Fast forward to today, where children in a typical high school have instant access to a high-resolution camera and super-fast internet to transmit photos and videos in seconds.

AI (Artificial Intelligence) further adds complexity by allowing even the novice to edit, distort, and manipulate images. Even an innocent photo or video can be transformed into something harmful.

I did some silly, stupid, and dumb things when I was in high school. One that springs to mind was dropping my trousers in class to prove my underwear style. There were maybe 30 students in that class, most of whom probably had no clue it happened.

Such an act in school today would carry a high likelihood of it being captured on video and in seconds spread like wildfire around the student body. Innocent acts of youthful immaturity can quickly be weaponized for teasing, bullying, and manipulation.

I feel so grateful that I grew up mostly at a time when the whole world — especially my friend group — wasn’t capturing everything on a phone.

As I observe these dramatic changes, my commitment to waiting until adulthood to give my children smartphones and social media solidifies.

I want my home to be a refuge for my children where they feel free from peer pressure — a space where they can just be themselves. A place where the whole world isn’t watching, comparing, and tempting them. Somewhere they can leave behind some of the cares of life and be fully present and focused on building real relationships.

From my home in Almost Heaven,

Matthew Royston.

In October 2024, a disagreement commenced between our two oldest children that escalated until one of their pumpkins was launched from the front porch breaking into a dozen pieces on the front yard.

Tears were shed, anger was expressed, consequences were administered and the the family moved on.

But spring came and our family was surprised by the appearance of several pumpkin plants growing in our front yard. The seeds from the broken pumpkin had germinated.

We decided to let them grow — and as they grew our excitement and anticipation grew. We excitedly harvested over a dozen pumpkins that sat on our front porch during the fall season.

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In life, our hearts, hopes and expectations, like pumpkins, get broken. Tears get shed, anger gets expressed, and consequences are experienced. Sometimes all we can see is a broken pumpkin and can’t see how anything good can come from something so obviously and irreparably broken.

When we stand staring at what seems forever broken; God sees a beautiful and exciting future harvest.

From one broken pumpkin, our family gained a dozen! This powerful lesson does not mean that broken things don’t cause us pain — they do.

I have experienced many painful and disappointing broken pumpkins in my life — we all have. Not every smashed pumpkin has led to a harvest — yet. But some have produced some of the most plentiful, joyous, and surprising harvests.

God is the gardener and I continue to trust in his timing as I remember and enjoy the fruits of the harvests that are happening today because of yesterdays broken pumpkins.

From my home in Almost Heaven,

Matthew Royston

As I continue to accept His invitation to follow Him, I’m beginning to suspect that if I continue to follow His footsteps, sooner or later I will find myself being asked to kneel in Gethsemane and also drink a bitter cup.

From my home in Almost Heaven, xo

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Sometimes we can be too focused on wanting Christ to ease our burdens that we forget that his invitation was for us to take His yoke upon us. Can we comprehend the magnitude of what that invitation might mean?

Christ’s burden was descending below all things. Therefore if I am yoked to Christ, surely that must mean I will also descend with Him.

It seems paradoxical that the pathway to finding rest from our burdens is to yoke ourselves with Christ and help carry the burden that caused Him to bleed from every pore.

But He assures us that his yoke is easy and his burden light.

From my home in Almost Heaven, xo

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Having correct expectations of people, places and life itself is necessary if we are to secure contentment, peace and joy in our lives. When I honestly reflect upon the frustrating, angering, disappointing and depressing moments and periods of my life, I realize that some of them have been induced solely by my own erroneous expectations. I do not believe we should never have expectations, but we must be careful to ensure they remain realistic.

From my home in Almost Heaven,

Matthew Royston, xo

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Nothing lasts forever. Everything decays, dies or disappears. The hair that once adorned my head is now gone. The babies I once held are gone and are replaced with the children I love; but these children will slowly disappear into adults, their infancy and childhood never to be retrieved. My body, no matter what I do will decay, become decrepit and die. In the end everything in life will be stripped away. The home I own, the nations I have called home, the woman I love, the friends I have, the body I possess, the money in my bank, the work I do; Everything is impermanent.

So why in this world of obvious impermanence where life itself can end or be forever altered in seconds, do I find myself attempting the cling so tightly to the things of this world. Why do I fear loss when loss is the inevitable outcome of living. I fear losing a child but in a very real sense I have already lost all my babies to the natural process of maturation.

I fear death, yet I die every day. I am no longer a baby or a child. I am no longer a young man. All these versions of me are gone, never to be relived and even the remembrance of them is clouded by inaccurate recollections. The man I am today this very moment as I sit here in West Virginia will not be here tomorrow when I wake up. I am dying. This body I call my own is slowly but surely dying. And when it does it will disappear as though it never was; the elements and particles being absorbed by the earth to become other things.

The idea of ceasing to exist terrifies me. When my body does finally die, what becomes of me? At the core of this is the the question; “Who am I?” Am I just biology and chemistry with a brain; a chance creation in a dark and dangerous universe? I sense deep down that I am more than this, that I am an eternal being, an intelligence that can be neither created nor destroyed, but living in a world of impermanence makes me wonder if I am also impermanent; that death really is the end. And if death is the end then life really does have no meaning.

But my life seems to be imbued with meaning and purpose. Instilled deep somewhere is the feeling that life really does have a purpose. I sense a very real desire to progress toward something or someone that is beyond my natural senses to comprehend.

For these reasons I find myself drawn to Jesus Christ because He seems to be the only one to offer any satisfactory answer to the problem of impermanence and provides the solution to it.

One reason why I believe and hope that the tomb was empty that first Easter morning is because if it is true then the problem of impermanence is solved. The fear of ceasing to exist is vanquished. And whilst it does not provide every answer right now, Christ’s resurrection demonstrates that the death and decay I experience all around me as I sojourn through mortality are not final and will, in the end, be overcome.

If Christ came to show me how to become an eternal being, and if I am serious about following the pathway Jesus Christ walked, then I see no bypass around the garden, the cross, or the tomb. If that is the route Christ had to take then surely I must also enter the garden and kneel, be crucified and lay in a quiet tomb.

As I have sought to better understand the Atonement of Jesus Christ, one conclusion I come to is that His Atonement does not absolve me from having to also descend below all things so that I can experience a fullness of Joy; the majesty and miracle to me is that because Christ went first and did it alone, I do not have to go alone. Because he knows how to do it and has borne the weight; I can choose to yoke myself to Him and not have to walk the pathway to eternal life alone.

The question I find myself asking is do I trust Christ enough to follow Him; to let go peacefully of everything in this world and then step into the quiet garden, to hang on the agonizing cross, and lie in the silent tomb with Him. Am I prepared to say “Thy will be done” and descend below all things yoked with Christ so that on my third day I, like Him, can undo and reverse impermanence, and burst forth from the tomb an immortal, eternal, and everlasting being.

From my home in Almost Heaven,

Matthew, xo

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Hiding the uglier parts of who I am is easy when my life goes untested. Not only is an untested life undesirable when taking the long view, it’s not actually possible. Life is testing. And oh how I have lost my composure during many of my tests. To be capable of composure amid any difficulty, challenge or disappointment is a hallmark of a Christlike character. I suppose that such composure only becomes possible when I allow the uglier parts of my character to be purged from my soul.

From my home in Almost Heaven, xo

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“I love you Cassandra” are words that require almost no effort on my part because they are easy to say. They are, after all, just words.

But love itself is not an easy word or feeling. Love is an act of my will, a conscious choice to put her ahead of myself. To care more about her than myself.

For my words of love to mean anything, to have any value beyond just words, I must sacrifice myself. Give of myself. This in practice is far more difficult than just uttering the words “I love you”

From my home in Almost Heaven.

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Modern life has been optimized for my comfort, which is very nice but all that comfort stands in direct opposition to my development and progress as a child of God. Growth requires, even demands, discomfort.

Believing that great outcomes are the result of doing many small things consistently, these past 3 months I have been embracing discomfort by taking cold showers almost exclusively.

Cold showers alone won’t transform me into the person God intends, but they have been a tool for teaching me how to embrace discomfort more broadly, sacrifice my desire, and develop mental fortitude.

From my home in Almost Heaven.

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From my home in Almost Heaven

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From my home in Almost Heaven

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It is easy, almost human nature, to behold the mote in another’s eye whilst ignoring or even missing the beam in our own eye. Sometimes I can become so fixated on the small imperfections of others that I fail to focus on and fix with Christs help the errors in my own character. I don’t think Christ is asking me to turn a blind eye to all sin, misgiving and imperfection, but to allow his grace to work in both my life as well as theirs.

From my home in Almost Heaven, xo

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Much has been written about personal development. Many programs have been devised and implemented and yet problems persist. If we are to believe the data, loneliness, mental illness, physical health are not trending positively. I think a lot about these things I think our problems continue to worsen is because we’re avoiding the only program that actually works; the program most commonly known as “Christianity”. A world where Christianity is not merely lip service but rather lived out as Christ intended it to be would be a far more peaceful, joyful and loving one.

From my home in Almost Heaven. Xo

Our spirit and bodies are intimately interwoven and interconnected and both influence and impact the other. Therefore it is essential that great care should be taken to nourish and take care of both our spirit and our body. Neglecting one or the other will lead to less than optimal outcomes for our lives now and probably into eternity too.

From my home in Almost Heaven

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Instead of complaining about social injustices or political decisions that impact others on social media, perhaps a better option, and one that may actually make a real difference, would be to put the phone down and instead go out and find people to help. Virtue signaling does nothing for anyone. Complaining about “fairness” also does nothing. On the other hand, finding and helping someone who is struggling because of injustice or policies actually will make a difference, if not on the national level then the individual level. Let us perhaps cheerfully do more of the things that lie in our power to do and cease complaining and criticizing the things that aren’t.

From my home in Almost Heaven, xo

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A short walk down Winchester Avenue in Ashland Kentucky was time well spent. It was the old Presbyterian church that attracted my attention, but as I read the historical marker and learned of Kentucky’s state motto I was reminded of something we seem to be forgetting; “United We Stand, Divided We Fall”. There will always be differences in thought, idea and opinion amongst people in society, but if we are unable or unwilling to seek out and magnify the things that unify us we rather than those that divide us, we ought not be surprised when our great nations are torn apart.

From my home in Almost Heaven, xo

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From my home in Almost Heaven, xo

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From my home in Almost Heaven, xo

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From my home in Almost Heaven, xo

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