toddcast

Last Sunday I preached about heaven. I love preaching about heaven but I always feel like any description I give falls so far short of what it will actually be like. And I must admit, I have many questions. What exactly will it be like? What will we be doing? Will the bonds we've formed here remain intact?  Heaven, in so many ways is incomprehensible to me but there is one thing I am confident of – it will far exceed any of my expectations. I find it maddening when my expectations fall short of reality. Someone recommends their favorite restaurant and I find it so-so. Someone raves about a movie and I find myself dozing throughout. There have been times when someone would say to me, "You've gotta see this," or "You have to go there," and when I do I wonder what all the hype was all about. Unmet expectations are frustrating. But that will not be the case for heaven. No matter what you or I think, it will be better. I've had that experience at least a coup...

Last spring, I undertook a simple lawn project that would teach me an unexpected lesson about spiritual growth. I planted grass seeds in two different areas of my yard. For the first patch, I prepared the ground by adding nutrient-rich topsoil to the naturally lower terrain. For the second, I simply loosened the existing earth and scattered the seeds. Over the following weeks, I maintained both areas with equal care—watering regularly and watching expectantly for signs of new life. The results, however, were strikingly different. The first section, enriched with additional soil, soon displayed vibrant green shoots pushing through the earth. Week after week, this area flourished with thick, healthy grass. The second patch lagged significantly behind, eventually producing sparse, weaker blades that never quite matched the vitality of their counterparts. The difference, I realized, lay not in my efforts but in the foundation I had provided. The topsoil's promised nutrients—which I had...