Anxiety

Lyndi Markus Editor-in-Chief for UpFront Dear younger me, You’re newish to praying— a little green, a little naive, but so expectant— and I can still feel  You put so much pressure…

By Jin Rood, World Missions - As my husband, Mark, and I were completing our final year overseas, discerning where God was leading us next, I felt drawn toward a…

By Glenn Balsis, TDC - Often I gauge my highway travel by mile markers to help me understand where I am as I drive. For my spiritual journey, I’ve realized…

By Jo Newell, TDC God walked so faithfully and kindly with me in the year following our only son Nathaniel’s death. He met me often through people, almost daily in…

By Lyndi Lee Markus, TDC - “Dangit, Jo!” I exclaimed to my spiritual director. Except I did not use the word dangit. I had come to our session discouraged to…

By Amanda Torres, Collegiate - As she struck a match to light the candle for our spiritual direction session, I heard my director say the familiar words she opens with…

By Luke Kleveland, TDC - Before COVID, I would not have imagined doing spiritual direction with anyone. In fact, if you had asked me about this five years ago, I…

When surveying the landscape and mining the data around what is happening to people in positions of mission and ministry leadership, several trends become apparent. Among them are:  While social…

“I just wish you could connect with me better, and relate to me at a deeper level,” my wife said. It didn’t sound mad this time—but it was with heartbreaking…

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke…

We see evidence all throughout Scripture that Jesus was deeply concerned with the matters of the heart. When we take a look at the life and ministry of Christ, we…

Transitions can be hard, especially those that aren’t expected. But even for the ones we long for, there are still lessons to learn, emotions to sort out and most of…

I had been crying loudly for 15 minutes. My wife was laying peacefully and mostly non-responsive in bed next to me. Cancer had been taking her life for over a…

 I can’t help but notice that a spirit of argument and polarization seems to have taken over our world. Maybe it feels collectively harder to handle conflict because we’re tired…

SEEK TO UNDERSTAND BEFORE BEING UNDERSTOOD  The first thing most missionaries learn is the mantra, “Different isn’t wrong, it’s just different.”  In situations where we don’t understand others’ actions, it…

For as far back as I can recall, being right has been important to me. You might say it has formed a significant part of my identity. I can remember…

“Did you know you have permission to be wrong?” my friend asked me gently. I was in the middle of a discernment process, and heaven seemed silent while anxiety tightened…

How do we know what we know? How do we determine our position, or what we believe, on various issues? We all combine different sources of knowledge in different ways,…

“Pastor, I don’t know what to think. A loving God can’t possibly think this about me, can He?” The voice on the recording belonged to a young woman who described…

“How’s your health, Caitlin?” This was a simple question from a caring Navigator staff woman, as we caught up during a wedding weekend in 2009. Suddenly, the room spun and…

A scientific study has revealed the significant effectiveness of worry and anxiety. It turns out that over 95 percent of the thing we worry about never occur! 🙂 In spite…

Go to the ant, you sluggard;  consider its ways and be wise!  It has no commander,  no overseer or ruler,  yet it stores its provisions in summer  and gathers its…