As Opening Day has finally arrived, I’m sure most of you (players/coaches/umpires) have set certain goals that you are hoping to achieve this upcoming season. As you think about these goals, I imagine that most of them are related to your own personal performance or the performance of your team.

For many of us, we like certainty. We like predictability. We like control. And as long as we have those things, we’ll just deal with the life that we’ve been given. We may dream of a better life, but dreams are risky.

This is a great time for improving your skills as a player, but it is also a great time for cultivating new practices and habits that will help us improve our character. Or to put that another way, new practices and habits that will help us become more like Jesus.

We spend so much of our time, energy and headspace on doing so many good things, but what if all of our Christian-busyness is actually causing some of us to miss the most basic thing — hearing Jesus’ voice and following him wherever he leads?

Is there a particular area of weakness in your life or a specific struggle that you just can’t seem to overcome or get rid of? Have you ever prayed and asked God to take a particular burden away, but he doesn’t do it?

Why did Jesus actually teach his disciples a very specific prayer, and why did he choose the particular words and phrases that he chose?

I’m obviously aware that we are not ancient Israelites and that there are all sorts of commands in the Torah that we are not expected to obey today. But what about the top ten? Are we supposed to still obey those?

The New Year offers us the ceremonial fresh start that motivates us to actually start implementing new things into our daily routines and weekly rhythms.

For many people, the holiday season can be frustrating and too often fails to turn out the way that they hoped it would go. It’s easy for people to find themselves in a situation where they are just trying to react to everything that is being thrown at them. They had expectations for how it was going to go, but what they really needed was an approach.

If you were put on trial in a court of law because you were being accused of being a follower of Jesus, what evidence would your accusers be able to present before the court in order to convict you of this so-called crime?

The Israelites had failed to diligently teach their children who God was and what he had done for them. Am I diligently teaching my children who God is and what he has done for us through Jesus?

Over the last eight months, our Thursday Morning Group has committed to fasting once a week together. It’s been a great learning experience, and even though I still feel like an amateur when it comes to fasting, I thought it would be helpful to share some of what I’ve learned.