Posted June 08, 2026
I am writing today to offer hope where you might not expect it.
First, the news: Iran fired missiles at Israel this morning in several waves of attacks. Sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and explosions from missile intercepts could be heard over the city. Explosions were also heard in Tehran shortly before noon local time, hours after Israel said it had struck military targets in central and western Iran.
This was the first exchange of strikes between the two nations since a shaky ceasefire was called in April. As the New York Times reports, “The fighting has propelled the Middle East back to the precipice of the full-scale war that began in February.” Early Monday, President Trump posted on Truth Social, “Israel and Iran must immediately stop ‘shooting.’”
Closer to home, five people were stabbed at New York City’s Penn Station last night; the suspect is now in police custody. And a search continued yesterday for two men who appeared to fire guns at each other at a popular street festival in Toledo, Ohio, shooting at least twelve other people in the process. The victims ranged in ages from fourteen to sixty-one; two are reported to be in critical condition.
If you’re shaking your head at all of this and thinking, “Here we go again,” you’re right, of course. And therein lies my paradoxical point.
My wife and I celebrated our forty-sixth wedding anniversary yesterday.
Friends who have known Janet over these years have consistently and correctly noted that I significantly “overmarried.” A member of one of the churches we pastored heard her speak and told me afterward that I had “outkicked my coverage.” I suspect that every church that called me as their pastor did so that Janet would join their church.
One pastor search committee confirmed my suspicions: Upon meeting us the first time, they remarked that they had found their pastor’s wife and now needed to find their pastor.
The reasons are obvious to anyone who knows my wife: Janet is beautiful, brilliant, wise, caring, and gifted. She’s the best Bible teacher I know and one of the funniest people I have ever met. She is also the godliest person I have ever known. How she combines all of that is a constant mystery to me.
She has taught me so much over these years. Among the many words of wisdom for which she is known is this: “Live a life God is able to bless.” As she explains, our Father loves his children and wants to bless us. However, he harms us if he blesses that which harms us. If we live according to his word and will, we live a life he is able to bless. This is the key to the abundant life he wants for us.
Janet strives to live such a life in every way, which explains the consistency of her character and the vibrancy of her ministry.
When she and I married in 1980, Iran was in the headlines with the hostage crisis that began the previous November. The day we were married, the prime minister of Lebanon announced his resignation, along with his cabinet; two years later, the First Lebanon War broke out between Israel and Palestinian terrorists in southern Lebanon. Closer to home, 1980 was the worst year of crime in New York City’s history, according to its police department.
I say that to say this: Conflict in the Middle East and violence at home is not new. But our hope was never to be found in the headlines.
Jesus famously stated, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). St. Thomas Aquinas noted that humans desire above all things the truth by which to live and the life by which to live eternally. As he explained, Christ is the way to such truth, for he is himself the Truth. And he is the way to such life, for he is himself the Life.
This is why Paul explained his ministry succinctly, “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). His greatest passion was “knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:8). The Scottish theologian James Stewart therefore titled his marvelous biography of the apostle, A Man in Christ.
The former persecutor of Christians changed the world for Christ because Christ changed his world. He is Exhibit A of Jesus’ strong declaration, “Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
Now it remains for us to choose: Will we “abide” in Christ today? Will we seek a deeper, more intimate relationship with the living Lord Jesus than we have ever known? He alone can impart the meaning our souls hunger to experience and share. Knowing him and making him known gives us purpose found nowhere else.
In yesterday’s reading in My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers observed,
What ought to exert the greatest power over me is Jesus Christ. I must decide to be limited in my affinities, to choose carefully where I place my attention. If Jesus Christ is more and more my dominating interest, every phase of my life will bear fruit for him.
Will you live a life God is able to bless today?
“Grace doesn’t mean that obedience is unnecessary, it means that it is finally possible.” —John Piper
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