The Connection Corner

Faith that Wears Stretchy Pants

Matthew 11:28 — Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Let me tell you something. Being tired doesn’t mean you’re failing. It means you’re fighting. You’ve been carrying more than what most people can see.

I believe that everything that we have been through has got us exhausted. Some of you have been bracing yourselves for years—through disappointments, through family strain. You’ve been holding it all together with a decent attitude and coffee.

But you’re just tired.

Here’s the thing. It’s ok to rest and unplug. Jesus took naps.

He slept in boats. He stepped away from the crowd. He withdrew to pray to His Father. Even from the beginning, God modeled rhythms of rest.

So, if the Son of God needed a reset, I promise you, you do too.

Sometimes we treat faith like it’s a treadmill—if we just run a little faster, pray a little louder, try a little harder, we’ll finally catch up. But I’m starting to think faith is less about pushing than it is learning to lean on God.

Because let’s be honest, sometimes renewal looks like reheating leftovers, wearing stretchy pants, canceling plans, and saying no. Instead of soaring with eagles, it looks like saying, “Jesus, I’ve got nothing left. You’re up.”

Because renewal comes through rest.

When you come to Him weary, you’re not letting Him down—you’re finally letting Him carry you. He says, “Come to me and I will give you rest.”

Just come.

Bring your overextended calendar, the parenting guilt, and the smile you’re pinning on and give it to God.

Because guess what? He’s not disappointed in you at all. He’s not looking down from heaven saying, “Wow… dry shampoo again?”

He is saying, “Come to me. I’ll carry what you can’t.”

A MOMENT TO REFLECT

Where in your life do you feel the most exhausted right now—physically, emotionally, or spiritually?
When you’re overwhelmed, do you tend to push harder or pull away? Why?
What makes it difficult for you to truly rest and bring your burdens to Jesus?
What would it look like for you to “come to Him” in a real, practical way today?
Is there something you’ve been carrying that God is inviting you to release?
How can you create space this week for real rest—not just distraction, but renewal?

April 25, 2026/by Tammi Arender

Heaven Doesn’t Count Like That

Bri Dunn, Daily Devotional

Galatians 6:9 — So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.

You want to know what’ll make you just about crazy?

Eating clean. Working out hard and passing on dessert. Then stepping on the scale and seeing the exact same number blinking back at you.

Ask me how I know.

Oh my goodness, I just about lost it.

I had just finished a four-week program. Nothing extreme, but for me? It was disciplined. I showed up. I did the reps, and I made better choices.

But I didn’t lose a single pound.

I stood there in my bathroom staring down at that scale, feeling the discouragement creep in.

See? It’s not working. Why are you even trying?

But instead of spiraling, I tried something different. I downloaded one of those body-scan apps—you know, the kind where you awkwardly prop your phone up and hope nobody walks in. It lets you know how your proportions are actually doing.

When the results came in, they were better than I thought. Although I didn’t lose any weight, I had lost some inches.

Wow, how often do we do that? Measuring our lives one way but never go back and look a little deeper. We do this with our souls too.

We pray and think, “Nothing’s changing.” We try again and still stumble and think, Welp, back to square one.

But what if Heaven measures differently than we do? What if that is part of your character still forming or your roots stretching a little deeper?

I would have been super discouraged thinking that all my hard work was for nothing, and maybe that’s you. Maybe there’s been something that on the outside, it doesn’t look like anything has happened, and you want to give up.

Don’t.

Scripture reminds us, “Don’t grow tired of doing good. In due season there will be a harvest if you don’t give up.”

It’s so true. The harvest you hoped for isn’t always immediate. Sometimes the soil is doing its work underground, beneath the surface and beyond the numbers. God is doing something in you.

If you stay steady, if you keep sowing, and if you refuse to grow tired of doing what’s right, progress will come. You will see the harvest!

And it will be worth the wait.

A MOMENT TO REFLECT

Where in your life do you feel like you’re putting in effort but not seeing results yet?
Are you measuring progress by what’s visible, or are you trusting that God may be working beneath the surface?
What is one area where you’re tempted to give up—but sense God asking you to stay faithful?
How might your perspective change if you believed growth was happening even when you can’t see it?
What would it look like today to “not grow tired of doing good” in a specific situation you’re facing?

April 24, 2026/by Bri Dunn

The Road Paved with Redemption

Daily Devotional, Denise Pagano

Romans 8:28 — And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

You drive on it every day, and you don’t even think about it.

You know the stretch I mean—that strip of road under your tires on the way to work, to class, or to the gym. It just looks like asphalt. Flat. Ordinary. Nothing worth noticing.

But here’s something pretty wild.

In places not far from us, like Dallas, Texas, they’re doing something different. Engineers are taking melted-down plastic—the same single-use bags and water bottles we toss without a second thought—and blending it into asphalt. Eight to ten percent of the binding agent is replaced with what most people would call trash.

In one single mile of road, they’ve used about four and a half tons of plastic waste. Four and a half tons.

That’s not aesthetic. That’s not trending. That’s not main character energy.

That’s redemption.

Here’s the crazy part.

When they mix that melted plastic in, it actually makes the road stronger. They’re more resilient in extreme heat, and better under heavy traffic.

Kind of like rebar inside concrete—reinforcing it from the inside out. So the thing that looked useless, the thing headed for a landfill, is now holding up thousands of cars every day.

And I can’t help but think… that sounds like you and me.

We’ve been labeled a lot of things. Too sensitive. Too anxious. Too distracted. Too much.

What if the very things the world calls weakness are the things God wants to use as reinforcement? The heartbreak you didn’t ask for. The anxiety you didn’t power through. The mistakes you wish you could delete—like a post from 2018. Been there.

What if that isn’t landfill material? What if, in the hands of God, it becomes structure?

What if the pressure, the heat, the plastic pieces of your story you would rather throw away are the very ingredients God is working together into something unexpectedly good—something stronger than it would have been without them? Not just the polished parts. All of it.

Maybe you needed to hear that today.

You are not waste. You are not throwaway. You are not defined by what tried to break you.

You’re being built into something sturdier than you realize. And somewhere down the road—literally and spiritually—someone else is going to travel safely because of what God reinforced in you.

A MOMENT TO REFLECT

What part of your story have you been tempted to see as “waste” instead of something God can redeem?
How does knowing that God can use all things—not just the good parts—change the way you view your past?
Where might God be strengthening you right now through pressure, hardship, or discomfort?
Is there a situation in your life that feels meaningless or frustrating? How could God be working through it for good?
Who in your life might one day benefit from the strength God is building in you right now?

April 23, 2026/by Denise Pagano