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Showing posts from May, 2026

Grace Holds: On the comfort and compassion of a grace that never lets go

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May 2026 · State College, Pennsylvania ✦   ✦   ✦ There are moments when the weight of where you have arrived can only be understood by remembering where you began. This weekend was one of those moments — watching our son David walk across the stage at Penn State University, his mother beside me, grace pressing quietly and powerfully against my chest. Grace is often spoken of in the abstract — a theological category, a doctrinal position, a term we affirm in creeds. But I have lived it in the concrete. In the specific. In the unrepeatable geography of a life that should not have turned out this way, and yet did. "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." — 2 Corinthians 12:9 The Family That Grace Built David did not graduate alone. Our firstborn, Joshua, traveled from Los Angeles with his girlfriend Nytaunah — presence made costly, love made visible in the miles. Our second son, Jonathan, joined us from his base in New York City, his ...

When the Weeds Grow With the Wheat: A Lesson From G19

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  My wife Ayele and I were supposed to be somewhere over the Atlantic right now, somewhere between Nairobi and New York, hearts full of anticipation for our son's graduation from Penn State. Instead, I am seated in the Hyatt Regency in Westlands, Nairobi, nursing the residue of what can only be described as one of the most frustrating travel experiences of my adult life — and, if I am honest, one of the most instructive. Let me tell you what happened. The Boarding Pass That Wasn't Mine — Except That It Was Our journey began at Entebbe International Airport, where Kenya Airways issued my boarding pass for KQ002, Nairobi to John F. Kennedy. Everything was in order — or so we thought. It was only at the boarding gate here in Nairobi that an agent noticed something I had not: my boarding pass read Egbuson/Egbuson Fr instead of Egbuson Emebeleakpo Fr . My surname, printed twice. A clerical error — one that Kenya Airways had generated — and one that would cost us our flight, seventy...
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  Guided by the Certainty of His Love A morning reflection | May 2, 2026 There is a noise to modern living that never quite stops. It is the noise of do more, be more, achieve more. The relentless concert of striving — where confidence is mistaken for competence, and sometimes even for character. Where worth is measured in accolades, visibility, and the size of the audience watching you perform. I have sat with that noise this morning. And my spirit has spoken back to it with a single phrase: Guided by the certainty of His love. This is not a slogan. It is a beacon. To be guided by the certainty of the love of God is to discover that the only audience that ultimately matters is the audience of One — the great I AM, who does not keep a ledger of deeds, but desires a relationship of love. The One who holds the universe in perfect balance, and yet wants kinship with us — not extracted through performance, but extended as invitation. A choice, not a contract. He does not want...