Grace Notes
a weekly blog by Steven Norris
The Pace of Love
By Steven Norris The day I received the keys to my first car changed my life. Pulling that 1979 Pontiac Phoenix out of the driveway and onto the road meant a new freedom and a new pace of life. No longer did I need to be picked up for school or to catch a ride to...
Praying the Headlines
By Steven Norris Have you ever tried to fill a cup of water from a firehose? That is what it feels like every time that I tune in to my news source of choice. The headlines gush forth, pounding against my head, heart, and soul with such force that I lose the...
Who Is the Real Enemy?
By Steven Norris Two Sundays ago, I stood before my congregation and preached a very different sermon from what I had prepared. Violence had dominated the news headlines throughout the week and I felt the Spirit leading me to a different word for that day. ...
Finding the Narrow Way
I grew up on science fiction. From Star Trek to Star Wars to Battlestar Galactica, we were glued to the television. One of the sillier shows I enjoyed, though, was Dr. Who. If you’ve seen that British series, you may remember the TARDIS, the machine the Doctor...
What’s Your Excuse?
By Steven Norris Have you ever had the feeling that God might be calling you to do something or perform a task that you are not qualified for or have no business doing? Consider Moses. He was born to Hebrew slaves in Egypt, raised by Pharaoh’s daughter, and lived in...
Why I Stop for Funerals
By Steven Norris As I write these words, I am mentally and emotionally preparing for my sixth funeral in two weeks. Some seasons are just like that. We know from experience around the church that deaths tend to come in groups of two or three at a time. As...
What Do You Want?
By Steven Norris It is one of my favorite scenes in film. In 1989, Kevin Costner starred in “Field of Dreams” as Ray Kinsella, an Iowa farmer whose visions lead him to uproot his crops and replace his farm with a baseball field. Those visions lead him to find Terrance...
Did God Abandon Jesus on the Cross?
By Steven Norris In one of the darkest moments in the Bible, as Jesus hangs on the cross, he appears to be abandoned by God. Matthew’s Gospel records it this way: “From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. About three in the...
Who Is The Blessing For?
By Steven Norris "Do you pray to be blessed or do you pray to be a blessing?” It seemed like a very reasonable quote to hear at Christian leadership conference. What I didn’t expect was to see retired University of Alabama football coach, Nick Saban, as the...
Find Your Guiding Star
By Steven Norris I grew up as a “land lover.” I have never lived near a body of water larger than a moderate lake. Therefore, when my wife and I were told that we were responsible for navigating our ship through the Caribbean Sea to the Bahamas, we were a little...