Movie Time

If they celebrate Christmas, there are three things that everyone has an opinion on: best side dish, real tree vs fake tree, and best Christmas movie. There have been maybe a million Christmas movies made since they first started filming them. Some are almost universally loved like Elf or It’s a Wonderful Life. Some are controversial about their inclusion like Gremlins or Die Hard. Some are a little dark or crude or even scary—some of my favorites that I won’t list, haha.

Whatever your favorite might be, I would venture a guess that watching it is more about the warmth and nostalgia it brings up rather than its quality as a film. Memories like these can be activated any time of the year, but around the holidays we’ve built in so many patterns trying to recreate things we loved about the past. Our memories can be a weird thing to contend with because things change as we think about the past.

This is why the fish grandpa caught keeps getting a little bit bigger. And as we think about the good times, I hope they do keep getting better and better. In Luke 2, after the birth of Jesus, the whole sky lit up! And the shepherds came to investigate what was going on.

Luke 2:16-19 says, “16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.17 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.

By this point Mary had been through it! She’d been visited by an angel, carried a child, traveled far from home, and given birth in less-than-ideal conditions. But when she reached the end of one journey (and the beginning of another) she treasured all of them and thought about all that had happened.

Take some time this Christmas to ponder the movie of your life, and all the things that brought you to where you are.

Mixed Emotions

2 Corinthians 13:11-14

11 Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. 12 Greet one another with a holy kiss. 13 All the saints greet you.

14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

This is the very end of Paul’s second letter to the church in Corinth and he ends it the way he ends most of his letters. He gives a rapid-fire list of instructions and encouragement and a final blessing. His directives here seem tailor-made for the way we hope to act in the Christmas season.

We rejoice at the blessing we have received by Jesus entering the world. We find a way to put aside our differences and focus on the things we agree on and celebrate time together. You want to live in peace and share the love of God with the people around you. Until the people around you cut you off. They take the last parking spot. At the ONE store you really needed to go to. You got too busy and waited until the last minute to do your shopping!

December can feel like such a push and pull. You’re happy, you’re frustrated. You’re excited, you’re anxious. If we’re not careful we bounce around like a pinball between all these emotions until suddenly it’s January. This year can be different if we really try.

In Paul’s words we can aim for restoration. This doesn’t mean you’ll always hit your target; it does mean that you are moving in the right direction. Remember, forgiveness is a gift that you first give to yourself. There are people and situations that do not deserve to be forgiven, but we worship a God of peace who wants to help you let go of things that hurt you.

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God be with you.

The Sojourner

Once when I was in college, my friend and I were grabbing lunch at a diner, and we may have been served by the oldest waitress in the world. She had a stark-white beehive hairdo and no time for any foolishness. When my friend took ten seconds too long after she came to take our order she just walked away. Didn’t say I’ll give you a minute, didn’t offer any suggestions, just sighed, and walked away. Now the diner could get away with this because the food was cheap and absolutely amazing, but it’s always funny when you have an experience that doesn’t go the way you expect it to go.

When we go to a restaurant, we can imagine being the king/queen of the castle. “Fetch me more libations. Bring me my dinner.” Usually, the world keeps us humble, but when we go out, we get to pretend we have a butler and a chef and someone else does the dishes! I don’t think any of us actually have those thoughts, unless you go to Medieval Times but it’s nice when someone else does the hard work of making you feel comfortable and cared for.

As we come out of Thanksgiving and head into Christmas this is a feeling many of enjoy as you spend time with family and friends. But what about the other people in your orbit? Do you make the space or make the effort to ensure other people feel this way. I’m sure there is someone who would love an invitation from you so they can feel comfortable and cared for.

We do this because God first did it for us. Deuteronomy 10: 18-20 reminds us, “18 He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving them food and clothing. 19 Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. 20 You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear.”

I hope you know the joy of being taken in when you feel lost. If you have the opportunity, do your best to give that gift to other people this year. Because it truly is a gift you give yourself.

The Mashed Potatoes

As we head into Thanksgiving tomorrow, I’m sure many of us are living in the anxiety and anticipation of food, family, football, and maybe some fighting. There is nothing like the holidays to stir up the stuff you keep well buried the rest of the year. It always comes out when we are trying to live out traditions “the right way.”

I’m willing to bet that there will be a few clashes this weekend. The sweet potatoes need marshmallows NOT pralines. I want to make grandma’s special recipe this year. HOW CAN YOU SUGGEST WE HAVE HAM INSTEAD OF TURKEY YOU MONSTER?! Objectively, we would all probably tell someone else that these arguments don’t matter in the long run; enjoy the time you have with your family. But in the moment, it can feel like a hill you’re willing to die on.

What if, this year, we decided to set our egos fully to the side and set our heart on enjoying the time we have together? For some, this is the hardest request I could ever make. Around the holidays we can chase those feelings of the good old days, and we want other people to live it out the way we remember it (whether that’s how it actually was or not).

God has called us to pursue wisdom and put our own pride aside. Proverbs 16:16-19 says:
16 How much better to get wisdom than gold!
To get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver.
17 The highway of the upright turns aside from evil;|
whoever guards his way preserves his life.
18 Pride goes before destruction,
and a haughty spirit before a fall.
19 It is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor
than to divide the spoil with the proud.

Find the freedom in letting go. Find the freedom in trusting God to handle what is truly important. Find the freedom to let other people’s mistakes belong to them.

Afternoon Slump

You know that feeling when you have an hour or two left at work, but all you want to do is call it a day? “Nothing can really get done in the time I have left! I should just go home.” But you’re a responsible employee so you just stay. That’s how this whole time of year can feel. There are parties, and celebration, and maybe presents in the very near future, but we’re not there yet. We still have time to get stuff done.

The desire to hide out and hibernate can be strong, but no time of year should go to waste, especially now. Paul says in Colossians 3:22-24, “obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for people,24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”

It's easy to slack off when your boss is a jerk, or you experience no difference between working hard and phoning it in. It is in times like this that we need to remember our ultimate purpose is to further the kingdom of God. We should be doing work as though we are working for the Lord. We all know people who do work just to be seen or people-pleasers who kiss-up to the boss to get ahead. God knows all our inmost thoughts and secrets so empty praise won’t impress him.

It is hard to stay motivated in a workplace when it feels like you’re just trading your time for money. But Christians have been called to work toward something much bigger than just getting ahead of our neighbors. We work for a heavenly reward. We work for a boss that truly loves us and wants the best for our lives. Put your efforts toward the things that matter. Don’t just wait out the end of the day.

Growing Up

Are you the person now, you thought you’d be when you were younger? I would guess for most of us the answer is probably no. For some that “no” is said with a sigh of relief because you were headed down a dangerous or destructive path. For some that “no” is said with dash of disappointment because you think about what might have been. Either way you are the you who is here right now.

When we are very young and dreaming about the future, we don’t know that we need to factor in bills, and taxes, and how much it costs to eat. We idealistically think about how we are going to solve all the problems of the world. One song I like describes this time in our lives perfectly, “We were so young and brilliantly naïve.” We had the solutions, just not the means to implement them.

Whether you are glad your path changed, sad about how things turned out, or feel like you’ve been crushing life since the day you were born, you have not reached the end. The you that is here right now is the you that God wants to use. We must keep our focus on growing and moving forward. Paul says it this way:

Ephesians 4:14-16

14 … we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Once we have our legs under us in life, we can set to the work of sharing God’s love with the people around us. All of us can serve a purpose in the community. All of us can be used by God no matter how we thought life was going to turn out.

Bad Days

A while back I was at a concert and heard the lead singer drop some great truth. The band wasn’t particularly Christian, and the point of the night was not to expose anyone to a reason for hope. But when you let the world come at you through the lens of your faith you find Truth from the most unlikely sources.

During their set he was doing a cool rock star move. He was letting the final notes/noise of a song ring out and was holding his guitar over his head. Then it slipped out of his hand falling to the stage, bounced, and fell another 3-4 feet off the stage onto the floor. Once he grabbed it and got back to the mic he gave this sage advice, “If you’re playing a show, don’t drop your guitar off the stage.”

He played it off well, but he was clearly frustrated and fighting with a guitar that looked to have damaged the cord input the rest of the show. And before their last song he said this, “I am so grateful for my life and what I get to do. For the past 30+ years I have had the opportunity to live my dreams and travel the world with my friends. I know that people wish that they could have my life, but I’m having a really bad day. It’s not just trying to play with a broken guitar, I’m just having an all-around bad day. But what you need to know and what I need to know, is that YOU ARE ALLOWED TO DO BOTH. Tomorrow is a new day! Another chance to live with gratitude. Don’t let the bad days win.”

As Christians it is easy to confuse our calling towards gratitude with a calling for appearing perfect. Unfortunately, only God is perfect, and things we do and call perfect can be putting on a front for other people. As we live in a world where gratitude and hard times can live hand-in-hand we must lean into these words from Paul, 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

9 But [God] said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Little ones to Him belong;
They are weak, but He is strong.
Yes, Jesus loves me!

Busy Busy

The Old Testament book of Haggai is 2 chapters, 38 verses, long and recounts one of the minor prophet’s missions to get people to help rebuild the temple. This message could have been delivered one of two ways. For many of us, we’d go directly to guilt and shame. “How dare you work on other things! Why isn’t the house of God built first?!” I’m sure we’ve all seen (and hopefully left) leaders who try to manage with guilt and shame.

Haggai, however, gives a message of positivity and encouragement. Haggai challenges the people: the reason they were not being blessed was because they had not rebuilt the Lord's temple. Instead, they had focused on rebuilding their own homes and fields. This is classic modern American Christian, “I just don’t feel like I’m hearing any encouragement from God,” while in the same breath, “I don’t think I’ve studied my Bible in over a year.”

Haggai says this in 1:5-7, “5 Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. 6 You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. 7 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways.”

The world went and got itself in a big hurry. We are all so busy. We move frantically from appointment, to errand, to soccer practice, to whatever’s next without ever considering why. It’s just what we do. Especially in the Northeast, if they weren’t complaining/bragging about being so busy some people wouldn’t have anything to talk about.

Haggai’s challenge for the people and for us is simply to reexamine our motives and priorities. Sure there are things that need to get done in the day to day, but it is much more important to put your focus on things that will last.

Haggai 1:13 …I am with you declares the LORD.

Selah

Hey, do you remember that Saturday it didn’t rain? It’s getting harder to picture it. I saw one statistic that stated it rained 13 of the last 17 weekends. Tons of stuff has been cancelled, rescheduled, or awkwardly rearranged. It has been disruptive. Yet we also easily forget that at the beginning of the year we were showing signs of drought.

There is turmoil across the world, it seems like we hear about new wars every day. Discussing it with friends and neighbors can feel like navigating a mine field as we try to boil massively multifaceted global issues into coherent opinions that won’t damage relationships. It feels like we can’t win.

And this doesn’t even tap into the struggles in our personal lives. It can get so deeply sad and overwhelming. We want things to be simple, but we live in world of complexity. As we near the tipping point of despair we must take action so we don’t dive right over that edge. We must seek out the reminder that God is in control and will make all things right in the end. Psalm 46 tells us:

1 God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy habitation of the Most High.
5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved;
God will help her when morning dawns.
6 The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;
he utters his voice, the earth melts.
7 The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah
8 Come, behold the works of the Lord,
how he has brought desolations on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
he breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
he burns the chariots with fire.
10 “Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!”
11 The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

Defined by Decision

Colossians 3:15-17 “15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

This passage paints a beautiful picture of the Christian life. If peace and love rule in our hearts, then life might just feel a little easier. If we spent our time dwelling in the word of Christ, our wisdom would grow, and we would be better people for it. As I say all this, I know there is someone thinking, “this all sounds wonderful, but who has the time.”

And while I’ve said those exact words myself, I also know this largely comes down to the choices we make. The biggest threat to our lives and happiness is found in choosing what is good now over something great later. Our lives are all about balance and we must decide how we use the time we have. More time at work or more time with my family. Do I go to the gym or do I go watch TV. Do I cook a healthy dinner or just order in.

Life is defined by decisions. And we may burn bridges we don’t have time to mend. We go left when we know we should go right, and it takes our focus away from the peace and love that could rule our hearts. Often, it’s only in the aftermath that we realize what is happening, and we need to do the hard work of finding our way back and getting our hearts right.

Thankfully, there is always a way back. As people of Christ let us do our best to have everything we do be in the name of Jesus.

Stop for People

I had some friends who were missionaries, and after about 6 years in the field they came back for a few months to visit family, friends, and supporting churches. When they arrived at the airport, they got their rental car and started driving. As they’re leaving the airport, they stop at a crosswalk to let people go by, and from the back seat their eleven-year-old asks, in an exasperated voice, “Why do we need to stop for people?!”

For the last six years of her life, no one ever stopped for people. The rule of the road was to just keep going. It’s an example of how something you consider normal or the “right way” to do something could be completely wrong in a different context. We have been given the freedom to choose how we act in the various environments we find ourselves. We can demand our own way, or we can adapt.

Paul in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 says this about the choices we make with our freedom, “19 Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.

Out of love we don’t need to demand our way of doing things. We can become the type of person someone else needs us to be. We can stop for people.

Enough

Proverbs 30:7-9

7 Two things I ask of you;

deny them not to me before I die:

8 Remove far from me falsehood and lying;

give me neither poverty nor riches;

feed me with the food that is needful for me,

9 lest I be full and deny you

and say, “Who is the Lord?”

When you work, is your aim to do just enough or to have a surplus? In thinking about your house or your paycheck, how often is the question, “how do I make this just a little bigger?” There is an innate desire to be okay and comfortable. Obviously, we want all our needs met, but it is interesting how our needs seem to grow and always slightly outpace our means.

It is so easy to get in that habit of wanting more and more or trying to achieve unmitigated growth. Regrettably, this desire for more stuff replaces our desire for more God. If left unchecked, we start living by our own devices. We leave faith behind and live fully relying on ourselves.

It always starts out with the best intentions. Our goal is always to reach an “end,” but then that end gets lost in the complexity of finding more means, more ways to reach that end. Ultimately, having more becomes the only goal you have. When we do this, we inevitably crash and burnout. An unachievable goal is no goal at all. It is just endless work.

No one can survive this way on their own. We need the help of our community, and we need to look towards God as the author of our lives. We need to remove the falsehood of self-reliance from our hearts. We need to pray for God to show us what enough really is.

We are tempted to try and have it all, but we know the truth that more of one thing means less of something else. More time working, means less time with your family. More time serving money, means less time serving God.

You must decide what is most important and learn to live into what is truly enough.

Just Try

There’s a great quote I ran across the other day that said, “Maybe life isn't about avoiding the bruises. Maybe it's about collecting the scars to prove we showed up for it." If we are honest no one really enjoys getting either one, but if you get so focused on never getting hurt or being uncomfortable you may never fully live into the person you have been called to be.

Philippians 2:12-13 tells us, “12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” Paul is writing to people to say you don’t need me to hold your hand through every choice that is to come your way. You know the truth, now do the hard part of applying it to your life.

We love our soft cushy comfortable spots. They’re filled only with the people we know and love. We think that if the world was perfect, we’d never have to leave. Unfortunately, you have been given a higher calling than to just sit in your safe and manicured world. If you claim the name of Christ then you have knowledge that could save others if you only shared it.

Jesus made it pretty plain in Acts 1:8, “…you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” That sounds a lot more like a call to action than a call to hide. Don’t get me wrong it will be hard, but muscles only get stronger when you work them.

We fear judgment. We fear rejection. We fear being called crazy. But if we can’t sacrifice a small piece of our reputation for something that is so much greater, how will we ever grow? Try it. Invite someone to church. Broach the subject of what God means to you.

Getting a no is just as important as getting a yes because it means you did the hard work of showing up.

Who’s Voice

In his book Decoded, rapper Jay-Z said this about growing up, “We were kids without fathers…so we found our fathers on wax and on the streets and in history, and in a way, that was a gift. We got to pick and choose the ancestors who would inspire the world we were going to make for ourselves…Our fathers were gone…but we took their old records and used them to build something fresh.”

As a kid, you learn from a huge number of sources: Parents, schools, friends, TV/internet. It’s only when we reach adulthood that we can start parsing out the difference between good lessons and bad ones. I knew someone who didn’t get their first pair of glasses until they were 16, but they never knew anything was wrong. They just thought not being able to see far away was normal. Everyone sees like this.

As we reach a certain level of maturity, we can start to choose the voices we listen to and the people who will have influence in our lives. And it is in this choosing that we determine the course of our lives. No matter whether you grew up without a father like Jay-Z or had a pretty great one, you have a perfect heavenly Father who wants to spend time with you.

In Revelation 20:19-22 he says to us, “19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to them and eat with them, and they with me. 21 The one who conquers, I will grant them to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 You who have an ear, let them hear what the Spirit says.”

God wants to be our perfect heavenly Father. Caring for us. Leading us in the life that we are building. I hope you can hear the voice calling for you.

Neighborly

In Luke 10 a lawyer is asking Jesus some questions and comes to that famous question, “who is my neighbor.” From this question Jesus tells the story of the good Samaritan. Briefly: A traveler is robbed and left for dead. One person who is supposed to be “good” passes by and does nothing. A second person who is supposed to be “better” than the first guy passes by and does nothing. And finally, a third person who is supposed to be “bad” (the Samaritan) passes by and does what is right.

Luke 10:33-35, “33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion.34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him.35 And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’

We usually look at this story as Jesus showing us that everyone is our neighbor. And that’s true, but I also want you to see that while the Samaritan allowed his day to be interrupted it didn’t throw off his journey. After he got the injured traveler to safety the Samaritan continued his journey. He had places to be.

There will be times in your life that will be interrupted and need to you to make a choice. In those times I pray you make the right decision even if it isn’t necessarily convenient. Sometimes we will take on a huge burden. For example, the Samaritan could have stayed with the traveler until they were fully nursed back to health. Then there will be times that you just need to help someone get one step closer to safety, and let someone else take over.

Who is your neighbor? How can you help them, even if it’s just one step forward?

IKEA

I had the opportunity to assemble a bunch of Ikea furniture shelving recently. While I find this a somewhat enjoyable task, I know other people find the prospect daunting and scary. I knew of one pastor who included assembling a bookshelf as part of the curriculum for his pre-marital counseling. He said it brought a lot of stuff to the surface to know what the couple needed to talk about. I think it was an excuse to get people to build his bookshelves.

In theory, it should be easy. The pieces are all there. The hardware is all there. The instructions are laid out step-by-step. And the whole process is ruled by the national symbol of Sweden: the tiny Allen wrench. Part A goes into part B. Oops grabbed the wrong screw. Which piece is next? Here we go, oh I think it’s upside down. Maybe? WHY AREN’T THESE HOLES LINING UP!?! Followed by a series of long increasingly frustrated sighs and salty language.

Eventually it all works out and your stack of boards becomes a beloved piece of furniture. I think Ikea furniture can be a metaphor for our own sanctification (growing in holiness). We start out easy by dwelling on the words of Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Then our resolve gets tested, and we need to remind ourselves of who we are called to be. Then face a time when you fall flat on your face, and it can feel like you’re starting over from scratch. And we remember the next verse, Galatians 2:21 “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.”

We get better by allowing God to work in us and through us. We can’t follow enough rules but we can hand the tools over to God and allow him to build us into what he would have us become.

Back to School

I was talking to a parent recently about the trajectory of summer. Kids get out of school in June, and everyone is happy to be together as the schedule can relax a bit. July comes around and maybe you take a vacation or a trip to the shore. By August though, everyone starts getting a little itchy and by the end of the month school can’t start soon enough. If they announced that summer break was going to extend another month there might be riots in the street.

Whether you are a kid, or an adult, comfort is found as you settle back into a known routine. You know what to expect. You know what you’re supposed to do. The best thing about routines is that you can add them to your daily life whenever you choose. You can choose to work out, but to get stronger you need to do it regularly. You can desire to speak another language, but you need to study it regularly. You can grow in your faith, but you need to work on it regularly.

Spending time in the Word has never been easier. You can read or listen to the Bible from your phone. You can find Johnny Cash reading the entire New Testament on YouTube. You have access to sermons and lessons from the greatest pastors and Bible scholars that have ever lived. You just need to add them as a part of your routine. Spending time growing closer to the God that loves you, could become part of your day.

In Matthew 4, the devil is tempting Jesus to throw away his heavenly calling for the trappings of the world. Jesus had been fasting for a long time, so naturally the devil tells him, ““If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” This is something Jesus could have easily done, and we would justify it as okay because he was hungry.

But Jesus replies in verse 4, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” It’s easy to miss how much better our lives are when we spend time in the word of God or with the community of Christ.

As you head into the fall, what routines do you need to add to your life? What small steps can you take to feed your hunger for something greater than bread?

Resilience

Resilience is the ability to bounce back after something goes wrong. In our modern world, it is celebrated as one of the most important qualities needed to get ahead in life. “That actor/singer/inventor, everyone told them no, but they were too resilient to quit and pushed until they achieved their dream.” It’s a story we hear all the time. It’s an encouragement that we should never let anything hold us back!

Unfortunately, the lesson of resilience has been skewed. Once it taught us that we can still be successful after a setback. But many people have turned it to mean that nothing should ever affect me. Or more colloquially, “never let them see you sweat.” It makes me think of the story of Job. We don’t have room to get into the full story; suffice it to say he lost everything: home, livestock, children, even his health.

As he’s going through it, Job is visited by his three friends. Job 2:11-13, “Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place…They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him. And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes…And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.”

If you know the whole story, then you know these three friends eventually ruined this gesture of kindness by giving speeches about why this is all happening and that it might be Job’s fault. But they started off with the right spirit. They saw that their friend was suffering and came to comfort him. They sat with him for seven days listening to Job and weeping with him.

Sometimes that’s exactly what we need. Sometimes you need to let your friends know what you’re going through and allow them to spend time with you. God never called you to be the picture of resilience, you don’t need to immediately bounce up from every set back. The events of your life will affect you.

And if you don’t need to be comforted right now, I bet there’s someone who could use some comforting by you. Find them. Sit with them.

Do They Exist?

In John 15, Jesus is teaching his disciples and letting them know that he would soon be separated from them as he is moving towards the cross. In some of his clearest teaching about who he is, Jesus gives them instructions on what is going to happen and what they should do next. He is preparing them to do the ministry he interrupted their lives to do. Above all, he is reminding them (and us) to remember the call he has put on our lives, to remember the relationship we have with him, and most of all to show the love we have received to the people around us.

Jesus in John 15:12-16 says, 12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends…15 No longer do I call you servants,…but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide…”

To love others as Christ has loved us is a monumental task. There is no such thing as a half measure with Christ’s love. Jesus loves people wholly and completely without conditions or qualifications.

Jesus asks one question, “do they exist?” If the answer is yes, then they are loved. While this comes easy for Jesus it takes effort for us to live this way on our part. Drive in New Jersey for 30 minutes and you’re bound to encounter someone that you kinda start hating. However, that is just the person you need to start doing the work of love.

You don’t need to lay down your life for them right away. But maybe you could think of any reason you could tolerate them as they to drive that way. Maybe there’s a medical emergency, maybe there’s a bathroom emergency, whatever can move your lifelong ire into a more equitable disdain, or maybe even into forgiveness. And this is just one small area where else are there people in your life that are hard to love?

We are called to be small versions of Christ for people to experience. How can we do that in small ways to the friends and strangers we encounter?

Grandma

Psalm 112:1-6

    Praise the Lord!
Blessed is the one who fears the Lord,
    who greatly delights in God’s commandments!
2 Their offspring will be mighty in the land;
    the generation of the upright will be blessed.
3 Wealth and riches are in their house,
    and their righteousness endures forever.
4 Light dawns in the darkness for the upright;
    they are gracious, merciful, and righteous.
5 It is well with the one who deals generously and lends;
    who conducts their affairs with justice.
6 For the righteous will never be moved;
    they will be remembered forever.

When I read this passage, it makes me think of my Grandmother. Mother of three, grandmother to seven, she raised her family through good times and the hard times to grow in their faith. Sure, Grandpa was the preacher, but if you’ve known anyone in ministry, then you know his ministry wasn’t possible without her ministry.  And though it may have been quieter than someone standing in a pulpit, its reach may have gone even further.

When you have children, you spend your life teaching them what is important. Either by explicitly explaining your values and why you follow certain traditions (“we are learning to speak this language because it connects us to our family heritage”). Or implicitly through your actions (you never watched cricket growing up so it’s not an important sport to you). Good habits, bad habits, the way you talk, the way you treat people: your kids are experts at sussing out what is actually important to you.

From my grandmother, all her children learned about the importance of being active in their faith. Even now, when everyone’s gotten old but me, they still pass on the lessons she taught to them. They’re all involved in passing on the faith to their children, their friends, and their neighbors. They were taught the importance and value of sacrifice.

I pray that we can all have a legacy like my grandma. The people around you can see what you hold to be most important. Let us do our best to keep our focus where it needs to be. Let our legacies be remembered forever.