Lance Brown

Anger is not just “a problem to solve.” God uses our anger to expose a much deeper problem than our anger. The path of transformation involves (1) Seeing the rotten parts of ourselves that make misery and messes for ourselves and others. (2) Understanding what is wrong that is driving us in bad directions, and…

When anxiety or fear strike us, we automatically assume we shouldn’t feel this way, and try to solve this “problem.” But anxiety and fear expose a much deeper problem than “unwanted negative emotions.” They are like more lights on the car’s dashboard, pointing us “under the hood” to an engine fault. Under our troubled feelings,…

Sometimes, human chemistry can affect our outlook on life and our emotions. But the primary driver of depression is a combination of the perfect storm. We “know” what we need and what we “deserve”, but no matter what we do, we cannot get our primary needs met. We want others to meet our needs, and…

This week we’ll look at discouragement and sadness. It is important to realize that these are not just negative emotions, nor are they primarily problems to solve. They are like lights on a dashboard that point us to deeper issues for us to consider.

As we chase satisfaction, we inevitably face a sense of emptiness. Emptiness, apart from God, is not a problem we can solve. We must first embrace it as a reality of this broken life, then answer God’s wake up call to seek Him first and engage in telling His story more than our story.

How often are we truly satisfied? There are surprising virtues to be found in our “wanting” to find meaning. We endure loneliness when God is not a “1st thing pleasure.” God uses His first and second commands, to love Him first, and others second, as a method of teaching us “redemptive loneliness”!