One of the hardest parts of being a young adult is building Christian community. Whether you live in your hometown and are trying to find new friends since your hometown friends have left, or whether you have moved to a new city and are trying to find a new group of friends, you probably have felt the struggles of building a community of friends.

Stop me if you have heard this, “Boy, has this been a difficult season.” That is an attitude I have heard time and time again. I think we have given up on the idea of ever returning to normal, but we should not give up on the Church getting back to what it does best. However, in this season, I wonder if the Church needs a reminder of its purpose.

For the past year or so, many people have experienced burnout at their jobs. Whether you work in an office, at home, or in ministry, you’ve likely felt the pressure. Many people had to work longer hours and adjusted to working at home—and the combination of all these factors has led to a collective burnout.

Back-to-school season feels full of possibilities this year. The possibility that school will feel a little more “normal” this year seems within reach, as some schools shift away from the pandemic-related restrictions they used last year. The possibility that school will be just as messy, with a return to quarantining and virtual classes, is also on the table. The possibility that some kids will get sick and some kids will not is also a real threat. School field trips or organized sports and activities may be possible again . . . or not. And in the midst of all of these possibilities, there are the traditional transitions of adjusting to new classmates, teachers, and routines.

Our Savior, Jesus Christ, was wrongly accused and wrongly convicted of a crime He did not commit. The Sanhedrin would go to any means necessary to silence this rabbi, even to the extreme of breaking the Eighth Commandment to have Jesus put to death.

This blog post is adapted from Redeemed: Our Lives as Sinners and Saints by Dan Hoppen.

I’ve been running for the past five years or so, and while I wouldn’t consider myself a professional by any means, I like to think I’ve learned a thing or two over the past few years—like how to stabilize my breathing and how to run at a steady pace. Similarly, in the Christian life, we have many lessons to learn. I like to think that a lot of the lessons I’ve learned in running apply to the Christian life as well.

Do you usually write or speak when you communicate with another person? With rapid advances in technology and widespread use of social media, you probably switch back and forth between those two methods more than you realize. You write an email or text. You send a voice message or video. You write something to post on a social media platform. You comment on a friend’s picture online. You talk to your family. You give a presentation at work. Back and forth, back and forth. We are constantly communicating and doing it in so many ways simultaneously.

God has blessed us all with different talents, and sometimes, it might feel like other people’s abilities are better or more useful than your own. I know I have felt like this at times, and I recently felt this when I was with my family and our pontoon boat broke down.