your purpose

Tuesday Watchdog: You’re Not Promised Tomorrow

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A legendary actor, Sam Neill, is here one day and gone the next. A prominent politician/U.S. Senator, Lindsey Graham, is taken from us overnight.

Deadly flash floods in Missouri have taken lives and forced hundreds of emergency rescues. Families woke up expecting an ordinary day… and by nightfall, everything had changed. (The Washington Post)

That’s the uncomfortable, unfortunate reality in this current dark and broken world.

Our culture acts like we’re guaranteed another summer, another birthday, another chance to text, “Sorry,” or finally start asking life’s biggest questions. The Bible says otherwise.

“Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.” — Proverbs 27:1 (KJV)

Life is incredibly fragile. Your next breath isn’t something you earned—it’s a gift. The question isn’t, “How long will I live?” The wake-up call is, “What am I living for?”

God is real—Jesus really conquered death—and the smartest thing you’ll ever do isn’t building the perfect career or chasing viral fame. It’s getting to know the One who holds your life in His hands.

So, seize the day. Seize every day, starting today.

Read Proverbs 27. You’ll be glad you did. And you’ll be better able to understand that today is all you have—and even that is a little iffy. Trust God.

Your Life And What Comes After

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My book, Your Life And What Comes After: Plugging Into God’s Forever Plan Now, is now available at amazon.com in paperback and e-book formats.

This book isn’t written for scholars or theologians. It’s written for ordinary people who are curious about life, about God, and about what the Bible actually says about the future.

You don’t need a religious background or special training to follow along. The goal here is simple: to walk through the Bible’s big story in clear, everyday language.

The book is divided into three parts.
Part One explains the big picture of God’s plan and how people throughout the Bible connected their lives to that plan.
Part Two explores what the Bible says about heaven, hell, the end of the world, and what comes after this life.
Part Three focuses on the most practical question of all: how do you and I plug into God’s forever plan right now in everyday life?

The paperback version is $10.99 and the e-book is $2.99.

Tuesday Watchdog: Stop Following Your Heart

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One of the most popular pieces of advice in modern culture is: “Follow your heart.”

Yeah, it looks awesome on a coffee mug, sounds inspiring, and makes a great movie quote. In fact, last night I watched a kids’ movie with my grandkids in which “Just follow your heart” was a major theme.

The problem—and what prompted me to write this post—is that it’s terrible life advice, because your heart changes its mind every five minutes.

One day your heart wants to study. The next day it wants to binge‑watch videos until 2 a.m. One day it wants a healthy relationship. The next day it wants to text your ex. Your heart is a terrible GPS.

The Bible doesn’t teach us to follow our hearts. It warns us about them.

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” — Jeremiah 17:9

Our emotions and feelings, while not always bad, are also not always reliable guides to truth. If you always follow your heart, you’ll end up wherever your latest desire takes you.

If you follow the objective truth that God sets forth in His Word, you’ll end up where you actually need to go, because God wants what’s best for each of us, and He’s been around a lot longer and knows a lot more than our fickle little hearts.

Adam and Eve followed their hearts right into a catastrophe. Rather than obeying God’s instruction not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they thought they knew better than God what was wrong and what was right. Big mistake.

God didn’t create you to be ruled by your impulses. He created you to know Him, walk in wisdom, and build a life on something stronger than feelings and more reliable than “Just follow your heart.”

Feelings make great passengers. They make terrible drivers.

So What?

The next time you’re making a decision, ask yourself: “Am I doing this because it’s true and right, or just because it’s what I feel right now?” Then choose truth over impulse.

God’s Big Picture In Clear, Everyday Language

Rick TryonLeave a comment

If you’re looking for a straightforward explanation of God’s grand plan and your role in it, my book Your Life and What Comes After might be just right for you.

This book isn’t written for scholars or theologians. It’s written for ordinary people who are curious about life, about God, and about what the Bible actually says about the future.

You don’t need a religious background or special training to follow along. The goal here is simple: to walk through the Bible’s big story in clear, everyday language.

The book is divided into three parts.

Part One explains the big picture of God’s plan and how people throughout the Bible connected their lives to that plan.

Part Two explores what the Bible says about heaven, hell, the end of the world, and what comes after this life.

Part Three focuses on the most practical question of all: how do you and I plug into God’s forever plan right now in everyday life?

Get your copy in paperback or e-book format on Amazon.

Saturday Watchdog Alert: Nihilism, Atheism, Churchianity

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Three recent headlines point to the same uncomfortable truth.

Atheism is quietly growing in America. – Medium

Researchers are tracking a rise in nihilistic, grievance-driven extremism among young people. – American University

And new data shows America’s religious landscape is shifting rapidly in conflicting directions. – WiFiTalents

At first glance, these stories seem unrelated. They’re not.

When people lose confidence that life has a Creator, a purpose, and a moral foundation, they don’t stop searching for meaning. They simply start looking elsewhere. Some chase politics. Some chase pleasure. Some chase outrage. And some eventually conclude that nothing really matters at all.

That’s the dark promise of nihilism: if there is no ultimate truth, there is no ultimate purpose. But the human heart was never built to live on a diet of meaninglessness. It’s like trying to run a pickup truck on maple syrup. Creative? Yes. Effective? Not so much.

Scripture offers a very different vision:

“For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.” (Romans 11:36)

The Bible says your life is not an accident. You were created on purpose, for a purpose, by a God who knows your name. The growing confusion around us isn’t ultimately a political crisis or a cultural crisis. It’s a meaning crisis.

Take ten minutes today and write down your answer to this question: What am I living for? Then compare your answer to Romans 11:36 and see where the two differ.

Make sure you’re not putting maple syrup in your tank.