From Jake
The Blog
Raw reflections on Christ and prayer. Written for the man in the fight.
9 posts in Stand Your Watch
Each Man Opposite His Own House
He can name the trend, the court case, the study that came out last spring, and he is not wrong about most of it. His fourteen year old has been up until two in the morning for a month and he does not know it.
On Your Walls I Have Appointed Watchmen
Somewhere a man learned that praying about something is what you do after you have run out of ways to help. Isaiah has these men doing it as the job, all day and all night, and it is not the last resort.
The Watchman's Blood
He told his son the truth, more than once, clearly, early enough that it could have mattered. He has spent years since looking for the sentence he got wrong. He is carrying something God does not put on him.
To Cultivate It and to Keep It
He works harder than anybody around him and the bills are paid and the truck runs. And the house is still coming apart quietly, in a way he cannot account for.
He Was Standing Right There
You are eight feet away with a cup of coffee when somebody says the thing to your kid. You run the math a man runs in about two seconds, and you say nothing, and nobody notices that you did not.
Am I My Brother's Keeper?
Somebody brings up a man who has gone quiet and the room agrees it is not really anybody's business. What just happened is that a group of men agreed together that nobody has the watch.
The Man Who Wants Your Kid Is Not a Stranger
You built your instincts around a stranger in a parked car. That man is seven percent. The common version has eaten at your table, and your kid trusts him partly because you do.
Cursed Is the Man Who Keeps His Sword Clean
There is a verse in Jeremiah that stops men cold, and if you read it wrong it sends you the exact opposite direction from where God is pointing.
Weak Men Feel Safe. Strong Men Keep People Safe. Which One Are You?
There are two kinds of men, and the difference is not size or income. It is one question: who is your strength for? Weak men feel safe. Strong men keep people safe.