Reset with Bonnie Sala

When I was a kid, I lost my backpack on a bus. It held some clothing and all my money, about $10. When I discovered it was gone, I was distraught. I cried as we searched all around us. My dad said he would replace the money, which only pained me more because I knew he didn't have much either. Imagine my relief when a passenger discovered that my backpack had slid under the seats up to the front of...

When Candice first noticed Leon's cough, she never dreamed that Leon would spend six months in the hospital, too weak to talk on the phone, with Candice unable to visit him.  When Leon finally returned home, much suffering was behind him but there was still a long journey of recovery ahead of him.

Children love the story in the Bible of the boy David defeating the giant Goliath with a slingshot. It illustrates something that we believe is impossible by the time we reach adulthood – conquering a problem that is much bigger than us with just a flick of the wrist. It wasn't David's good aim that defeated an outsized enemy, but the power of God. Even so, sometimes we need help finding the right...

Are you a rule breaker?  Rule-breakers are often glamorized-- the bad boy, the rebel in real life, the guy who says, "I'll do it, my way."  Religious people, of course, also do things, "their way," proudly keeping the rules and feeling pretty good about it. Both rule breaking and rule keeping are both just symptoms of sin. The rule breaker says, "I don't need God," and the rule keeper says, "Aren'...

One of the things I love about the Bible is that it tells us about real people with real flaws and shows us how God interacts with them.

Feeling distracted lately? In this hyper-connected world, distraction is our constant companion and temptation. We take in so much information, so many images and so much stimulation, that before you know it, time is gone. Not only that, but mindless scrolling focuses my mind on what the Bible calls "the world." This includes things like "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the boastfu...

If you're a movie fan, you might argue that the most famous spy in the world is…Bond… James Bond, the British agent who's been played by a dozen actors in at least 25 films.  But the Bible also has a spy of great reputation, and his name was Caleb. 

When Jo Shetler moved to a rural area of the Philippines, she discovered that her new neighbors had a beautiful technique for resolving conflicts. Jo was a teacher and she was distressed when someone else came to town trying to teach a conflicting curriculum. She wanted to address the other teacher, but one of her Filipino friends told her frankly, "Jo, you don't know how to discuss things with ot...

Giving God praise may be one of the least understood spiritual disciplines of our day.  It's incredibly valuable because it puts us in the right position relative to God. When we give God praise, wrote Ruth and Warren Myers, "We consent to His gracious, transforming work in our lives; we agree that He can work in us, so that we'll be willing and able to do His will. In other words, we choose to le...

Lee thought that no one knew what he watched privately on his phone. No lightning bolt had come from the sky to strike him--it was his personal secret. But secret sin isn't a secret from God.  A hidden sin is no less a sin than a public one. Both need to be repented from and God forgives both.

Alfonso has two sons who are adults. He's no longer the one to put bandaids on their scraped knees or buy videogames for their birthdays, but he wants to stay connected to his sons in a healthy parent-child relationship. Transitioning from the role of parent of children to parent of adults can be puzzling!

He had the degree.  He'd done research with a prestigious university. Month after month went by and my son applied for jobs, networked, interviewed, and interviewed.  But not a single job offer in eight months.

We don't encounter the title Lord , much these days, aside from period English dramas or the Lord of the Rings by Tolkien. But the word, Lord, is found throughout the Bible. When written in all capitalized letters, LORD is the English translation of the Hebrew name of God, YHWH, which is a respectful abbreviation of God's name, "I Am Who I Am" from the book of Exodus 3.

Elijah had a difficult task.  This prophet, in the Old Testament of the Bible, was God's spokesman in a land that wanted nothing to do with God. The rulers of the land hated Elijah's warnings and they kept trying to kill him. Elijah ran away into the wilderness, thoroughly exhausted, scared, lonely, and depressed.

As crazy as it sounds, God made us because He wanted to have relationship with us. He made us for relationship, for love, which is why we feel so terrible when we're lacking in either one. He made us to need Him and to need one another. That's why He called His people the Body of Christ, with parts that have different functions. We are all different and designed to rely on one another. 

Psalm 91 talks about the lion, the adder and the dragon and says that you, as God's trusting child, can triumph over these adversaries.   All of the difficulties and challenges that you will ever face in life are represented by one of these three images.

The Bible records Moses as a humble man, but he didn't start out that way. (Numbers 12:3) He went from orphan to prince to fugitive to leader to wanderer. By the time he was called humble, Moses had learned that it was not his personal prestige that defined him, but the grace of God in his life. As a humble man, Moses was dedicated to serving others, even though it cost him personally. Seeing the...

Life is complicated today. Apart from God's design for living, there are so many lifestyle options, you may be unsure just how to navigate.  It makes me think of the cities I've been in throughout the world where driving lanes might be painted on the roads, but no one pays any attention to them; everyone goes their own way as fast as possible, and chaos ensues.  We generally think that we can figu...

The life of David in the Bible is a picture of how humans can do both wonderful and terrible things. David was full of faith and grace, made in the image of God, yet he still sinned, just like us. David's life gives us insight into how to find and follow God's purpose in our lives.

Many of us experience church through the language of economics: funding, budget, promotion, engagement, growth.  If we produce a quality church experience, we'll attract more attendees, right? That's a good business model. But the family of God isn't a business.

The apostle Paul, who wrote the letter in the Bible to the Romans, recognized how it seems counterintuitive for humans to place their faith in God. When telling the story of Abraham, who had his first son around age 100, Paul wrote, "against all hope, Abraham in hope believed." Practicing faith isn't the most natural option in our minds.

My friend Ben hates camping. He doesn't like sleeping on the ground, and he especially dislikes when the wind snaps at the tent walls because it's loud, cold, and unsettling. Modern tents are usually made from waterproof performance fabrics, but historically, tents were made from animal skins, which could also be waterproof and flexible.

I grew up in a peaceful home. Fighting was a rare occurrence, that usually involved doing after dinner dishes.  The fight invariably ended with some snapping of a dish towel and tears.  But if you and I are Christ-followers, we do have some fighting to do in the here and now, because, we've got enemies.

"Going rogue," is the term the authors of the book, Letting Go, use to describe the rebellion of a wayward person. Originally used to describe elephants who had abandoned their roles in the herd for erratic and dangerous behavior, the person who has gone rogue has chosen to ignore God's authority in their lives.  They choose a pattern of unrepentant sin and walk away from roles of spouse, sons or...

You can probably call to mind a law of your government that you think is unjust.  In the United States, interracial marriage was prohibited by law for centuries. In China, giving birth to more than one child was punishable under the law for decades. Disobeying these laws was illegal, but not immoral.