1.  You are worth more than your bank account

For the majority of my 20’s I wandered from job to job spending time in other countries with internships or volunteer positions.  As long as I had enough money for orange juice, cereal, and pasta I was happy.  Then a few years ago I met a girl.  Let me assure you she is in not a ‘high maintenance girl’ (whatever that means) nor did she demand I have a high paying job.  In fact, we began dating when I was working part time as a delivery driver and part time as a security guard.  Despite how caring and supportive she was, I could not shake the feeling I needed to be making more.  In my own personal struggle to learn what it means to be a boyfriend and eventually a husband, my paycheck became a big issue...

Have you been there?  Almost everyone around you is praising God because of some great blessing and you feel skipped over.  All your friends are in blissful relationships while you keep getting rejected.  You have been dealing with sickness for years and your friends were healed after a week.  Your church is in the middle of a spiritual revival but you can’t bring yourself to clap during worship.  Everyone else is living like Jesus rose from the dead but it sure seems like he didn’t, at least not to you...

I like to think of myself as culturally and socially aware, but just when I think I have left all my gender and societal bias at the door, I realize I forgot to empty one of my pockets.

This happened to me recently at a bible study.  The passage was John 4:7-26, commonly known as ‘the woman at the well.’  I had heard it before and could pretty much imagine the way it would go…