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“A person can request forgiveness only so many times,” contends our common sense. If the devil can convince us that God’s grace has limited funds, we’ll draw the logical conclusion. The account is empty. No access to God.

“Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven.” Jesus spoke these words to a paraplegic as recorded in Matthew 9:2. Jesus was thinking about our deepest problem—sin. He was considering our deepest fear—the fear of failing God. God keeps no list of our wrongs. His love casts out fear because he casts out sin. 1 John 3:20 says,“If our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things” (NKJV).

Read more Fearless: Imagine Your Life Without Fear

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

John Taylor was a British eye surgeon in the 1700s who, driven by arrogance, fabricated a prestigious reputation. He pursued celebrities and became the personal eye doctor for King George II. Taylor traveled the country performing medical shows that promised miracle cures, often escaping towns under the cover of night carrying bags overflowing with villagers’ cash. However, he was eventually proven to be a charlatan. Records suggest Taylor likely blinded hundreds of patients. History remembers him not as a medical luminary but as the man who destroyed the eyesight of two of the century’s greatest composers: Bach and Händel.

Taylor craved reputation and acclaim, but his epitaph declares his lies, and the embarrassment and hurt he caused. Proverbs explains how egotistical addictions lead to devastation. “Before a downfall,” we read, “the heart is haughty” (18:12). Taylor’s disgrace warns us of how arrogance can ruin our lives, but one’s foolishness often harms others too (vv. 6-7). The “downfall” is great indeed.

While a proud heart destroys us and others, a humble heart leads toward a life of meaning and joy. “Humility comes before honor,” the proverb says (v. 12). If we selfishly pursue only self-interests (v. 1), we’ll never find what we crave. If we yield our heart to God and serve others, however, we honor Him and reflect His goodness.

“Why are you crying?” The question was asked by a volunteer for a Christian relief ministry helping those whose homes had been destroyed by Hurricane Helene. The woman (who had burst into tears in the previous moment) replied, “I’m not crying because I lost everything. I’m crying because love just showed up.”

God’s heart shows itself in His desire that we help those in need. When Moses gave the people of Israel God’s instructions before they entered the land He’d promised them, he told them, “Do not be hardhearted or tightfisted” toward the poor. “Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need” (Deuteronomy 15:7-8). Their hearts toward the poor were to reflect God’s own: “Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart” (15:10).

Whether in disaster situations or everyday life, when we give to those in need out of the blessings God has kindly given us, we make evident the love of His Son, who came “to proclaim good news to the poor” (Luke 4:18). In fact, God promises He “will bless” those who share His unselfishness with others (Deuteronomy 15:10), both in this life and the next (see Luke 14:14). We can’t see God yet, but others may catch a glimpse of Him when we emulate His compassion for them. May His love show up as kindness through us today.

Sometimes a bit of wisdom drops in when we least expect it. That happened recently as I was reading an article about American football player Travis Kelce. A frustrated coach once told him, “Everybody you meet in this world is either a fountain or a drain.” You can probably figure out which one Kelce was being!

Perhaps all of us have a bit of both elements in us. But at any given moment, we’re likely behaving one way or the other. And our call to follow Jesus means becoming more fountain, less drain.

I hear a similar idea in Philippians 2, where Paul challenges us to imitate Jesus’ humility and focus on others. Paul contrasts what drains life from others with what fills them up: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of others” (vv. 3-4). A bit later in this chapter, he adds bluntly, “Do everything without grumbling or arguing” (v. 14).

What does it look like to be a drain? Being self-focused and arrogant; complaining and arguing. And being a fountain? Paul says of Timothy, “I have no one else like him, who will show genuine concern for your welfare” (v. 20).

Are we being more like a fountain or a drain? That’s a question worth pondering as we seek to bless others.  

We live in a world flooded with stories, opinions, and noise, and I find myself wondering which ones are actually worth giving our attention to. In this conversation, I sit down with mythologist and storyteller Martin Shaw to explore why some stories shape us toward life while others quietly hollow us out. We talk about myths that function like prayers rather than spells, why Jesus taught through parables, and how stories still have the power to form us into more loving, grounded human beings.

Martin shares his own unexpected journey back to Christianity through a long wilderness vigil and reflects on grief, evil, beauty, and the kind of attention that makes something holy. This is a conversation about becoming human again, about learning how to see clearly, and about allowing the story of Jesus to break our enchantments and draw us toward love.

Martin Shaw is a writer, mythographer and Christian thinker. He’s Visiting Scholar at the Divinity Faculty of Cambridge University, and a Fellow of the Temenos Academy. Author of seventeen books, Dr Shaw is the director of the Westcountry School of Myth and founder of the Oral Tradition and Mythic Life courses at Stanford University. His book Bardskull was described as “rich and transgressive” by Erica Wagner in The Sunday Times and was Book of the Day in The Guardian. A hugely respected oral storyteller, Shaw has toured internationally numerous times, and led symposiums at both Oxford and Cambridge University, Robert Bly describing him as “a true master, one of the very greatest storytellers we have.” 

His more recent work is what he describes as a developing “Christian mythopoetics”—a reminder of the depth and mysticism latent in this middle-eastern mystery religion. Shaw converted to Eastern Orthodoxy after a 101-day vigil in a Dartmoor forest. He still lives nearby to the wood, writing and teaching. The Irish Times call Martin “a seanchaí, an interloper from the medieval.”, Charles Foster adding, “there’s Shaw and there’s everyone else.”

Martin’s Book:

Liturgies of the Wild

Martin’s Recommendation:

Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives

Connect with Joshua: [email protected]

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Thank you for listening! Your support of Joni and Friends helps make this show possible. Joni and Friends envisions a world where every person with a disability finds hope, dignity, and their place in the body of Christ. Become part of the global movement today at www.joniandfriends.org.

Find more encouragement on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube.

Do we matter? We fear we don’t. In Luke 12:6 Jesus says, “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God” (ESV). One penny would buy two sparrows. Two pennies, however, would buy five. The seller threw in the fifth for free. Society has its share of fifth sparrows: indistinct souls who feel dispensable, disposable, worth little.

It’s time to deal with the fear of not mattering, the fear of insignificance. Why does God love you so much? You are his idea. And God has only good ideas. “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago” (Ephesians 2:10 NLT).

Read more Fearless: Imagine Your Life Without Fear

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

In 1848, engineer Charles Ellet Jr. puzzled over how to begin the process of constructing the first bridge over the Niagara Falls gorge. How would they get a cable across the river? Prompted by a dream, Charles decided to host a kite-flying contest: whomever could land a kite on the other side would receive five dollars. It was won by American teenager Homan Walsh when his kite landed on the Canadian side of the river. Homan’s kite string was secured to a tree and used to pull a light cord back across the river. Progressively heavier cords were pulled back and forth until heavy wire cable was in place. This was the small beginning of the construction of the Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge.

The bridge’s challenges and inauspicious beginnings mirror those faced by those working to rebuild God’s temple after returning from captivity in Babylon. An angel awakened the prophet Zechariah with a message that nothing would thwart God’s work—it would all be accomplished “by [His] Spirit” (Zechariah 4:6). Some of those who’d seen the temple in its previous glory were fearful that the rebuilt version would pale in comparison (Ezra 3:12). The angel encouraged Zechariah that they shouldn’t “despise the day of small things” because God would “rejoice” in seeing the work begun (v. 10).

Even though the tasks God has appointed to us may seem insignificant, we can be encouraged knowing He uses small things—like kite strings—to accomplish His great works.

We would love to pray for you! Please send us your requests here.

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Thank you for listening! Your support of Joni and Friends helps make this show possible. Joni and Friends envisions a world where every person with a disability finds hope, dignity, and their place in the body of Christ. Become part of the global movement today at www.joniandfriends.org.

Find more encouragement on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube.