The Connection Corner

A daily source of encouragement and inspiration to connect your heart to hope and faith.

What Do You Know, Joe

Daily Devotional, Heart of the Artist, Stories About Songs

Psalms 34:18 — The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.

Joe came from a well-off family. They weren’t uber-rich, mind you. But they were comfortable. He grew up going to decent schools. He wore high-end clothes. He may or may not have worn monogrammed underwear.

When he turned 18, he was going to join the military like his dad, the officer, wanted. But there is a well known saying in the military, “You can’t make chicken salad out of chicken excrement.” We are who we are.

Joe just wasn’t the military type. He was creative, he wrote poetry, for crying out loud. So he went to college instead.

Turns out, the poet was a great student. And he realized something important during college: He liked teaching.

So he got a job as a private tutor. It was a fun gig. He taught the children of a good family, and life was shaping up nicely.

Things got even better when he met a girl. She was lovely. Charming. They became obsessed with each other, constantly annoying all those around them with PDA.

It wasn’t long before they were engaged. Joe was probably happier than he’d ever been. They started planning the wedding.

Only days before the big event, there was an accident. It all happened so fast. His bride-to-be drowned. The accident happened right in front of Joe. His was the last face she saw.

Joe was catatonic. He had PTSD. Night terrors. He couldn’t stop seeing her face. His friends and family didn’t know whether he would ever get over her.

The worst part of it all, he often said, was the loneliness. Loneliness is the worst sensation in the human experience.

He finally left home for a fresh start. He took a job in a rural town with a tiny population. A town so small they the city-limits signs were nailed to the same post.

He lived in the sticks. He joined a church. Mostly, Joe kept to himself. He was a quiet guy. He spent a lot of time alone in nature.

Also, they say he helped people. He was a handy guy, so he was always at someone’s house fixing something. He was usually helping the disabled folks in town, and the shut-ins.

He earned a reputation for being a hard worker. Locals tried to hire him, but he had a personal rule he followed. Joe would only work for those who couldn’t afford to pay. He accepted no money.

You know. Just a really good guy.

Then he met Catherine. They had an instant connection. It was one of those relationships that just worked. They started hanging out a lot. He loved her so deeply it hurt. And just like that, the loneliness was gone.

They got engaged. It was the happy ending of a very long grief process. A ray of sunlight. But shortly before their wedding, Catherine developed pneumonia. He was at her bedside when she died.

After that, Joe was a wreck. They say he threw himself into the work of helping others, if for no other reason, than to combat loneliness.

He wrote poetry, too. Lots of it. Late one night, while writing a letter, he wrote one such poem.

The page was dotted with drops of saltwater, smearing the ink in little puddles. The beginning verse of that poem went:

What a friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and grief to bear
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer!

And anyway, now you know the rest of the story.

— Sean Dietrich

Lyrics:

What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer!

Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged; take it to the Lord in prayer!
Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness; take it to the Lord in prayer!

Are we weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge—take it to the Lord in prayer!
Do thy friends despise, forsake thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In his arms he’ll take and shield thee; Thou wilt find a solace there.

-Joseph M. Scriven, 1855
(Tune by Charles C. Converse, 1868)

August 10, 2025/by David Hall

Jesus Calls Us Back to Life

Daily Devotional, Heart of the Artist, Stories About Songs

John 11:25 — “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.”

Have you ever thought about the fact that the primary way that God chose to reveal Himself to us is through story? I think God chose to do this because He knows us best.

One of my favorite stories comes from the dramatic scene in John where Jesus finds Himself at the tomb of His best friend, Lazarus. By the time Jesus got there, Lazarus had been dead for four days.

In Jewish tradition, the soul would hover over the body for three days, but on the fourth, there would be no more hope for any reversal of the loss. This little cultural detail sets up the story to show Jesus faced with an impossible situation.

Surrounded by weeping family and friends, Jesus calls out…'”Lazarus, come out! Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

This is our story! Apart from Jesus, you and I are without hope, without life, and without promise. No matter how far gone we think we are, we can all still hear the powerful and authoritative voice of Jesus calling out to us.

“(insert your name here), come out! Take off the grave clothes and be free!”

Because, just like Lazarus, He has called us back to life!

— Phil Wickham

LYRICS

How great the chasm that lay between us
How high the mountain I could not climb
In desperation, I turned to heaven
And spoke Your name into the night
Then through the darkness, Your loving kindness
Tore through the shadows of my soul
The work is ﬁnished, the end is written
Jesus Christ, my living hope

Who could imagine so great a mercy?
What heart could fathom such boundless grace?
The God of ages stepped down from glory
To wear my sin and bear my shame
The cross has spoken, I am forgiven
The King of kings calls me His own
Beautiful Savior, I’m Yours forever
Jesus Christ, my living hope

Hallelujah, praise the One who set me free
Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me
You have broken every chain
There’s salvation in Your name
Jesus Christ, my living hope
Hallelujah, praise the One who set me free
Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me
You have broken every chain
There’s salvation in Your name
Jesus Christ, my living hope

Then came the morning that sealed the promise
Your buried body began to breathe
Out of the silence, the Roaring Lion
Declared the grave has no claim on me
Then came the morning that sealed the promise
Your buried body began to breathe
Out of the silence, the Roaring Lion
Declared the grave has no claim on me
Jesus, Yours is the victory, whoa!

Jesus Christ, my living hope
Oh God, You are my living hope

Songwriters: Brian Johnson / Phil Wickham

August 9, 2025/by David Hall

Chain Breaking Honesty

Brenda Price, Daily Devotional

James 5:16 — “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”

I kept checking the boxes.

Read my Bible? Check.

Said my prayers? Check.

And still I felt weighed down. I’d lie in bed at night and wonder, “What is wrong with me?”

I didn’t want to admit it, not even to myself, but the truth was, I was struggling with a sin pattern. It was one that kept cycling back up in my life, and it came with this private shame I could not shake.

And I had gotten good at covering it with “good Christian things.” I thought if I could stay busy enough with God’s stuff maybe it would go away.

But the guilt only grew heavier.

One Thursday, I went to my weekly Celebrate Recovery group really discouraged.

That night, someone read this verse out loud:

James 5:16 “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.”

I had heard that verse before, but I never noticed that last part.

Not just forgiven. Healed.

I knew how to ask God for forgiveness. I believed grace covered me when I failed.

But healing? Until that night, I did not realized that confessing my sin out loud to another human being could bring healing.

After the meeting, I pulled someone aside—someone I trust—and I told her the truth. The real, honest, ugly version of it. I confessed what I had kept buried and asked if they would pray with me.

She didn’t flinch at what I said. She just listened and then prayed.

I can’t explain it in any logical way, but the heaviness lifted. Something unknotted deep inside. I didn’t feel exposed—I felt safe. And free. It was like God used her voice and her prayer to reach a part of my heart that had stayed locked for years.

That’s the power of confession. It’s not a religious ritual. It’s not about earning grace or checking off a spiritual box. It’s about real, biblical healing.

James wasn’t writing theory—he was giving us a map out of the stuck places. Confess to each other. Pray for each other. Be healed.

If you’re exhausted from trying to fix yourself, maybe it’s time to stop hiding and start healing. Tell the truth to someone safe. Invite Jesus into the places you’ve been managing on your own.

You’re already forgiven, but you were made for more than that. You were made to be healed.

And it starts in the light.

August 8, 2025/by Brenda Price