Pour It Out
Pour It Out — God’s Got More Than Enough By Pastor Justin Cooper My grandma had an afghan she’d made herself — brown, black, and red yarn, all woven together by those long knitting needles. Not the prettiest thing you ever laid eyes on. But my grandpa called it the knockout blanket. You lay down […]
Road Trip or Road Rage
We Can’t Even Get Along on the Way There By Pastor Justin Cooper Pack the car. Load up the snacks. Grab the kids. Pull out of the driveway. It never fails. You haven’t even hit the interstate and somebody’s already complaining. Are we there yet? Did we put the garage door down? Why does he […]
Lovest Thou Me?
Just Be Fond of Him By Pastor Justin Cooper I’ve known people who stayed away from God for a long time because they felt like they didn’t love him well enough to come back. They remembered what it was like when they were close to the Lord — and they figured the gap had gotten […]
No Time To Be Neutral
No Time To Be Neutral By Pastor Justin Cooper My daddy used to keep an old work truck in the yard that wouldn’t crank if you didn’t turn the key just right. Half-on wouldn’t do it. You either committed and turned, or you sat there in the driveway going nowhere. A lot of people are […]
It’ll Get Better Soon
Before It Gets Better By Pastor Justin Cooper I was driving home the other night and the radio was running through the same headlines on a loop. Wars rumbling. Politicians arguing over a peace deal somebody on the other side of the world is going to break before the ink dries. Prices climbing. Friends sick. […]
God Didn’t Get It Wrong
He’ll Get It Right For You By Pastor Justin Cooper Ever drive I-40 at night? It stretches out ahead of you, pitch black. Your headlights reach about a hundred fifty feet down the road. Maybe two hundred on a clear night. Past that, you’ve got nothing. Just darkness and the white line and the quiet […]
He’s Never Let Me Down
The One Who Hasn’t Let You Down By Pastor Justin Cooper Somebody let me down this past week. Probably happened to you, too. It wasn’t dramatic. Not the kind of thing you’d post about. Just a small promise — somebody said they’d do something, and then they didn’t. And the worst part wasn’t the disappointment […]
Just Keep Walking
Just Keep Walking By Pastor Justin Cooper When I was a kid, I took a pretty good spill off the back of a pickup truck. Skinned my elbow clean to the bone, knocked the wind out of me, and I sat there in the gravel wondering if I was going to die right there in […]
There’s Still Time!!
Today Isn’t Too Late By Pastor Justin Cooper You can picture this without me even describing it. Backing the car out of the gravel driveway. Bag of leftovers your mama insisted you take. Engine running. Headlights bouncing off the pines. And there she is. Standing in the doorway. Waving. She’ll stand there till the taillights […]
When Everyone Else Walked Away
When Everyone Else Walked Away By Pastor Justin Cooper I was at a little league game not long ago. Hot afternoon. Dusty bleachers. The boy at the plate couldn’t have been more than seven years old, and he could barely get that bat off his shoulder. But three rows up, his mama was hollering his […]