There’s a story about two young boys, age 8 and 10, who were really mischievous and always getting into trouble. The parents were just at the end of their rope, and they heard that the local pastor was good with children. The boys’ mother asked if he’d talk to her boys, and the clergyman agreed but asked to see them one at a time. The mother sent the 8-year-old in first while she and the other son waited outside.

The preacher, it turned out, was a big, burly man with a booming voice. He sat the young man down and asked him sternly, “Where is God?” The boy’s mouth dropped open, but he said nothing. Then the big man began to pace back and forth across the room. The pastor then spoke even more sternly, “WHERE is GOD?” The boy sat, frozen, scared to death. Finally, the preacher raised his voice to a fevered pitch: “WHERE IS GOD?”

At that, the boy screamed and ran out of the room, out of the church, and into the yard where his mother and brother were waiting. Pale and trembling, he looked at his older brother and said, “Dude, we are in big trouble. God is missing and they think we did it!”

God is not missing. Sometimes it feels like it, though, doesn’t it? Sometimes we get to a point where we feel like God is distant, maybe a distant concept or idea instead of a Spirit that is alive within us. Sometimes the whole idea that God would guide us or lead us feels foreign. But maybe the question really is: are we shaping our lives in such a way that we have time to listen and to be led?

For centuries now, Christians have used the season of Lent to deepen their walk with Christ. Some of you, I imagine, have developed habits of prayer and silence. For others of you, maybe the heart of this season could be a perfect opportunity to begin to carve out time and make it a priority.

I don’t know how this might look for you. I have a friend who, when she had small children, used to hide in her closet first thing in the morning so that she could have ten minutes — ten minutes of prayer time. Another friend would take walks through his neighborhood, and his walking time would become his prayer time.

However it looks for you, I pray that you would intentionally set aside time to be fed, to pray, and to listen. And may God meet you in the quiet and holy moments.

Let us pray: Loving God, it is easy to fill every waking moment with activity. I pray that you would help us to carve out time to sit in your presence and be renewed in your love. As we are fed, give us the strength we need to feed others. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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Today is the International World Day of Prayer. It is celebrated on the first Friday in March by Christians around the world in more than 170 countries. Through this celebration, those who participate pray for each other across the globe, especially lifting up those most in need.

What a beautiful concept!

Friends of Dial Hope, I invite all of you to join me in this day of prayer. Let us remember that we share a deep bond with as many as two billion other people on this planet. We live at a time of great global conflict and desperation in need.

Prayer is powerful — not because it bends God to our will, but because it bends our hearts toward God and toward one another. To pray is to refuse indifference. It is to stand alongside those who suffer. It is to entrust this wounded world to the mercy of God, believing that no cry goes unheard.

So today, let us pray with hope. Pray with humility. Pray with love. And trust that the Spirit is at work — across borders and beyond what we can see — drawing the whole world closer to the heart of God.

Let us pray: Gracious God of every nation and people, we lift before you this world you love. Strengthen the weary, protect the vulnerable, and guide the leaders of nations in your ways of justice and peace. Bind us together as one body in Christ, and let your Spirit move through our prayers to bring hope where there is despair and light where there is darkness. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Carl Jung once suggested that the central neurosis of modern life is emptiness. Viktor Frankl observed something similar, writing that many people suffer from a deep sense of meaninglessness.

That diagnosis still feels timely. With all our technology, mobility, and options, why do so many feel hollow?

So where does meaning come from?

Years ago, I heard someone describe life as tending a garden. He said he could not cultivate the whole world, but he could tend the soil around him. He could nurture his family. He could show up for his neighbors. He could respond to needs placed directly in his path. He committed himself to growing what he could grow — kindness, integrity, generosity — and to helping others flourish where they were planted.

There is wisdom in that. We are not responsible for everything. But we are responsible for something. Each of us has a sphere of influence — conversations we enter, relationships we shape, work we carry out. When we choose to cultivate beauty and love there, meaning begins to take root.

The historian Will Durant wrote, “To give life meaning, one must have a purpose larger than oneself.” Jesus said something similar in his own way: “Give, and it will be given to you… a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over.” In the economy of the kingdom, life expands as it is poured out.

Meaning is rarely found by looking inward alone. It is discovered as we give ourselves away in love — as we plant seeds of compassion, faithfulness, and hope in the soil entrusted to us.

Let us pray: Show us, O God, how to add beauty and love to this world. Open our eyes to the needs around us. And as we give, as we serve, as we love, grant that we may discover deeper meaning and the abundant life you promise; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Today’s message was written by my friend, Rev. Roger Kunkel, founder of Dial Hope.

You know, when we are born, the laws of God are already established. And, these governing principles are unchangeable… Fixed.

For example, there are the laws of the seasons. The farmer learns these laws and is governed by them. He plants his crop when it is time to plant so that he can reap when it is time to reap. It would be foolish for him to rebel and plant out of season, for this would not change the laws of God. It would only cause the failure of his crop.

So it is with your life. Each day you face a choice - your will or God’s will. If you choose to forget God, to be self-willed, self-centered, it is inevitable that you will have “crop failure” just as a farmer who foolishly plants out of season. But, if you choose to do God’s will as best you understand it, you will reap a harvest of joy and accomplishment.

In Psalm 37:4, the Bible says, “Be delighted with the Lord,” which means, rejoice and be happy doing things God’s way, “then God will give you your heart’s desires.” (Psalm 37:4, The Living Bible)

Let us pray: Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known and from whom no secrets are hidden, cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name. Through the grace of Jesus Christ. Amen.

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One afternoon sometime back, I was out surfing alone. As I turned to catch an incoming wave, I glimpsed a fin breaking the surface of the water. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end, and I froze. Then, much to my relief, I noticed several other fins break the surface. It was just a pack of dolphins playfully cruising the surf zone. In an instant, my emotions made a full swing from fear to joy as I saw a dolphin leap clear out of the ocean. The word “majestic” came to mind.

As I turned the nose of my longboard around to catch the next wave, I found myself giving thanks. Thank you, God, for the majesty of your creation. Thank you for allowing me to share in it — if only for a moment. Thank you for the warm sun on my back, and the changing weather. Thank you for my friends and family.

It never ceases to amaze me what gratitude does to our spirits. When I left the water that afternoon, my worries and burdens felt lighter. I could laugh at the fear I had felt over a dolphin fin. And I went home with a smile on my face.

Today, may you look for the majestic in life. Make a list of your blessings, and give thanks.

Let us pray: Our Lord our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! When we look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon, and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? You do care for us, O Lord. Blessings rain down upon us on every side. Give us eyes to see them, and hearts to give you thanks and praise. And may we remember that we are blessed to be a blessing. Amen.

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