By five in the morning, Victor Salas had already lied to his wife twice. He had kissed the top of her head while she was half asleep and told her he needed to get to a job on the west side before the heat built up. Then he had texted
There are people who move through this world like they are always half-apologizing for being here. You can hear it in the way they talk. You can feel it in the way they second-guess themselves after they speak. You can see it in the way they tolerate things
Before the first pale ribbon of light touched the trees at Encanto Park, Jesus was already there in quiet prayer. He knelt where the grass still held a little of the night, His head bowed, His hands open, His face calm in the early dark, while not far away a
Before the light had fully opened over Tucson, Jesus stood alone on Sentinel Peak with His head bowed and His hands still. The city spread below Him in that wide desert hush that can make everything look peaceful from far away, even when it is not. The streets were there.
Before the light had fully come up over Albuquerque, Jesus was already awake. The city still carried that quiet hour when the air feels cooler than it will later, and even the roads seem to hold their breath. Near Tingley Beach, where the ponds sat dark and still beside the
Most people do not wake up one morning and decide to ruin their own life. It almost never happens that way. What usually happens is quieter than that. They get tired. They get disappointed. They get distracted. They tell themselves they will get serious later. They make a little room
Before the sun came up over El Paso, while a woman on the east side of the city stood in a hospital bathroom trying not to cry where anyone could hear her, Jesus was alone in quiet prayer above the city on Scenic Drive. He had come there before first
Before the sun came up over Fort Collins, while porch lights still held their place against the dark and the town had not yet fully decided to wake, Jesus was kneeling in the quiet on the Oval at Colorado State University. The air carried that thin morning cold that slips
A lot of people do not struggle to believe that Jesus loves people. They struggle to believe that He loves them without first requiring a cleaner record, a stronger spiritual life, a better week, a more disciplined mind, or some kind of visible proof that they are finally becoming the
Before the light came up over Hermann Park, before the city settled into its usual roar, Jesus was already there in quiet prayer. The grass still held the night’s dampness. The trees stood dark against a sky that had not yet decided what kind of morning it would become.
Before the first full wash of light touched the limestone walls of Mission Concepción, Jesus was already awake and alone. The city had not fully opened its eyes yet. The traffic on Roosevelt Avenue was still thin. A delivery truck moved in the distance. Somewhere behind a fence a dog
There is a quiet way many believers lose a day before it even begins. It does not happen with some dramatic rejection of God. It does not happen because they stop believing in Jesus. It happens in a much smaller place, which is probably why it is so dangerous. It