If serving God begins to seem restrictive instead of life-giving, burdensome instead of beautiful, harsh instead of holy, then something has gone wrong in the lens through which we are seeing it. The problem is not with God. The problem is with perception.

Some moments in the presence of God do more than stir emotion. They reach deep into the hidden places of the soul and awaken something eternal. Sunday was one of those moments. We were brought back to Hebrews 11:11: “Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered…” And that phrase kept echoing: strength to conceive. Sometimes we focus so much on the promise being delivered that we forget there first has to be a conception. Before there i