Can I See Blue Skies Even When It’s Cloudy? With James Barnett [Episode 219]

Blue Skies Cloudy James Barnett

GIVEAWAY ALERT: You can win the book Blue Skies by this week’s podcast guest. Keep reading to find out how!

What if you started living with excited anticipation of what God is up to next? Would you live differently? What if no matter what life threw at you, you saw it all through a lens of hope, optimism, and trust in God?

Well today, author James Barnett reveals how you can move from a life of worry and fear to a life full of anticipation of what God is doing.

Can I Find Joy When the Life I Have Isn’t the One I Wanted? With Elizabeth Woodson [Episode 215]

Joy Life Not Wanted Elizabeth Woodson

We all live with some sort of longing—a gap between the life we want and the life we actually have. As we navigate this gap, we try to hang on to the hope that God will change our circumstances or fulfill our desires.

For some, those prayers are answered. Yet for others, the longing persists, making us weary at best and debilitated at worst. So, how do you find joy in this life when it isn’t the life you hoped for?

A Rational Guide to Valentine’s Day

My daughter-in-law Caroline is joining us for Java today! And even though I’ve posted this before, it’s too good not to share it again today. She’s talking about Valentine’s Day – the expectations and the reality. She’s a 20-something with a great perspective that will encourage and challenge you.


guest post by Caroline Rothschild

Today is Valentine’s Day. In the middle school world, it’s the day that roses are delivered to classrooms and kids walk around with giant teddy bears bought from the grocery store. In the adult world, it can easily move from being about chocolate to something far more complex; the day can too often become about feeling loved.

I wrote the post below about 4 years ago, and I find myself publishing it again each year because, somehow, it stays relevant. Regardless of age or stage of life or relationship status, the post stays relevant because it’s really not about Valentine’s Day; it’s about expectations. And, so often, our expectations are set so high that they are bound to let us down.

Valentine’s Day in elementary school rocked. Back then the only downside was creating the Valentine’s box. Every year I tried to make these outlandish boxes that inevitably failed, and then my dad would come to the rescue and do damage control on my box super-late the night before Valentine’s Day.