Solid Until You Lean on it
Solid Until You Lean On It By Pastor Justin Cooper Years ago I walked a mountain trail in West Virginia a thousand times. I knew it like the back of my hand. I cleared it, I worked it, I could have walked it with my eyes closed. So one dark night I left a cabin […]
Closer than the Pew
Closer Than the Pew By Pastor Justin Cooper I have watched people walk into church, sit through the whole service, shake a few hands on the way out, and drive home no closer to God than when they came. Not because the seat was too far from the pulpit. Because their heart was still too […]
The God Who Never Strains
The God Who Never Strains By Pastor Justin Cooper The other night I stood in my driveway longer than I meant to. I had come outside to bring something in, and I ended up just looking up. No agenda. No clock. Just the sky, and more stars than I could ever begin to count. And […]
Look Up
Look Up By Pastor Justin Cooper Years ago I read that D.L. Moody prayed God would not let a single day go by without giving him someone to witness to. That prayer got hold of me, and one night I prayed it too. Then I climbed into bed, and it hit me like conviction — […]
The Clock No One Watches
The Clock Nobody Watches By Pastor Justin Cooper I have watched a man punch a time clock in the morning and punch it out at night, and do the exact same thing the next day, and the day after that. Nobody wrote an article about him. No one built him a statue. He carried food […]
The Field Next Door
The Field Next Door By Pastor Justin Cooper I was in a parking lot last week when a truck pulled in beside me — new, spotless, the kind that costs more than my first house. And I felt it. That little tug in the chest that says, “Where did they get all that?” I did […]
Where the Fire Begins
Where the Fire Begins By Pastor Justin Cooper There is a moment every fall when I pull the truck into the driveway, and the whole yard is covered in leaves I know I have to deal with. And every year I have the same thought: I could stand at the window and complain about the […]
Under the Tent
The Thing in the Tent By Pastor Justin Cooper I drove past three churches on my way home the other evening, one right after another, their steeples catching the last of the light. And I found myself thinking about how blessed this country still is, and at the same time how uneasy I feel about […]
Familiar Isn’t the Same as Following
Familiar Isn’t the Same as Following By Pastor Justin Cooper I’ve known people all my life who could tell you exactly what their father believed — every opinion, every preference, every habit — and yet they didn’t follow him at all. They knew him. They just didn’t follow him. There’s a quiet, comfortable version of […]
Plant Your Flag
Plant Your Flag By Pastor Justin Cooper There comes a moment in every hard season where you have to make a decision. Not a feeling — a decision. A choice, made in the absence of certainty, to stay in it anyway. That moment is what separates the people who finish from the people who don’t. […]