Starting Right

Five minutes can change the feel of your whole day. We open Proverbs 4:23—“Guard your heart, for it determines the course of your life”—and translate ancient wisdom into practical steps you can use before breakfast. Rather than promising instant transformation, we walk through why Scripture calls for active choices: seeking God’s kingdom, renewing the mind, forgiving, loving neighbors, and obeying the Holy Spirit. That’s not theory—it’s a roadmap for when words cut, habits press in, and courage feels thin.

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A single reminder can flip a whole day. We open with the Lionheart himself—King Richard—who turns from retreat to rally when an advisor calls him back to his name. That story becomes a mirror for our own mornings, when pressures mount and identity blurs under noise, deadlines, and late-night what-ifs. Instead of pumping up willpower, we reach for something sturdier: Scripture that names who we are and whose we are.
We walk through four anchors that reframe worth and worry. 1 John 3:1 grounds us as children of God—belonging that does not wobble with public opinion or person...

What if your pain isn’t a punishment? We open the day with a frank, compassionate look at chronic illness, bad advice, and the stubborn goodness of God. JohnnyMac guest-hosts and shares a personal story shaped by misdiagnosis, unanswered prayers, and the quiet courage it takes to keep showing up. Along the way, we confront spiritual clichés that pile shame onto suffering and turn to two anchor texts—John 9 and 2 Corinthians 12—that recast the narrative from blame to grace.
You’ll hear how harmful counsel can wound the already wounded, why a theology of storms matters more than prom...

What if the most powerful thing you do today is ask for a hand—or offer one? We step into Luke 5 where a packed house, a paralyzed friend, and four relentless roof‑breakers collide with the authority and compassion of Jesus. The moment begins with teaching and tension, then jolts the room when Jesus speaks first to the heart: “Your sins are forgiven.” When critics push back, healing walks out the front door carrying a mat that once carried him, and the crowd can only say, “We’ve seen remarkable things today.”

You’ll walk away with a clear, human p...

A flying slipper, a stunned crowd, and a roar of laughter—sometimes the moment we dread most becomes the moment everyone remembers with joy. We share a short, vivid story from a fourth-grade stage where a costume mishap flipped embarrassment into delight, and we draw out the deeper promise that setbacks can be turning points when we meet them with honesty and courage. What begins as a funny memory opens into a practical guide for navigating your own “oh no” moments with a steadier heart.
Whether that looks like laughter, apology, or patience, you’ll feel ready to move wit...

A wolf-dog in a chicken yard isn’t just a scene from Jack London; it’s a snapshot of our mornings when impulse shows up early and loud. We opened with White Fang’s raid and the hard reset that followed, where Whedon Scott’s steady voice became stronger than instinct. That picture let us unpack a practical path from desire to discernment: how repeated listening forms new reflexes, and how obedience feels less like a leash and more like a reliable map when distractions strut across our day.
Across the conversation, we keep it grounded and actionable. We talk...

A blinking light isn’t always the real problem. We open with the haunting lesson of Eastern Airlines Flight 401, where a 75-cent bulb stole the crew’s attention and the plane slipped out of safe hands. That same pattern plays out in our calendars and conversations: the urgent blinks, our focus drifts, and the truly important gets crowded out.
    From there we pivot to a timeless moment in Luke 10 with Mary and Martha. One chooses presence, the other productivity; both matter, but order matters more. We talk through how “fly the plane” becomes a daily rule: keep control of the ess...

What if the future God promises is not a vague cloud but a home so rich with joy that your fears of “missing out” finally go quiet? We open the morning with a bold claim: heaven is not a downgrade from your best dreams but their fulfillment beyond measure. Using a child’s story about a small bird in a rusty cage carried into a vast, sunlit forest, we reframe our anxieties about eternity and connect them to the deep human ache for meaning, presence, and belonging.
Along the way, we name the honest questions many of us carry...

What if setting one small boundary today could unlock clarity, creativity, and peace? We open the morning with gratitude for God’s goodness and an honest look at our role in shaping the tone of the day. Instead of waiting for instant change, we explore the power of a simple, practical commitment: fasting from criticism for just one day and watching what opens in its place.
Second Timothy reminds us that fear and timidity are not our inheritance, while Galatians points to self-control as a mark of maturity. From there we look at Catherine Marshall’s remarkable experiment—a sing...

The morning can feel rushed, noisy, and full of what-ifs—so we pressed pause for five minutes to reframe the week with a story, a song, and a promise you can hold. We start with a vivid memory from Chuck Swindoll’s seminary days: a sweltering Dallas apartment, a quiet decision to keep a need between two people and God, and an unexpected phone call that delivered a nearly new air conditioner right when it was needed most. It’s ordinary and miraculous in the same breath—a living snapshot of provision that doesn’t always arrive on our schedule b...

What if your past isn’t a chain but a doorway? We open the morning by challenging the quiet belief that God only works through polished people, then walk through story after story that proves the opposite. From Moses’ stutter and short fuse to David’s failures, from Jonah’s flight to Jeremiah’s despair, we trace a thread of grace running through deeply human lives—and show how that same grace is at work in ours right now.
If you’ve felt unworthy, ineffective, or forgotten, you’ll find a bracing reminder that God doesn’t require a clean resume to...

We explore how trusting God changes stress into strength and turns daily uncertainty into peace. Through five concise principles, we reframe hard choices, repeated lessons, and the path toward a fuller life with practical faith.
“Thank you for joining us today, and I invite you to join us every Monday to Friday, right here at Starting Right with Danny Mac”

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When you’re new, hungry to prove yourself, and surrounded by people who seem miles ahead, it’s easy to mistake other people’s timelines for your own. We dig into that pressure and offer a grounded way forward: anchor your work in identity, pay careful attention to what’s actually yours to do, and watch satisfaction grow without the noise of constant comparison.
We start with a familiar story—an eager professional in month six, bright and hardworking, yet weighed down by not knowing everything yet. From there, we widen the lens: different roles and seasons make surface-le...

A prophet argues with a donkey and the animal makes the better point. That’s the door into a story about motives, warnings, and how we handle the moments that block our momentum. We unpack Balaam’s path from hired curser to reluctant blesser, why the road closed three times, and what it means when grace shows up as resistance rather than green lights.
We start with the tension at the heart of Numbers 22: a king’s lucrative offer, a prophet who can hear God but wants the payday, and a permission that comes with a leash—go, but only...

A simple hymn can change the tone of a Monday, especially when its story holds more twists than we expect. We open with a warm welcome to a five-minute reset and then dive into the surprising path of Oh How I Love Jesus: verses penned by Frederick Whitfield in 1855 joined to a chorus that wandered across 19th-century America, attaching to hymns like Amazing Grace before finally finding its home. That union created a song so many of us know by heart, yet few know how it came to be.
   We share five rarely-sung Whitfield stanzas that expand the hy...

Some moments don’t change the facts—they change how we face them. We return to May 2020, when a small business owner named Bill sat in a dark living room, weighed down by closed doors, maxed credit, and a future he couldn’t predict. Then his son came downstairs, wrapped small arms around his dad, and whispered a sentence that reset the room: “We just talked to Jesus and we know everything’s going to be alright.”
    From there, we walk through the real pressures small shop owners carried at the height of COVID: shuttered storefronts, uneven supplier responses, and...

Ever notice how fast we judge when our view is smudged? We open with a short story about “dirty” laundry and a newlywed kitchen, then reveal the twist that reframes the whole morning: the laundry wasn’t the problem—the window was. From there, we unpack a timeless teaching from Jesus about specks, logs, and the measure we use, and we translate it into everyday choices that reduce friction and raise the quality of our relationships.
By the end, you’ll have a simple framework: clean the window first, check your measure, and choose your hills wisely. When we see peo...

A blind beggar. A noisy crowd. One clear cry for mercy that refuses to be silenced. We walk through the story of Bartimaeus in Mark 10 and explore how a focused plea, grounded in who Jesus is, can cut through doubt, pressure, and the familiar pull to stay small. What begins as a story of daily despair outside the gate of Jericho becomes a portrait of stubborn hope that leads to immediate healing and a new direction.
We unpack why Bartimaeus matters for anyone feeling stuck or unheard. He didn’t have influence or proof of a guaranteed outcome—he h...

The loudest moments in life rarely carry the clearest answers. We start the day by exploring how guidance often arrives as a whisper—and why leaning in can change our choices, our mood, and our direction. Through a vivid story of a stressed young father and a wise preacher, we see how dropping our volume helps us hear what actually matters. Then we step into Elijah’s journey at Mount Horeb, where wind, earthquake, and fire demand attention but fail to deliver the message he needs, and a gentle whisper reframes everything.

I share how this ancient patt...

Sometimes hope walks in with work boots on. We open the morning with a story that moved us deeply: TobyMac’s journey through back-to-back losses, the ache that followed, and the surprising spark he found in Psalm 98—“God rolled up His sleeves.” That single image shifted grief into grounded expectation and inspired a song that refuses to flinch in the dark.
Along the way, we talk about faith without the fine print—why Toby and Amanda said they follow God out of love, not leverage—and what it looks like to hold trust when timing hurts. The heartbeat here is “Hel...

When prayers feel like they vanish into the ceiling and headlines read like Habakkuk’s laments, where do we find a steady center? We open the ancient conversation between a weary prophet and a faithful God to uncover a surprising path forward: honest lament, patient trust, and a deliberate choice to rejoice even when nothing seems to change.
We walk through Habakkuk’s sharp questions about violence, corruption, and spiritual drift, then sit with God’s unsettling yet comforting reply: the promise is sure, even if it seems slow. From there, we trace the prophet’s turning point—a brave de...

What do we do when charm and charisma outshine character? We dive into the gripping story of Absalom—David’s favored son—whose beauty, ambition, and circle of flattering friends set the stage for betrayal, civil war, and a collapse that reads like a leadership manual in reverse. This isn’t just palace intrigue; it’s a timeless map of how unchecked ego, bad advice, and sentimental blindness can wreck a home, a team, or a nation.
The heart of this conversation is practical and personal. We talk about guarding against vanity with clear values, choosing advisers who tell hard...

At a major American university football game an overconfident player makes a great wide-open catch of a long throw and proceeds to jog lazily to the end zone. Just before crossing the goal line he drops ball to the turf thinking he had already scored. The crowd is cheering, the player is dancing, and the scoreboard stays silent. That clip is more than a blooper; it’s a parable about pride, perception, and the gap between what we think we’ve achieved and what actually counts.
As you start your day choose to let grace set your mirror, let...

What if the most important thing you give your family isn’t comfort or success, but a name they can carry with pride? We dive into a gripping real-life story from Chicago’s past—Easy Eddie, the high-powered lawyer who protected Al Capone—only to watch him choose truth over safety for the sake of his son’s future. That turning point reframes the question we all face: where does a harmless indulgence end and a soul-shaping compromise begin?
The culture often insists that truth is flexible and right and wrong are relative; we challenge that idea with a clear, b...

Start the day with a melody that carries more than nostalgia. We take you inside MercyMe’s cabin session of “Nothing But The Blood” and explore why a familiar hymn still speaks with startling clarity about forgiveness, redemption, and the costly love that makes us whole. From the band’s log-cabin retreat near Nashville to the quiet power of a stripped-back performance, the story behind the song opens a path to begin the morning centered and grounded.

 Whether you’re sipping coffee or rushing to work, this five-minute reflection offers more than a soundtrack—it offers a way to carry...

A woodshop can teach more about hope than a self-help book. We open with a simple story about a friend who scours lumber yards for warped offcuts and busted pallets, then turns them into game cabinets, shelves, and gifts that surprise everyone who sees them. The trick isn’t magic tools; it’s trained eyes, patient hands, and a habit of planing past the ugly top layer until the clean grain shows through. That moment in the shop becomes a living parable for anyone who feels like the discard pile—bent by setbacks, cut down by criticism, or priced out by...

Ever feel like you’ve got “nothing left” except a little bit of energy, a small skill, or one last idea? We take a fresh look at the story of the widow and her oil from 2 Kings 4 and pull out simple, actionable lessons for mornings when life feels thin. In just a few minutes, we move from the heaviness of scarcity to the relief of practical hope by asking two clear questions: what do you have, and how much room have you made for what you’re asking for?



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Some survival stories jolt the senses; others change the way you see an ordinary day. We dive into the remarkable life of Violet Jessup—the stewardess who endured the Olympic collision, escaped the Titanic after helping panicked passengers, and survived the rapid sinking of the hospital ship Britannic during World War I. Her calm resolve, a split-second leap from a lifeboat dragged toward deadly propellers, and an unshakable belief that she was “looked after” invite a larger conversation about courage, providence, and the quiet shape of protection.
If resilience has ever felt like a lonely climb, let this story...

Five minutes can flip the day. We open with a fresh cup of hope and a song that refuses to wait for perfect conditions: “Worship Through It” by Tasha Leighton and Chris Brown. From the first lyric—calling God the God of the impossible—we move into a story where faith doesn’t hide from fear; it leads the charge. King Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20 faces a wall of enemies and does the unthinkable: he puts singers in front of soldiers. That moment isn’t theater; it’s theology in motion, trusting God’s character before the outcome shows up.
Expect pract...

A new year only feels new if we choose a new way to move through it. We open with a fresh frame for growth: stop chasing flawlessness and aim for steady progress that actually sticks. Rather than measuring yourself by perfect outcomes, we talk about maturing in character, letting grace carry the load you’ve been trying to lift alone, and finding practical next steps when motivation fades. You’ll hear simple ways to filter inputs, reset your focus, and trade reactivity for a grounded, hopeful posture that endures.
If you’re ready to start the year with peace...

New beginnings feel different when hope has a backbone. As we count down the final hours of the year, we talk about how to leave behind what weighs us down and look for the “new thing” God is already growing, even in wilderness places. Drawing from Isaiah 43, we set a hopeful frame for the year ahead and then walk through three life verses that have become a daily compass.
If this encourages you, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review so more people can find the show. What life verse will you carr...

Five minutes can change the texture of a day, especially when those minutes turn us from grudges to grace. We open with gratitude for God’s goodness—family, work, everyday blessings—and then focus on the most life-giving truth we know: through Jesus, our past, present, and future are forgiven. That assurance doesn’t make us careless; it makes us honest about our limits and more hungry for a life shaped by love rather than shame.

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A quiet five minutes can change how you face an entire year. We take a fresh look at the Magi in Matthew 2 and find a countercultural posture that still disrupts our habits today: come to worship, open your treasures, and expect nothing in return. Their journey wasn’t about securing favors or status—it was a focused act of devotion that began with bowing and moved toward giving. That simple order challenges the way many of us pray, plan, and pursue God when life gets loud.
I share why this scene struck me again after Christmas and how it r...

The day after Christmas can feel like a crash—quiet rooms, half-taken-down decorations, and leftovers that won’t quit. We lean into that moment and explore why the emotional dip is so common, then chart a saner way forward that doesn’t depend on noise, sales, or the perfect holiday script. Along the way, we revisit the surprising roots of Boxing Day, contrast tradition with today’s shopping frenzy, and unpack how a simple song lyric can name our mood and gently point us toward something sturdier.
Think of this as a five-minute reset for the heart and mind: pa...

The final hours before Christmas can feel like a race you never signed up for. The lists are long, the oven is busy, and the year’s noise is still ringing in your ears. We take a breath together and step into a quieter story, revisiting Luke 2 to remember why Christmas brings joy to all people and how that joy can reshape a hectic day in real time.
Across the conversation, we pull out two practical anchors you can use today. First, lift worship above the noise by thanking God for who he is and what he has gi...

What if the most courageous thing you do today is say yes without seeing the whole path? We dive into the heart of Mary Did You Know and discover how a young woman’s trust became a blueprint for living with faith in uncertain times. Along the way, we trace the song’s journey from Mark Lowry’s lyrics to Buddy Green’s melody and explore why this modern carol still stirs our hearts.  We walk through what scripture says Mary actually knew: the Son of God, the promised Messiah, the one who would save. Then we sit with what she...

A single carol carried poetry into pulpits, courage into public life, and music into the air for the first time. We follow the unlikely journey of O Holy Night from an 1847 commission in France to a midnight mass debut, where a poet who wasn’t especially devout and a composer of Jewish heritage created a hymn that felt both intimate and immense. Its next chapter belongs to John Sullivan Dwight, the translator who championed the third verse’s fierce moral vision—love as law, peace as gospel, chains broken, oppression ending—turning a Christmas song into an abolitionist banner during a...

Six days out from Christmas, we slow the rush and lean into one line that changes everything: “Come and see what God has done.” We share the quiet backstory of the modern carol “Noel,” written by Chris Tomlin, Ed Cash, and Matt Redman, and reflect on why Lauren Daigle’s unforgettable vocal lands with such power. The melody feels ancient for a reason, and the message—good news—offers more than seasonal cheer. It reframes how we think about hope, loss, and the courage to begin again.
You’ll hear encouragement to celebrate family, practice gratitude, and notice the small signs...

The calendar says one week to Christmas, but the list of what you need to do before the 25th might be stressing you out. Between the gift buying, and the meal preperations, Hallmark plots, and the hum of carols, today we pause to ask a sharper question: what sits at the centre of Christmas for you?  We share why this matters when lines get long and tempers run short, and how love redirects the week from performance to presence. Grace threads through every practice—not as a shortcut, but as the strength that lets love outlast hurry.  Let your plan...

Plans can shatter overnight, and the days before Christmas often make the cracks feel wider. We share the story of Joseph—the often overlooked figure whose quiet courage turns scandal into purpose—and explore how his choices offer a practical path for trust when life rewrites the script. From the opening reflection on the season to the heart of Matthew 1, we follow Joseph’s journey from shock to mercy to decisive obedience, and we ask what it looks like to do the same when our own expectations fall apart.
We walk through the pressure of a small-town engagement, the ri...