When I was about 19, I started a job as an emergency responder. I vividly remember one of my first calls because it started me on the journey I’m still on today. As we rolled up on the scene in the ambulance, the driver turned off the siren, and I was struck by how eerily quiet it was—no horns honking or music blaring as you’d expect in a traffic jam. Then, in the distance, I heard the faint sound of a child crying. I spotted him as soon as the ambulance stopped: a little boy no more than a couple years old sitting in the middle of the highway, wearing only a diaper, surrounded by broken glass and debris. A crowd had gathered at the …

“I hate organized religion.” That’s the most common thing I hear when I tell people I’m a pastor. I always respond, “Me too,” which really confuses people. They can’t understand how a pastor could hate religion, but it’s true. There’s nothing about religion I enjoy. You see, Christianity was never meant to be a religion. Religion weighs people down by making them think they need to follow a bunch of rules and rituals to try to please God. It teaches that you have to earn your way into God’s good books, which is actually impossible. None of us could ever be good enough to earn a place in heaven, which is why religion is so exhausting, frustrating, and hopeless. The truth is, Jesus didn’t come …

Sometimes the “smallest” miracles can have the biggest impact on our lives. It’s incredible to think that God cares about all our requests—from stubbed toes to cancer, losing keys to losing loved ones. I remember one “little” miracle that had a huge impact on me. It happened when my daughters Danielle and Eden were about two and three. A friend and I had taken the girls to the beach and we had just arrived home. The girls peeled out of the car and raced for the steel gate in our front yard. Eden reached it a second before Danielle, swinging it wide. At the same time, Danielle lunged for wrong side of the gate and let out a high-pitched shriek. One of her tiny fingers …