Daily Devotions for Busy Lives

The Lasting Impact of a Mentor Who Believed in You

Ronnie Herrera knocked on a stranger's door in the Dominican Republic looking for a mentor. What followed reached villages that had never met the man who started it. In this episode, discover what 2 Timothy 2:2 says about the lasting impact of one person's investment in another. Ronnie Herrera grew up in the Dominican Republic without his father. His dad had left for the United States when Ronnie was 8, looking for work. Over the years that followed, the family lost everything to Hurricane George, and his father suffered a brain blood clot from the accumulated stress. Ronnie was a teenager, and he felt hopeless. He came to faith at a Christian school and felt pulled toward mission work. He and a friend heard about an American missionary couple living nearby, so one day they walked up to that door and knocked. The couple who answered, Miguel and Kristina Santiago, had been praying for months for God to send them young people to disciple. What happened next stretched across decades and into villages that had never met the man who started it. Most people who are doing something meaningful can trace it back to someone who saw something in them before they could see it themselves. This episode is about that person and that investment. There's a man in his nineties named Dr. Hugh Huguley who probably doesn't fully know what he did for me. He was a Bible college professor and I was going through some of the toughest stretches of my life. He believed in me when I wasn't sure I believed in myself. His smile and his encouraging spirit kept me going more than he probably realizes. We still talk on the phone from time to time. I'm still standing in part because of what he put in. Paul describes this chain in 2 Timothy 2:2. What was put into him, he put into Timothy. What Timothy received, he was responsible for passing to others. The investment was always meant to multiply. Seth Barnes spent one month with Miguel Santiago in Peru in 2002. Miguel took what he received and invested it in Ronnie. Ronnie took it into his village. His village took it into the next one. By the time Ronnie was done, there were communities full of people whose lives had been shaped by what Seth put into one man for 30 days. Seth had never met most of them. That's the math of mentorship. The original investor rarely sees the full return. BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU'LL DISCOVER: * How one man's month-long investment in Peru reached villages he never visited, and what that reveals about the return on mentorship * What Paul's instruction to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:2 says about the responsibility that comes with being invested in * 2 concrete challenges: one for the person who needs to find someone to invest in, and one for the person who needs to call the mentor who shaped them One investment in one person can become more than you'll ever see. Share This Episode: https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/245 [https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/245] Need Prayer? Leave me a voicemail: https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/voicemail [https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/voicemail] Want to keep these devotions coming? Please consider supporting this podcast. https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/support/ [https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/support/] Rate and Review https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/reviews/new/ [https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/reviews/new/] Connect with Bart Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/dailydevotionsforbusyliveshttps://www.facebook.com/dailydevotionsforbusylives [https://www.facebook.com/dailydevotionsforbusylives] Website: https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com [https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com] Feeling spiritually drained? Start here. Download your free copy of my eBook Making Time for Jesus https://daily-devotions-for-busy-lives.kit.com/b33aa395d1here [https://daily-devotions-for-busy-lives.kit.com/b33aa395d1]. Mentioned in this episode: Join Our Private Facebook Community If you're looking for a place to connect with other Daily Devotions listeners and pray for each other, I'd love for you to join our private Facebook community group. Come find us at https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/group

How to Handle Jealousy When Someone Else Is Blessed

When someone else gets what you've been praying for, something in you twists. In this episode, discover what Asaph did with his envy, and why bringing it to God finds a different home than burying it in private. Asaph had one of the most important jobs in all of Israel. King David appointed him as chief worship leader, he led the tabernacle choir, and he composed psalms that are still in your Bible today. By every visible measure, this was a man whose faith was settled. And then he watched the wrong people prosper. His feet started to slip. He wrote about it in Psalm 73, plainly and without softening it. He'd been serving God faithfully while the people around him who did none of that were healthy and without a care, doing fine by every outward measure. He envied them. He tried to figure out why God would let it go on, and he described that work as almost more than he could stand. Most of us know that feeling, even if we won't say it out loud. We call it frustration, or we say we're processing. But when someone else gets the job or the recognition we've been praying for, something in us twists. We know exactly what it is. Envy is one of those things most people bury rather than bring to God. We figure we should have outgrown it, or that it'll pass if we wait long enough. So it goes underground, where it starts affecting things in ways we don't connect back to the original feeling. Asaph took it somewhere else. He walked into the sanctuary. And what he found there changed everything. This episode includes something personal. I've spent most of my ministry watching other speakers and wishing I had what they had: the ones who grab an audience from the first sentence, who have a story for everything told so well you forget the room you're sitting in. I've felt envy toward those speakers. What I've had to come back to is that God made me the way He did for reasons He understands better than I do. My job is to admit what I feel and develop what's already in my hands. Through Asaph's story and Psalm 73, this episode makes the case that envy brought to God finds a different home than envy buried in private. Asaph got something better than an answer. He got a perspective so complete that the question stopped mattering the way it had. He came out and wrote: "Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you." BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU'LL DISCOVER: * Why burying envy produces no perspective, and what bringing it to God does * What Asaph found in the sanctuary that changed his entire view of the prosperity he'd been watching * One concrete prayer you can bring to God today about what you're envying and what's underneath it Envy brought to God finds a different home than envy buried in private. Share This Episode: https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/244 [https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/244] Need Prayer? Leave me a voicemail: https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/voicemail [https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/voicemail] Want to keep these devotions coming? Please consider supporting this podcast. https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/support/ [https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/support/] Rate and Review https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/reviews/new/ [https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/reviews/new/] Connect with Bart Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/dailydevotionsforbusyliveshttps://www.facebook.com/dailydevotionsforbusylives [https://www.facebook.com/dailydevotionsforbusylives] Website: https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com [https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com] Feeling spiritually drained? Start here. Download your free copy of my eBook Making Time for Jesus https://daily-devotions-for-busy-lives.kit.com/b33aa395d1here [https://daily-devotions-for-busy-lives.kit.com/b33aa395d1]. Mentioned in this episode: Join Our Private Facebook Community If you're looking for a place to connect with other Daily Devotions listeners and pray for each other, I'd love for you to join our private Facebook community group. Come find us at https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/group

What to Do When the Church Has Wounded You

Every year, 2.7 million Americans stop going to church. Most walked away from something that wounded them. In this episode, discover what God says to the person whose church let them down, and where the road back actually starts. Natalie Runion grew up as a pastor's daughter in Cincinnati and spent her whole life in the church. Then she watched her family get pushed out of the congregation her father served. She spent decades after that wrestling with whether God and the church were the same thing, or whether she could pull them apart. She's not alone. Every year, roughly 2.7 million Americans stop going to church. The researchers who study why keep finding the same pattern: something happened inside a place that was supposed to be safe, and it never got addressed. Most people don't make a dramatic exit. They just stop showing up, one Sunday at a time, until the seat they used to occupy sits empty and eventually no one mentions it. Church hurt is a wound that comes from a place that was supposed to be safe. The pain makes sense. The anger makes sense, and so does the exhaustion with organized religion. This episode takes those feelings seriously before it asks anything of the person carrying them. Over the years I've met far too many people who have been hurt by the church. Some were judged without being loved. Others watched a leader they trusted collapse under the weight of a moral failure, and the collapse took their faith in the institution with it. A few found their way back. Too many never did. I know that behind each of those stories is a person who walked through a door looking for God and came out carrying a wound instead. Psalm 27:10 was written about the people closest to you, the ones most supposed to be safe, who weren't. What David says is that even in that worst-case abandonment, God stays. He holds you close. The people who hurt you in the church were supposed to represent Him. When they wounded you instead, He stayed. What God thinks of you stands apart from what those people did to you. Through Natalie's story and Psalm 27:10, this episode makes the case that you get to keep God and leave behind what broken people did. The faith doesn't have to go with the institution. The road back starts with God, before it goes anywhere else. Also in this episode: a free resource called How to Keep Your Faith When the Church Lets You Down, available at dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/church [https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/church]. BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU'LL DISCOVER: * Why church hurt spreads beyond the original wound and into how a person thinks about God and community * What Psalm 27:10 says to the person whose church did the abandoning that a parent or leader was supposed to do * One concrete step you can take toward God this week, before you think about the institution He was there before the wound. He's still there now. Share This Episode: https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/243 [https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/243] Need Prayer? Leave me a voicemail: https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/voicemail [https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/voicemail] Want to keep these devotions coming? Please consider supporting this podcast. https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/support/ [https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/support/] Rate and Review https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/reviews/new/ [https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/reviews/new/] Connect with Bart Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/dailydevotionsforbusyliveshttps://www.facebook.com/dailydevotionsforbusylives [https://www.facebook.com/dailydevotionsforbusylives] Website: https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com [https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com] Feeling spiritually drained? Start here. Download your free copy of my eBook Making Time for Jesus https://daily-devotions-for-busy-lives.kit.com/b33aa395d1here [https://daily-devotions-for-busy-lives.kit.com/b33aa395d1]. Mentioned in this episode: Join Our Private Facebook Community If you're looking for a place to connect with other Daily Devotions listeners and pray for each other, I'd love for you to join our private Facebook community group. Come find us at https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/group

What It Takes to Become a Trustworthy Person

Most of us want to be trusted. But trust is built through small, unspectacular decisions made when no one is watching. In this episode, discover what Luke 16 says about how character is built, and where it actually starts. In 2019, a team of researchers spread out across 40 countries and dropped 17,000 wallets in banks, hotels, and public offices. Each wallet had cash inside, ranging from nothing to about $94 in local currency. Then the researchers went away and waited to see who would call. The finding surprised almost everyone: the more money in the wallet, the more likely the finder was to return it. The finders who stood to gain the most were the ones most likely to give it back. The researchers' conclusion was plain. Most people don't want to see themselves as thieves. When the stakes got high enough, keeping the money meant something about who you are. This episode is about that moment, the private choice nobody sees, and what it's building. Trust is built in the small moments nobody applauds. The commitment you keep when the other person wouldn't have known you'd broken it. The decision you make when you're alone and the easier path is right there. None of those moments feel significant on their own. But they're adding up to something, and the people in your life are paying more attention than you think. When I was starting out in pastoral ministry, a mentor told me there are 2 extremes pastors fall into: those who overwork and wear themselves out, and those who coast and never give the people God called them to serve what those people deserve. He said the path between them was faithfulness: care for people consistently, and never do anything that breaks the trust they've placed in you. Build it through the work nobody applauds. That word stayed with me for decades. Luke 16:10-12 is where Jesus makes this plain. The person faithful with small things will be faithful with large ones. The way you handle what's in front of you when no one's checking is the way you'll handle what matters when everyone is. Trust grows from the accumulated record of small decisions made in private, long before anyone was paying attention. Through the wallet study and Luke 16:10-12, this episode makes the case that becoming a trustworthy person happens through a thousand small choices nobody ever recognizes. The dramatic moment of integrity is a test of what was already there. BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU'LL DISCOVER: * What a 17,000-wallet study across 40 countries reveals about how character is built before the test arrives * What Jesus means in Luke 16:10-12 when He connects faithfulness in small things to being trusted with large ones * One concrete action you can take this week to build trust in the area where you've been letting it slide Every small decision is building something. The person you're becoming, God already sees. Share This Episode: https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/242 [https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/242] Need Prayer? Leave me a voicemail: https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/voicemail [https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/voicemail] Want to keep these devotions coming? Please consider supporting this podcast. https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/support/ [https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/support/] Rate and Review https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/reviews/new/ [https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/reviews/new/] Connect with Bart Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/dailydevotionsforbusyliveshttps://www.facebook.com/dailydevotionsforbusylives [https://www.facebook.com/dailydevotionsforbusylives] Website: https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com [https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com] Feeling spiritually drained? Start here. Download your free copy of my eBook Making Time for Jesus https://daily-devotions-for-busy-lives.kit.com/b33aa395d1here [https://daily-devotions-for-busy-lives.kit.com/b33aa395d1]. Mentioned in this episode: Join Our Private Facebook Community If you're looking for a place to connect with other Daily Devotions listeners and pray for each other, I'd love for you to join our private Facebook community group. Come find us at https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/group

What to Do When Someone You Love Is Suffering

There's a kind of grief that comes from watching someone you love suffer and knowing you can't make it stop. In this episode, discover what Job 2 says about presence, and why staying in the room is often the most loving thing you can do. Heather Tomlinson is a journalist in the UK who was diagnosed with cancer several years ago, went through 2 operations and a round of radiotherapy, and wrote about the experience for Premier Christianity in February 2025. She wrote about the people. For 6 months during her illness, there was at least one bouquet of flowers in her living room from friends. Cards arrived. Texts kept coming. Some people weren't comfortable talking with her about what she was going through, and she said she understood that completely. But the ones who stayed in contact, who sent something even when they didn't know what to say, those were the people she said she could still feel. One radiotherapy staff member stood out. The woman was sensitive to Heather's unease and asked gentle questions about how she was doing. She didn't offer explanations or look for silver linings. She just paid attention. Heather said she could still feel that woman's kindness at the time she wrote the piece. Most of us know the helplessness of loving someone who is suffering and being unable to stop it. You've prayed, you've shown up in every way you know how, and the situation hasn't changed. This episode is for the person in that place. Job 2 records that 3 of Job's closest friends traveled a long way when they heard what had happened to him. When they arrived and saw him, they tore their robes and threw dust on their heads, and sat down on the ground with him for 7 days without saying a word. The text says they saw that his suffering was too great for words. That silence was the most useful thing they ever did for Job. Everything they said afterward made things worse. This episode includes something personal. As I record it, my wife Katharine is in a wheelchair recovering from surgery for a broken leg, with no weight bearing for 2 months. She also lives with an autoimmune disease that brings pain that has no cure. I know the helplessness of loving someone in pain you can't fix. You want to do something. Most of the time there's nothing to do. Through Heather's story and Job 2:11-13, this episode makes the case that presence is the thing. The flowers didn't cure anything. The texts didn't explain anything. What they did was tell Heather she wasn't carrying it alone, and that turned out to matter more than she expected. Being there is useful. Staying is useful. And the one action this episode asks of you is the simplest one: make contact this week, even if you don't know what to say. BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU'LL DISCOVER: * What Job's friends got right for 7 days before they got everything wrong, and what that tells us about being present with someone in pain * Why the pressure to say something useful often gets in the way of the thing the suffering person needs * One concrete action you can take this week for someone you love who is going through something you can't fix Sometimes the most loving thing you can do is stay in the room. That's enough. Share This Episode: https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/241 [https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/241] Need Prayer? Leave me a voicemail: https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/voicemail [https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/voicemail] Want to keep these devotions coming? Please consider supporting this podcast. https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/support/ [https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/support/] Rate and Review https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/reviews/new/ [https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/reviews/new/] Connect with Bart Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/dailydevotionsforbusyliveshttps://www.facebook.com/dailydevotionsforbusylives [https://www.facebook.com/dailydevotionsforbusylives] Website: https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com [https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com] Feeling spiritually drained? Start here. Download your free copy of my eBook Making Time for Jesus https://daily-devotions-for-busy-lives.kit.com/b33aa395d1here [https://daily-devotions-for-busy-lives.kit.com/b33aa395d1]. Mentioned in this episode: Join Our Private Facebook Community If you're looking for a place to connect with other Daily Devotions listeners and pray for each other, I'd love for you to join our private Facebook community group. Come find us at https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/group