produce: “I’ll stay with you through hard times. I’ll hear you when you’re sad. I’ll walk with you in silence—when you need no extra words.”...

At least once a day, we want the truth about ourselves. Whether it’s that first, unflattering glimpse of pajamas and tousled hair, or that last, nervous glance in the office washroom before the big job interview, we rely on mirrors to give us unflinchingly honest reflections of what we really look like. A mirror that doesn’t reflect reality evokes laughter at a carnival or praises some vain fairyt...

Fear builds around us prisons only we can see. We peer out through the bars of damaged memories and foolish choices—walled in by concrete years of dark regrets. And we assume the sentence is for life. But then one day there is a rattling at the door; keys open up a rusty lock. The cell in which we kept ourselves more rigidly than any jail is opened by a word of grace. “Your sins are forgiven you,”...

The Bible doesn’t say, “By grit you have been saved through effort: this is your part. It is your gift to God.” But tragically, many who say they believe in Jesus hold this old falsehood closer than they grasp the truth: “By grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Eph 2:8-9). We strain to earn what Jesus freely gives, all unaware He wants to...

A hit song many years ago plaintively asked the question on millions of minds: “Will you still love me tomorrow?” The fragility and impermanence of human love has chorused through the centuries—in every culture, in every region. Something in the human heart cannot keep a covenant. Despite romantic wedding decorations and elaborate commitment rituals, we fail to keep our promises to always act with...

“Do you want to be healed?” At first, it seems one of the world’s most foolish questions. What person, paralyzed for 38 years, wouldn’t leap at any chance for healing and renewal? But Jesus asked it anyway, for grace never overwhelms our choices. Like that long-ago disabled man beside a Jerusalem pool, we each live in the confines of a private prison, often built by foolish choices. Friendships br...

Contented? Not likely. Vast majorities describe themselves as discontented, always seeking for what’s missing. Entire industries are engineered for keeping us that way. Algorithms cleverly exploit our fears and passions to keep us always scrolling. News outlets need us anxious about the crises that might happen. And—we’re told—we’ll be unsettled and unhappy. Inflation will eat up our paychecks; ri...