There are some strong ladies in my circle of influence, and my wife and daughter are two of the strongest I know. They are not who this post is about, but without them the following words would not be crafted.

I think my sister-in-law is right. The future is female, and the fact that I get to journey with my wife Carey is priceless. I’m going to reveal my daughter’s name now because I’m tired of calling her, “daughter.” But know this, I’ve protected my daughter since day one, and I am not afraid to do time as I continue to do so. With that said my daughter’s name is Chloe.

Coach Keck was Chloe’s cross country coach this year, and the words she shared tonight at the banquet moved me like a Hillsong United worship song. Jesus was exalted through our middle school cross country team, and if you know anything about middle school you know it’s a challenging season of life. The messages that were communicated by Alex, Scott and the entire cross country team were nothing short of the righteousness God pours on us because of even a mustard seed of faith.

We all have a voice when God is the foundation of our lives. There are no accidents when it comes to the creation of His children. Jesus said to the Pharisees that if they did not shout praises for Him that the rocks would cry out.

They tried to silence the Son of man, but three days later He appeared to women who believed with all their hearts that He was alive. He’s still alive, and the Spirit dwells within us to show others His love. Life is hard from sun up to sun down, and we are all subject to temptation. There’s not a one of us that isn’t tempted every day to sin. Sometimes we give in, and sometimes we don’t. When we sin God does not love us any less, and when we don’t sin He does not love us anymore. He is painfully familiar with the challenges before us because Jesus, who is God, went through all of life’s experiences, but He did not sin. He is the purest sacrifice that was ever offered, and it was the sacrifice of all sacrifices that washed all our sins away. We do not go on sinning so that grace may abound, and we are no longer slaves to the sinful nature because not only did Jesus break our slavery to sin, but He reminds us continually that we are powerless to conquer sin. It’s a paradox I do not understand.

Some people struggle with pornography. My struggle is anger management. My anger is not righteous in God’s sight. How do I know this? I just know. God’s righteousness is revealed continually day after day. We know when someone crosses the line. I know when I cross the line. I can’t force someone else not to cross the line. They have to make that decision themselves. When I choose, for whatever reason, to exclude another human being or judge another human being I am also excluding and judging myself because I sin. Does that mean I don’t hold someone accountable for making bad choices? I don’t think so.

As each year passes there are a thousand things that happen between us. We send our kids to cross country and soccer. We go to school, work and church. Our paths cross on social media, but God sees us through the blood and resurrection of Christ in it all.

When that happens heaven and earth become something different. We no longer look at how big our friend’s house is. We no longer deem important what someone’s dad does for a living or what kind of car her mom drives. We celebrate if someone goes on an African safari or they have a stay-cation. We celebrate someone’s dad’s new book, but we also grieve when a friend’s grandmother passes away.

Jesus doesn’t just assure our eternal salvation.

He makes life worth living now.