7/19/2025
It’s hard to keep everything under control. It’s actually hard to keep anything under control.
I could not keep my emotions under control yesterday as the images of countries with zero known followers of Christ drew tears out of my eyes and down my face. It took real effort to stay off the floor. But that’s how I feel. Like I want to find a cozy little hole in the ground and crawl into it.
Somewhere safe from the reality of so many people without someone to tell them about Jesus.
And so, though we are not in control, we press on doing the best we can. We trust God and make much of Jesus in all we do. We study and work and pray and go.
We go where it is hard.
I remember the plan we shared when people asked us how we could stand fostering a child just to have that child taken from us… we will love them as if they are our kids for as long as we can. And we will trust God to heal our broken hearts.
And we trust God still.
Because he is trustworthy.
The academy is hard too. If 70% of the incoming college freshmen who claim to be from a Christian home will abandon faith in Christ by the time they graduate, then very few students entering grad school are following Jesus. And if it’s difficult to get through undergrad with faith, it’s even harder to get through grad school. And to earn your PhD… the number of professors who follow Jesus is pretty small. And these are the ones who are viewed as the smartest people in the room. And many are even hostile to Christianity. And it’s a vicious cycle.
But there are believers in academia. And many of them are walking with Jesus. And they are heroes.
And there are still countries in the world where there are no known followers of Jesus.