Would you hold space for these big questions by answering a few others?

1. Who are you?
2. What experiences have you had, and what or who have they opened your eyes and heart to?
3. What are your persistent dreams and desires?
4. What do you value?

These answers serve as pointers to your calling, your purpose on this earth, your raison de etre.

The point at which these things intersect with what the world needs is where we find the answer to life’s most important question:

Why am I here?

Who You Are:

You are not here by accident. You are also not you by accident. You and your personality and gifts are by design. If God prepares good works in advance for us to do, doesn’t it follow that he also prepares us for those good works? Taking an inventory of our personality traits and giftings isn’t an act of self-indulgence or navel-gazing, but a necessary step for discerning the ways in which we have been uniquely equipped to meet the needs of this world.

What are you good at that not everyone is? Discounting or diminishing your uniqueness and gifts may seem like humility, but in reality, that willful blindness keeps you and what you have to offer the world hidden. This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine. Bringing them into the light is a first step toward putting your gifts and who you are into service to others.

Your Life Experiences:

There are many life experiences I wish I’d never had. Some made me wish I’d never been born. Maybe you’ve felt the same. We were never meant to experience this fallen world, to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. And, yet, even in the experiences we would wish away, there is a gift. The worst of my experiences opened my eyes and my heart to the suffering of others.

Have you experienced loss, failure, abuse, addiction, treachery, sickness, depression, or suicidal tendencies? Your suffering doesn’t have to be wasted. It can be traded for treasures. Your life experiences, both positive and negative, can be repurposed for good in your life and the lives of others.

Your Dreams & Desires:

The longings in your soul—a wrong you want to see righted in the world, a need you want to meet—or something you love doing because it brings you joy, are all pointers to your calling.

Do you love caring for the elderly or children, advocating for refugees, ministering to prisoners, gardening, feeding the hungry, making art and beautifying the world, taking in stray animals, caring for the sick, proclaiming truth, or writing? These are all worthy endeavors.

The Miracle Question is fantastic for its ability to bring clarity and even to give us permission to dream:

If money were no object and you knew you couldn’t fail, what would you do with the rest of your life? 

The answer for me is:

1) to help others recognize their callings and live them out,

2) minister to the needs of refugees in Jesus’ name, and

3) write books that reveal the true nature of God and how he co-labors with his image-bearers to do wonders in the lives of people in trouble, especially in the lives of the least of these—the poor, widows, orphans, strangers, the trafficked and exploited.

I would love to hear yours!

The World’s Need

The place where your personality, gifts, experiences, dreams, and desires intersect with the world’s need is your calling. As followers of Jesus, we emulate him. We pray his prayer, “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.” And we co-labor with God to embody that Kingdom of Heaven, of which we are citizens and ambassadors, on this earth.

That Kingdom is within us, as is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, who gives us the power to live out Kingdom purposes in a Kingdom way.

What is it like in Heaven? What is Jesus’ vision for this earth? In Heaven, there is no war or conflict, no sickness, no tears or despair, no abuse, no hunger, no oppression or injustice, and no violence.

Any dream or desire that puts us in a position of co-laboring with God to bring about that vision is worth doing, worth devoting our lives to.

Taking Our Places

Once you have clarity about your purpose, how do you make the shift, re-order your life to live it out? 

The Miracle Question is useful, but in this world, money is often an object, and we do fear failure. There are real-world obstacles to stepping into our callings to live them out—we have to pay rent or a mortgage, support families, and attend to their needs.

But there are also the obstacles between our ears, and these are usually the bigger ones—false beliefs about ourselves and what we’re capable of, false beliefs about who God is and what he’s capable of or willing to do with and through the likes of us.

Dear Ones, I believe so much more is possible with God than we have dared to ask or imagine. Do you have a dream than feels bigger than  you?

Stay tuned. I’m dreaming of offering a 12-week group for other preposterous dreamers, a launch pad of sorts. I plan to offer course content on: the obstacles between our ears, the kind of person God uses, common fears, counting the cost, mission & money, funding the dream, finding your people, faith & imagination, time & timing.

If this group of interest to you, please drop a comment here or reach out to me by phone.

If you’d like to get started sooner with one-to-one coaching support for launching your dream, please contact me at 470-239-0405.

*Illustrative purposes only

Some years ago, on a visit to the Stewart Detention Facility in Lumpkin, Georgia, I was divested of my delusions about what a “detention center” was. This was a high-security prison.

My colleagues and I entered through rows of tall chain-link fences, topped and surrounded by razor wire. We left our belongings in a locker and proceeded through a metal detector. Doors slammed and locked behind us until we reached the visiting area where we spoke with detainees by phone through glass.

*Eduardo, a college student in his early twenties from a Central American country, had been targeted for his conservation activism. Fleeing for his life, he requested asylum in the U.S. where he found himself deprived of his freedom indefinitely with no clear pathway out of prison.

Prisons are the right place for convicted criminals. Yet, as of late January 2026, 74% of people being held in ICE detention centers (52,504 of 70,766), like Eduardo, have no criminal convictions (TRAC, 1/25/26), 47% had no convictions or pending charges (as of mid-2025).

More recently, a friend had a terrifying encounter with ICE. *Asma, an Afghan woman from a persecuted minority, fled to the U.S. with her teenage daughter at extraordinary personal risk. Throwing themselves on our mercy, they requested asylum.

Asma was granted a work visa and is gainfully employed. She has no criminal record and a pending asylum case. Yet ICE summoned her by letter to appear at a facility two hours from her home for a review of her case.

Terrified, she appeared as ordered. She left with a monstrosity of a GPS tracker on her ankle.

“Go and thank God we didn’t send you to detention,” she was told.

Distraught, she asked me, “What is my sin—that I took refuge here so my daughter’s future would be better?”

Are two minority women—one still a teenager—really to be sent back to Afghanistan, where the Taliban would likely force them into ‘marriage,’ legally sanctioned sex slavery?

Asma feels humiliated and can’t stop crying. Every time she looks at the ankle monitor, her throat is so tight with anger, she feels like she’s choking. She cannot even visit family in a neighboring state without requesting permission as if she were a criminal on probation.

Make no mistake—if more ICE detention facilities are built, they will be filled with people like Eduardo, Asma, and our Latino neighbors—people who’ve committed no crimes.

The cruelty inflicted on people in these detention centers knows no bounds. Reports of medical neglect, isolation, overcrowding, freezing cold, humiliation, and sexual assault are commonplace. A 400-page report from 2019 is chocked full of allegations of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse perpetrated by border patrol agents. In 2025, deaths in ICE custody reached a 20-year high. The first month of 2026 brought still more deaths. A toxic dynamic permeates these institutions, making officers and guards prone to psychologically distance and dehumanize prisoners.

This has gone on far too long. The time for silence is over. History is at our doorstep.

“Open your mouth for the speechless, in the cause of all who are appointed to die” (Proverbs 31:8, NKJV).

The New Living Translation says this:

“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves;
ensure justice for those being crushed.
Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice” (Proverbs 31:8-9).

Two new facilities are proposed for Georgia—one in Oakwood, a 1,000-bed facility; another in Social Circle, a one-million square foot facility, designed to hold up to 10,000 souls, which ICE has already acquired property for.

An expansion is proposed for the Folkston ICE Processing Center in Charlton County to increase capacity to 3,000 detainees. Companies, including GEO Group and CoreCivic (formerly Corrections Corporation of America)—the largest owner and operator of ICE and Border Patrol detention centers) and the company that runs the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, are paid anywhere from $148 to $775 per person per night. That is a perverse and powerful profit motive.

These companies use their millions to fund politicians’ campaigns and influence policy in ways that require the long-term detention of immigrants to keep the money flowing.

Consider this: in March, 1933, in the last semi-free election, in which the Nazi Party won, 95% of Germany identified as Christian—62% Protestant, 33% Catholic. In large part, Christians failed to be a moral counterweight to human rights abuses and atrocities committed on their soil. Only 5-10% of German Christians meaningfully opposed Nazism, and only 1-2% through active resistance like clergy preaching openly against Nazi ideology, providing underground aid, hiding Jews, or engaging in resistance cells.

Who will we be in this moment?
Will we justify the inhumane treatment of fellow image-bearers of God?
Will we allow our tax dollars to fund cruelty and injustice?
Will we allow elected leaders to fund their campaigns with donations from corporations that benefit from this institutionalized cruelty?

What can citizens do to stop human rights abuses funded by our own tax dollars?

1. Call your senators and representatives and urge them not to fund the Department of Homeland Security AND to stop any plans to build or expand ICE detention or training facilities in your state until these human rights’ abuses are stopped. It is possible to detain criminals without abusing the human rights of innocents.
2. Show up at city council meetings to voice your opposition to the development of any new ICE detention centers.
3. Communicate with corporate partners who are providing ICE and Border Patrol with cloud computing, surveillance software, logistical support, and communications infrastructure that supports raids, detention centers, and deportations, including AT&T, Home Depot, Amazon, Microsoft, and Verizon.

*Names changed for security.

https://tracreports.org/immigration/quickfacts/detention.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com

https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/04/detention-center-contractors-keep-reaping-profit-after-dhs-upheaval/

https://www.gq.com/story/trump-detention-camps-cost

If God is good, why is there evil in the world? Plenty has been written on that subject. The answer usually boils down to free will. Humans used the free will God gave them to plunge themselves and the world into a fallen state. We caused harm — to ourselves, others, and the earth .

‘Free will’ as an answer to the question makes sense to me, at least cerebrally. Philosophically.

But mental ascent is something quite different from emotional reconciliation to this truth. Living with chronic sickness and pain, I puzzle about why God hasn’t healed me. From my limited human perspective, it makes no sense. If I’m honest, I feel the sting of abandonment in it. It’s very personal.

If my friend were hurting, and I could alleviate her pain, I certainly would. If God can heal me, and he’s my friend, why wouldn’t he?

I can’t explain it. And God is not obligated to explain it to me. He sees things we don’t. His ways and his timing are higher than ours — as high as the Heavens are above the earth. He takes the long view, the eternal view. He knows my life is a breath, even when it seems to drag on and on.

I take comfort in knowing Job felt the angst of not being able to reconcile his lived experience with what he knew was true about God. I take courage in knowing Job believed God and refused to curse God and die, as his wife suggested he do. I take solace in knowing something cosmic was happening behind-the-scenes that Job couldn’t see. His suffering had purpose, even when he didn’t see it.

Job refused to give in to the temptation to agree with God’s Enemy about who God is, to make a false accusation against him — that he isn’t good. Such an agreement would be an act of treachery, a shifting of his allegiance to the Father of Lies.

Even Job’s friends declared untrue things about God and the causes of Job’s present reality. Job refused to internalize them.

Although he couldn’t reconcile his own experience with Yahweh as a good and all-powerful God, he kept believing God was who he said he was.

There is a greater reality than our own lived experience. By resisting the temptation to believe what his experience or his friends would have him believe about God, Job unwittingly proved himself to be what God believed he was. Job’s stubborn refusal to swallow lies about God put him on the winning side of an unseen spiritual battle. And after Job prayed for the friends who’d done him emotional harm with their untruths, God rewarded him handsomely. “…the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before” (Job 42:10, NIV).

The truth is: God is good, no matter what we are suffering. And nothing can separate us from the love of God — not even pain and chronic illness, if we refuse to let it.

My own declaration of God’s goodness, despite my pain, takes the form of a song. When despair causes me to long for Heaven, I put on worship music and sing out what is true about God: he is good and always will be.

“Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him” (Job 13:15, KJV).

Prayer:

Lord, will you fix in our minds and hearts what is true about you, even when we’re tempted to believe otherwise? Will you give my friends who suffer with chronic illness and pain, relief and unwavering confidence that your goodness and mercy follow them all the days of their lives? Will you perfect your power in our weakness? Will you keep us faithful like our brother, Job, and reveal to us even more about your nature?

Imagine this scene with me. Jesus is delivering a sermon in the synagogue about the kingdom of God (Luke 13) when his eyes fall on a disabled woman who’d been stooped over for eighteen years. Though she was completely unable to straighten herself, she had not neglected to worship her Creator in the temple with God’s people that day.

In compassion, Jesus called her to himself. “Woman, you are loosed from thine infirmity (Luke 13:12b, NKJV), “he said. When he laid hands on her, she straightened up and glorified God in her new, upright position.

The Greek word “apoluo” which is translated “loosed” is means to free fully, release, pardon, let go, set at liberty, or divorce, according to Strong’s Concordance. At the word and touch of Jesus, she was freed from a spirit of infirmity and no longer imprisoned by her own body.

As the healed woman glorified God for the miracle she’d experienced at the word, the synagogue leader, incensed with Jesus, rebuked him for healing on the Sabbath. “There are six days on which men ought to work; therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day. (Luke 13:14b, NKJV). The nerve.

Jesus minced no words in his response. He called his adversaries – apparently more than just the synagogue leader – what they were: hypocrites – actors in masks, pretending to be something other than what they were.

Who among them, Jesus asked, would not untie their own farm animals from their stalls to lead them to a watering hole on the Sabbath? Wasn’t this woman – a daughter of Abraham – of far greater value than any of their oxen and donkeys? Would they not loose her on the Sabbath? (Luke 13: 15-16).

When Jesus named Satan as the author of her bondage, he pointed the finger at anyone who would keep her bound even another day as his accomplices. 

Jesus shamed his enemies in the synagogue that day and threw down a gauntlet – choose a side. Align with me, the One who sets captives free, or with Satan, the one who imprisons people, even in their own bodies through a spirit of infirmity.

By healing this daughter of Abraham and setting her free from her prison, Jesus authenticated himself as Lord of and over the Sabbath. He also embodied the power of the otherworldly kingdom he represented. The crowd rejoiced, the only right response to seeing the Kingdom of God manifested on earth.

With every eye in the synagogue on him, he launched into a sermon on the kingdom of God. 

He used analogies to describe this kingdom. First, he spoke of something minuscule that would, over time, become great – a mustard seed. The tiniest among seeds paradoxically becomes the largest among plants, many multiples of its original size. Although small and vulnerable at first, it eventually grows so large that the birds of the air lodge in it and take rest under its shade. This is the DNA of the kingdom of God. Tiny, inconsequential things grow into homes for other creatures in which they can take refuge and rest. (Luke 13: 18-19, Matthew 13:31-32). 

In his sermon that day on the Kingdom of God, Jesus likens it to leaven (Matthew 13: 33). He describes how a woman puts a little leaven in a container of flour, which leavens the whole over time. So it is with the kingdom of God. Although it begins as something barely visible and seemingly inconsequential, it is chock-full of transformative power

Imagine watching Jesus do a shocking miracle in the synagogue that Sabbath. When he was through, some congregants were overjoyed; others, put to shame.

Imagine this Jesus boldly and confidently challenging man-made constructs about what keeping the Sabbath holy meant and the upside-down values of synagogue leaders who valued a farm animal more than a sister, a fellow image-bearer of God, trapped in her own body.

His adversaries’ reaction to his miraculous work didn’t shock Jesus – not at all. Knowing their hearts, he laid them bare.

That day, he straightened a woman’s body, and then straightened out his adversaries’ crooked theology.

Perhaps a crippled old woman didn’t matter much to the synagogue leaders, clearly not as much as their precious rules. But Jesus, the exact representation of God– the Great I am – and the one in whose image every woman was created, affirmed her value.

This Jesus is irresistible to me. He aligns himself with the weak and lowly, refuses to submit himself to perverse, superfluous rules, and denies leaders, drunk on their teaspoon of power, the chance to continue lording it over their underlings. His moral courage moves him to break the hold of oppressive spirits, speak truth to power, and set women free, even in the face of judgment and condemnation. I am completely in love with him.

Weep with those who weep. The command Paul gives in Romans 12:15 (ESV) is in the the larger context of his instruction to  believers to offer their bodies as living sacrifices, which is their spiritual act of worship (Romans 12:1). He continues, admonishing them to let their love be sincere (Romans 12:9), and details the various forms sincere love may take, among them, weeping with those who weep.

Working among Afghan people in Afghanistan, in Europe, and the US, I often found myself weeping with them. Their heart-rending stories and catastrophic losses evoked strong emotions in anyone with a beating heart. Afghanistan is called the land of tears for a reason. But with tears streaming down my face, I often felt helpless to do anything to alleviate their suffering.

Could I give a stateless person, citizenship, or rescue a girl sold into marriage? The conundrums and traumas I encountered working with Afghan people were overwhelming, far too big for the likes of me.

Despite my sense of helplessness, I came to understand that my tears were not a meaningless gesture, or an act of futility. They were instead evidence of love, and love alone has healing power. My presence was ministry, whether or not I could immediately act to do anything to solve their problems. Our presence towith suffering people embodies a powerful message — “You are not alone. You matter to God. You matter to me.” Because God’s Spirit lives in his people, when we engage in this ministry, we usher others into the presence of God.

Hagar fled abuse and thought she and her son would die in the desert, but God saw her and sent an angel to speak words of hope to her.

Hagar responded, “You are the God who sees me (Genesis 16:13a, NIV).”

The Hebrew word for angel means “messenger.” As ambassadors of God, we too are messengers. Our very presence communicates to suffering people that God himself has taken notice of them.

Yahweh is indeed El Roi, the God who sees. He has opened our eyes to those he takes special notice of — the abused, the poor, the sojourner. The word “compassion” literally means to suffer together with. As a compassionate God, he doesn’t shrink from our suffering like humans do. He’s not only willing to suffer with us; he runs into our suffering. 

Jesus, the Word made flesh, was himself a man of sorrows. He suffered with us by taking on human flesh and entering the very world humans had plunged into sin and darkness. He willingly endured every kind of suffering and even suffered for us to spare us eternal separation from God, the most excruciating suffering. 

Paul’s instruction to weep with those who weep presumes a willingness to see another’s circumstances through their eyes and to be present with them. It requires sitting in the discomfort of being with those whose circumstances have brought them low as well as with our own powerlessness to fix them. By weeping with those who weep, we hold a safe space for them to express their anguish and come close enough to allow ourselves to be moved by their pain.

The admonition to be an empathic witness and to suffer with another, extends to those we’re not able to be with in person. Hebrews 13:3 (CEB) says, “…remember prisoners as if you were in prison with them, and people who are mistreated as if you were in their place.” To voluntarily suffer with those who’ve lost their freedom, who have suffered injustice, treachery, and harm, is the embodiment of love. 

I’m mindful of Afghan women who suffer. Within Afghanistan, most find themselves falsely imprisoned – some literally in jail cells, others in their own homes under what amounts to house arrest for the “crime” of being a woman. When the Taliban took control of the country in 2021, women lost their freedom of movement, their agency, and their ability to develop their own minds and pursue their dreams. This false imprisonment, in homes and under burqas, is an indictment of the God who created women in his image, with agency and freewill. It defrauds them of their basic human rights. 

Girls are allowed to attend school up to age six, but are barred from attending secondary school or university. Women are banned from most public and formal employment. Even the safe spaces women used to enjoy gathering – beauty salons, bathhouses, and women’s parks – have all been shut down. Women are required to wear full-body and face coverings in public and can’t travel alone without a mahram, a close male relative. The severe restrictions on women’s movements impact their mental health and their access to healthcare. Even the sound of their voices is now forbidden in public.

Morality police aggressively enforce oppressive dress codes and behavior restrictions under threat of fines, imprisonment, violence, and other abuses. Male guardians can be punished for a wayward woman’s behavior.

Even from afar though, we can weep with Afghan women in solidarity through prayer, confident our tears are not wasted. In fact, our prayerful tears can draw Afghan women near in unexpected ways, opening doors for us to connect with precious image-bearers of God who feel alone and unseen. I’ve experienced this in my own life in countless ways.

I’m now connected with multiple women inside Afghanistan and have intimate knowledge of their suffering. My tears for them are are born of sorrow and compassion, but not of despair. In them is an appeal to a God who is far from helpless, a God who is well able to right every wrong, set the oppressed free, and even reverse whole destinies.

When, in her despair, Hagar realized God’s eye had fallen on her, she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.”

(Genesis 16:13a, NIV)

Not only did God take notice of Hagar and recognize the injustice committed against her, he rescued her and promised her she would be the mother of a multitude of children, so many they couldn’t be counted (Genesis 16:9).

In the gaze of a good God who had taken notice of her plight, she felt her own worth. Her hope was restored. Perhaps the most surprising result of being seen is that Hagar’s own eyes were opened to see God.

By becoming an empathic witness to a fellow image-bearer’s suffering, we partner with God to to see suffering people with God’s eyes and to love them with his love. This ministry gives others the experience of being seen and, if they are willing, of seeing God himself. The ministry of weeping with those who weep goes far beyond extending pity or even comfort to others – it is nothing less than the holy work of reconciliation.

In proverbs 31, the mother of King Lemuel, likely King Solomon, calls him

The notion that perhaps I could be the answer to someone else’s prayer hit me most clearly in Richard Stearns’ book, The Hole in Our Gospel, where he shares of an encounter with a widowed mother in the Andes Mountain named Octaviana. In debt for diseased and dying livestock, she worried about how she would provide for her three children with her husband gone. Knowing she was a woman of faith, he asked her what she prayed for. She said she asked God to help her carry this burden and send help. 

Stearns writes, “And as I held her hand and prayed for her, God revealed to me a profound truth-that I was the answer to Octaviana’s prayer. Eight thousand miles from my home in Seattle, 14,000 feet up in the Andes Mountains, she had cried out to God for help, and he had sent me.”

The idea resonated with every fiber of my being. Of course, God sends his children to become the answer to someone else’s prayer.

In fact, I believe that’s what happened in Afghanistan when the Taliban were toppled in 2001. The cries of the oppressed people had risen to God’s ears and he answered by dispatching his people from around the world to help them in all they ways they suffered. Workers poured into the war-torn country from South America, Europe, South Korea, China, the US, and even Africa iand poured themselves into addressing all kinds of human suffering—high infant and maternal mortality rates, poverty, illiteracy, forced marriage, homelessness, unemployment, tuberculosis, and drug addiction, among them.

Perhaps when Jesus said to his disciples, “…the harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest” (Matthew 9:38, NKJV), he was asking them to till up the soil of their own hearts so they could become the answer to God’s longing themselves. Perhaps this prayer is meant to lead to another, “Lord here am I, send me” (Isaiah 6:8b, NIV).

If we are indeed the representatives of the kingdom of heaven, his emissaries to this lost world, doesn’t it make perfect sense that God would send us as the answer to someone else’s prayer?

As Christians (literally, “little Christs”), we are to be God’s hands and feet on earth. If our hearts beat with his and we pray as Jesus did, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10, KJV), we will lean into doing his business on earth, not grudgingly or out of obligation, but because we too long to see heaven come here.

God’s will is that his lost ones be reconciled to himself, that none of his image-bearers perish. When our hearts beat with our Maker’s, we will ache for others to know him as we do, to experience the unconditional love, forgiveness, and head-to-toe peace that became our birthright when we were born again.

We truly are — or can be — the answer to someone else’s prayers. To the degree we are filled with and governed by the Spirit of God which lives in us, we will be ready to see and respond to such opportunities.

Journal prompts:

1. How would it change your day-to-day existence to believe that YOU might be the answer to someone else’s prayer? With your giftings and unique design, what form might that take? 
2. No doubt, Queen Esther was the answer to the prayers of the Jewish people in Persia when they earned they had been given over to slaughter. What other examples from the Bible come to mind?

I remember being on lockdown in Afghanistan, usually triggered by a violent event – a shooting, an IED explosion, or a kidnapping. Expats would confine themselves to the walls of their own homes for weeks, moving only when absolutely necessary. At one point, lockdowns were happening so frequently without breaks in between that I felt like I was under house arrest. I ached just to feel the sunshine on my skin, go for a walk, and see the world outside my own windows. The only thing I was missing was the ankle bracelet. 

Today, as I sit on my back steps in Georgia with the sun kissing my face and arms, I thank God for the simple privilege, one denied women in Afghanistan. For four years now, the Taliban has barred Afghan women and girls from school and work, except in rare cases where women are segregated from men in the workplace. More oppressive edicts followed that one – forbidding women to move about the city without a mahram, a male relative, forcing them to cover the windows of their own homes lest they be seen by unrelated men, and denying them the right to speak where their voices may be heard by unrelated men. The walls of their world have closed in on them, turning their own homes into prisons. The Taliban has effectively erased women from society. 

The handful of women I remain in communication with inside Afghanistan describe what it’s like to live as a woman in a land that seems to hate them, unfree, unable to develop their minds or pursue their dreams. Their mental and physical health suffers. One friend suffers from a vitamin D deficiency brought on by her confinement. The simple remedy is to get sun on her skin, but that she cannot do. Her college-educated daughter finds herself trapped, her dreams held hostage by her own government. 

The situation looks bleak for Afghan women, but I’m convinced God is not done working in Afghanistan. 

He hears the cries of the oppressed and ours on their behalf. 

There is power in our prayers.

When you feel the sun on your skin, would you pray with me for these dear women who long for such simple pleasures? Will you pray for their deliverance from oppression so they might once again live in the sunshine? When you exercise your freedom to climb into your car to drive to the grocery store or to laugh out loud or have a conversation with another woman in public, will you pray with me for Afghan women?

If you had a superpower, would you use it?

What if you could fly or become invisible? Or walk through walls or time travel?

It’s not even a question, right?

What if I told you that you DO have a superpower?

Otherworldly wisdom.

This supernatural wisdom comes from Heaven and is both a superpower and your birthright as a believer.

What is wisdom from Heaven?

It’s the ability to navigate this world well, according to the principles that govern its operation. Because this wisdom is born of God, it allows us to see what we otherwise may not—to see beyond our own line of sight, our own experience, and even our own lifespans. Heavenly wisdom also supersedes mere head knowledge to encompass behavior. It is knowledge applied to real-world circumstances and the governance of our own lives. Knowing + doing.

If we invite wisdom in, it can govern every realm of our lives—our speech, our finances, our relationships, our decisions, and the management of our time.

Scripture offers abundant evidence of this otherworldly wisdom at work including:

• Bezalel and Oholiab’s technical and artistic talent with gold, silver, and bronze and stone-setting (Exodus 35:30-35),
• Solomon’s ability to solve impossible conundrums and administer justice through a deep understanding of human motivations (1 Kings 3:15-37),
• Wide recognition and awe by Israel of the extraordinary wisdom at work through Solomon (1 Kings 3:28),
• Queen of Sheba seeking audience with Solomon (2 Chronicles 9:5),
• Numbering one’s days aright (Psalm 90:12)
• The happiness of those we lead (2 Chronicles 9:7-8, Proverbs 29:2),
• The happiness of our parents (Proverbs 29:3),
• Execution of justice and righteousness in our realm of authority (2 Chronicles 9:8).
• Purity, peace, gentleness, mercy, fairness, and lack of duplicity (James 3:17), and
• The ability to outwit serpents (Matthew 10:16).

In short, wisdom is a superpower.

We need this other-worldly wisdom, both to conduct our own affairs and to execute justice and righteousness in our realms of authority and influence—our families, communities, workplaces, and social and professional groups. These are not our own personal fiefdoms, but stewardships, entrusted to the agents and emissaries of the Kingdom of Heaven by our Creator and King. Indeed, we are appointed kings and priests in that kingdom. As such, we both represent him and co-labor with God to establish his kingdom here on earth.

How can we hope to execute such a lofty mandate without wisdom from on high?
We can’t.

Amazingly, this otherworldly wisdom is ours for the asking.

God promises it in abundance and without reproach.

“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” James 1:5, NIV

We often have not because we ask not (James 4:2).

Lord, thank you for the promise of abundant wisdom when we ask. We come believing you and your promise. Will you give us this day abundant wisdom to govern every area of our lives? Wisdom to make upcoming decisions? Wisdom even to know how to pray and what to ask for? Give us unbroken connection to your Spirit through which wisdom flows and courage and discipline to apply that wisdom to our lives. Thank you for entrusting treasure to people with clay feet. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Journal prompts (please feel free to share your answers in comments if you would like to):

Tell of a time when you prayed for wisdom and received it.
What would characterize the realms you have authority or influence in if governed by supernatural wisdom from Heaven?
What would you say keeps you from asking for it regularly?
What would you have to believe to ask for this otherworldly wisdom?

In her blog for writers, Kristen Lamb mentions an author whose book was rated a three-star rating by an Amazon reviewer because it was not Jimmy Dean sausages. Argh.

In the Lincoln Museum in Springfield Illinois, there is a wall plastered with insults and criticism of President Lincoln published by the press across the U.S. such as “Lincoln speeches consist of condensed lumps of imbecility, buffoonery, and vulgar malignity.”

The words leaped off the page as if God were speaking directly to me.

Don’t be afraid of them or anything they say.

Don’t be dismayed [terrified, broken down, confused, or discouraged] by the way that they look at you.

But to fear man over God is to revere man over God. That is absurdity.

Our affections can be misplaced, but so can our fear. Either is a kind of idol worship.

Ezekiel was called to a rebellious people God calls hard-hearted and hard-headed (Ezekiel 2). If we are called to deliver a message or live out a calling in the face of critics, or even rebels, we are in very good company. Ezekiel, Abraham Lincoln, even Jesus, are among them.

God told Ezekiel to deliver the message “whether they choose to listen or not.”

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind.

2 Timothy 1:7