Recently, I was speaking with some friends who had climbed Mount Ararat. As they told the story, they described how the climb became more demanding the higher they went. The path grew steeper. The air grew thinner. The rocks grew more unstable.  Then they told me about their boots—special climbing boots fitted with cleats, small metal grips that dig into the rock. Those cleats didn’t flatten the path or remove the danger. But they gave the climbers the ability to stand where

Life will always give us reasons to feel sorry for ourselves. We’ve all been through unfair situations, someone mistreated us, doors closed, people let us down, and circumstances turned against us. And it’s easy to think, “If only things had been different.” That voice can sound reasonable. It can even sound justified. But if we are not careful, that way of thinking slowly reshapes how we see ourselves. It moves from something we experienced to something we believe about ours

Because I travel often, especially during the winter months, I have seen this beautiful picture many times. There are days when the sky is dark, rainy, and covered with heavy clouds. From the ground, everything looks gray. It almost feels as though the sun has disappeared. But then the plane begins to rise. Little by little, it moves through the clouds, and suddenly everything changes. There it is—the sun, shining brightly, peacefully, powerfully, as though it had been there