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Beverly Aikins on faith, recovery and the next right thing
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Beverly Aikins on faith, recovery and the next right thing

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Hillbilly Elegy made her a character in her son's book. Ten years into recovery, the nurse and grandmother is telling it herself—and bringing it to the RMV Freedom Fest on June 26. Last Christmas, everyone in Beverly Aikins' family opened a gift she had made by hand. She had not sewn in years. The machine had been quiet a long time. Somewhere in a decade of getting well, it started running again. She counts that as recovery. Not the headlines. The sewing. Most people who know Aikins know her secondhand. Her son wrote about her addiction in his 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy. He talked about it again at the 2024 Republican convention, where the cameras found her in the crowd. This time the questions are hers to answer. Aikins...
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The Self-Control Weapon: Don’t Pull the Plum Yet
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, Devotional, Top Stories

The Self-Control Weapon: Don’t Pull the Plum Yet

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Little Jack Horner sat in a corner, eating his Christmas pie. He put in his thumb, pulled out a plum, and said, "What a good boy am I." Most of us learned that nursery rhyme as children and never gave it another thought. But through the lens of Jesus, Little Jack Horner tells a familiar story. Jack sees something he wants, reaches for it, takes it, and congratulates himself for getting it. That sounds a lot like us. We live in a world of immediate gratification. We want answers now, comfort now, success now, relief now, and pleasure now. Yet one of the greatest lessons Jesus teaches is that strength is often found in waiting. You see, before Jesus preached a sermon, healed a disease, or called a disciple, the Spirit led hi...
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The reliability weapon: Humpty’s wall
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, Devotional, Top Stories

The reliability weapon: Humpty’s wall

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty together again. Most people think the lesson of Humpty Dumpty is about falling. It isn't. It's about trust. You don't sit on a wall unless you trust the wall. You don't climb high unless you trust what holds you up. And you don't build relationships unless you trust the people around you. The real tragedy wasn't that Humpty fell. Everyone falls. The tragedy was that when he broke apart, nobody knew how to put the pieces back together. That's where the nursery rhyme collides with the teachings of Jesus. The world says reliability is showing up, keeping your promises, being on time, and doing what you sa...
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The generosity weapon: This little light goes to war
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, Devotional, Top Stories

The generosity weapon: This little light goes to war

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice “This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine…” The many weapons in the Kingdom of God seem weak; some include humility, meekness, joy, and now, generosity. None of these sounds like weapons capable of winning a war, yet Jesus teaches that life's battles are won differently than the world imagines. While the world fights with power, pushing, positioning, and preferences, Christ fights with goodwill and character. His weapons transform hearts, heal relationships, and illuminate the goodness within all reality. Generosity is one of the greatest weapons in Jesus’ arsenal, not the generosity the world offers, which is merely giving something away, but Jesus style, where everyone benefits.  Generosity, when properl...
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Colorado Churches Growing Again Driven By Younger Generations
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Approved, Local, The Denver Gazette

Colorado Churches Growing Again Driven By Younger Generations

By Mark Samuelson | The Denver Gazette If churchgoing ever hit a low point in American history, it would have been exactly six years ago, just as the year 2020 arrived. Late the previous year, a widely publicized Pew Research study had documented an ongoing erosion of Christianity and of general religious identity in the U.S. The tally of Americans who identified as Christian, the research said, had fallen to 65% — down 12 points over a single decade. Moreover, those identifying as atheist, agnostic or as “nones” had climbed to 26%. The unconformity widened further by age groups, older to younger. Then COVID-19 arrived, with public health orders by governments effectively closing down places of worship, along with schools, businesses and other public buildings. In Colorado, ...
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The meekness weapon: The hill where warriors win
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Top Stories, Commentary, Devotional, Rocky Mountain Voice

The meekness weapon: The hill where warriors win

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”   ~ Matthew 4:19 ~ We continue with our nursery rhyme, The Itsy Bitsy Spider – Part Two. So, become that child again and remember: The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the waterspout… Most are familiar with the rest. Christianity is more than a fleeting encounter with Jesus. It means following Him into a radically different reality that begins on a mountain. Let’s start with our spider. In our last devotion, we discussed climbing and how human nature drives us to reach upward—to grow, to overcome, to become. That small spider keeps climbing because something inside it says, “There’s more up there.” Honestly, that’s also us—we pursue power...
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You’ve been praying all along — you just didn’t know it
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, National, Top Stories

You’ve been praying all along — you just didn’t know it

By Drake Hunter | Rocky Mountain Voice From Billy Graham’s Capitol steps to Ronald Reagan’s national call, the National Day of Prayer reminds us: prayer isn’t just something we do—it’s who we become. Prayer sometimes gets a bad reputation for being formal. Folded hands, bowed heads, the right words in the right order. But walk into any coffee shop on any morning and listen carefully — and you'll hear it everywhere. And once a year, a whole nation does exactly that — together. There's something so inspiring about a nation coming together to pause, even just for a moment, to reflect beyond ourselves. Back in 1952, a young evangelist named Billy Graham stood on the steps of the U.S. Capitol with thousands of people, calling a nation to seek God during uncertain times, m...
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The Confidence Weapon: Climb Again
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, Devotional, Top Stories

The Confidence Weapon: Climb Again

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again…’~ John 3:7 ~ The last few weeks, we watched Jack and Jill go up the hill… and come tumbling down. It was a picture of humility and trust. A reminder that sometimes the first step toward God is the fall that wakes us up. But Jesus doesn’t just leave us at the bottom of the hill. He looks at us—like children—and says, “Now… begin again.” Because the goal is not just to fall and feel sorry…The goal is to become something new. That’s where a different childhood rhyme helps us see what Jesus is teaching: “The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the water spout.Down came the rain and washed the spider out.Out came the sun and dried up all the rain…And the itsy bitsy spider clim...
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The empty pail: The first step up the mountain
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Devotional, Top Stories

The empty pail: The first step up the mountain

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”~ Matthew 4:17 ~ “Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water…” Continuing with last devotion’s rhyme, we often remember the fall… but rarely ask the deeper question: What if they made it to the top… but never learned how to draw from the well? Because in the life of following Jesus, the issue is not whether we’ve started the climb—it’s whether we are being formed and becoming who we need to be as we go to do what God needs us to do. The first step toward becoming the person or leader you aspire to be is recognizing the mountain climb—the mountain of life—beginning with the one who gives life, now and always. When Jesus began His ministry, He didn’t start with a detaile...
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Stomping out stage 4 brain cancer: A Colorado story of grapes, grace and glioblastoma
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Stomping out stage 4 brain cancer: A Colorado story of grapes, grace and glioblastoma

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Sometimes the greatest miracle isn’t healing—it’s a night off. For families walking the road of stage 4 glioblastoma brain cancer, even a few hours of rest can feel like a return to life. The weight is constant. The uncertainty is relentless. And caregiving, while sacred, can quietly drain every ounce of strength a person has. Recently, my wife Sherrie and I experienced something we hadn’t felt in a long time—margin. Breathing room. A moment to simply be human again. And it came through a story that could only be described as providential. Where the story began What makes this story remarkable is how it started—not through a formal organization or a well-funded campaign, but through a simple blog. When I began writ...
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