Think Before You Sleep

This meditation was part of Grace’s 2025 Lenten Meditations Series, Journey to the Cross (available via podcast). The meditations in this series were written and read by members of the Grace Pres community, and collectively follow the a common structure. You can listen to this episode here (podcast).

Today is the 37th day of Lent. This Holy Week, we are focusing our prayers on the theme of death as we reflect on the final days of Christ’s journey to the cross.

(Pause)

As I enter prayer now, I pause to be still, and to reorient my heart to the...

This meditation was part of Grace’s 2023 Lenten Meditations Series, As Jesus Taught Us to Pray (available via podcast). The meditations in this series were written and read by members of the Grace Pres community, and collectively follow the outline set by the Lord’s Prayer. You can listen to this episode here (podcast).

Today is Wednesday the 22nd of March and this week we are focusing our prayers on the Forgiveness of God as demonstrated in the Lord’s Prayer when Jesus prays: “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”

(Pause)

As I enter prayer now, I pause...

This meditation was part of Grace’s 2023 Lenten Meditations Series, As Jesus Taught Us to Pray (available via podcast). The meditations in this series were written and read by members of the Grace Pres community, and collectively follow the outline set by the Lord’s Prayer. You can listen to this episode here (podcast).

Today is Friday the 10th of March and this week we are focusing our prayers on the The Kingdom and Will of God as demonstrated in the Lord’s Prayer when Jesus prays: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in...

It was early in the afternoon on a Thursday in the middle of January when the text came. I had been staying at my parents’ for the holidays and had planned to return to the Bay Area to restart my community group at church after a month-long hiatus.

I glanced at the message preview, and my stomach sank.

Hi all, You are receiving this because you have been a big part of my life here…

Taking a deep breath, I unlocked my phone and forced myself to read the rest.

“Oh man…,” I responded, not knowing what else to say.

After an exchange of...

One Friday in 2012, I led a Bible study on the story of Noah for a dwindling fellowship at Stanford. It was, I think, the second to last lecture that I gave to that group. The fellowship closed its doors after that year.

The study was especially memorable to me, not just because it was one of the last, but also because it went really well—much better than I had any right to expect. For the first time, I didn’t write everything out. Everything just flowed. They say that teaching is one of the most effective ways to learn, and...