01.23.2021 - week 89
a (hopefully helpful and not self-indulgent) confession
i have a lot of important decisions to make. completing a cross country move and building a team for a new church and trying to choose furnishings for a new house and building a new budget and trying to be useful but not inflammatory in such a weird time in our world, i seem to encounter endless intersections where the right choice isn’t obvious. i often feel like i would be happy to do precisely what god wants me to do, but what that precisely is can feel elusive.
in trying to find wise answers to a specific question, i was talking to an old friend this week (and by that i mean i have known him for a while and he’s in his mid-70s) and he said something interesting,
‘luke, there’s no better way to re-build your confidence than to strap in to the harness of the holy spirit and go where he leads’
in continuing the quest for right answers, i was talking to another old friend this week (and by that i mean i have known him my whole life and he’s in his 60’s) and he said something interesting
‘luke, it might be that you are overthinking it. you can’t completely figure it out because it requires faith. if it didn’t it would be sin anyway. trust that as your heart is pure, god is leading you the right direction.’
i must confess that in the information age and as part of the most connected generation ever, i often substitute logic and facts for trust in god. i have never been in danger of being a ‘god told me’ person who jumps on faith without rigorous thinking. but often, i have used my ability to research or learn or discuss as a crutch to keep me from having to do things that don’t make sense this side of heaven.
one of the reasons i am so drawn to the proverbs in these days and for a couple years have been reading through the collection month by month is how they give insight that requires faith in its application. most of the proverbs are paradoxes that require careful thought to put into practice, but at the end there is a faith requirement.
should i answer a fool or not?
should i speak or be quiet?
should i give or save?
after careful thought and prayer, i must do the best i can with the information i have and trust god that he will bless my attempts at right action even when decisions aren’t clear. or that even when outcomes aren’t what i wanted them to be that god is honored by my effort and faith.
so ... to boil it down,
if you are waiting for it to make perfect sense before you do it,
- it won’t
- god doesn’t want it to anyway
so just go for it.
KG Korner
(a few wise words from lady kristen macdonald)
In the last few years I’ve been toying with the idea of getting botox and whitening my teeth. Between the stress of life and the amount of coffee I have consumed to survive and possibly thrive after the birth of four children the aging process certainly turned up to a more rapid pace than I have experienced before. And as I bought a new planner for 2021 (yes, I’m old school) it’s impossible to not look at the pages on the calendar and wonder what will I look like after another 365 days?
The frugal side of me says you don’t need it and certainly it could be looked at as frivolous living but the holy spirit is pricking my heart to think more about what my heart is going to look like in 365 days. The truth is botox isn’t a bad thing, but if you are depending on it as something that defines you as young and happy well, I think you’ll be disappointed. If all we had to live for was this world the exterior would matter a whole lot more but as we read in the Old Testament we see that God has a whole different metric for what he identifies as ‘what he’s looking for!’
As I was doing preschool with Fefe today I went over 1 Samuel 16:7, to give some context Samuel has been told by the Lord to get the next king and the Lord has given him specific direction. As he is going through the sons of Jesse he is taking a look at each one of them and as he looked at the first son he thought that this must be who the Lord wanted as the next king and yet in that same moment the Lord spoke to him, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.” Although we can put our best foot forward and spend copious amounts of money and time on our exterior I wonder if there’s any contest as to what is getting more attention. We see again in the New Testament that no matter how great the exterior looks that Matthew 12:34 says that “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” Therefore, I think we are kidding ourselves when we think we can hide what’s going on underneath the surface.
My heart check came loud and clear last week when we had a new washer & dryer installed. I was pretty stoked because I had been using the stackable kind that are fantastic but for a family of six it makes doing laundry a rather lengthy process. Little did I know that once the cycle was finished I heard the sound of rushing water. If you’ve ever been in this position I wouldn’t say it’s your favorite sound you’ve ever heard. I ran to find water everywhere and soon I could identify the spots in the ceiling just below the laundry room revealing that water was places it shouldn’t be. Within a half hour I was on the phone with customer service and I had a decision to make. I had read God’s Word that morning, I know what it says and that my words are an indicator of where my heart is. I could take all of my frustrations out on her or I could give them to the Lord and know that it’s just a ceiling and it can be fixed and that any words I express negatively toward her will only bring temporary relief of my frustration which has nothing to do with her.
Chances are your washer is just fine and didn’t leak this week but where were you when you were confronted with your words and how they revealed your heart toward someone God loves this week? Are you spending more time worried about your exterior and what that’s communicating to those around you or on your heart that God sees and cares about so much more?
proverb of the week
proverbs 21:3 to do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the lord than sacrifice.
god loves our declarations of love, our worship, our social media posts, our hard work at learning doctrine, but he loves our obedience even more. in these strange times we live in, we must discipline ourselves to not settle for partial fidelity to God as adequate.
notice that it isn’t that sacrifice (the outward symbol of goodness and right relationship with god) is a bad thing, it’s just that it isn’t better than the best thing.
it isn’t enough to be anti-racist, we must be sexually pure as well.
it isn’t enough to be anti-abortion, we must be pro-life on earth.
it isn’t enough to parrot our political perspectives on economics or immigration, we must be generous with our own possessions and towards sojourners.
regardless of generation, there is a push towards doing good with words but ignoring the full extent of the actions required. that’s why the theme of this proverb comes up all over the bible. feeling guilty isn’t necessarily the antidote, but tempering our rhetoric so that it comes into line with our track record might be.
leadership thought
billion dollar loser: the epic rise + spectacular fall of adam neumann and wework - reeves wiedman
this book has a rich symbolism. it dissects maybe the most impressive rise + fall of the 2010’s tech boom. adam neumann aggressively raised capital to build a giant business with no actual differentiating capacity or technology. it was flexible sub-leased office space with a clever vibe + attitude. yet, the societal desire for riches and success and grandeur allowed the company to pretend it was something else and optimize things for a few at the expense of many. the anger so many people feel about the ‘rigged system’ designed to reward a few at the expense of many is realized in this book. if you like business memoir type books … this one was riveting.
book review
billion dollar loser: the epic rise + spectacular fall of adam neumann and wework - reeves wiedman
this book has a rich symbolism. it dissects maybe the most impressive rise + fall of the 2010’s tech boom. adam neumann aggressively raised capital to build a giant business with no actual differentiating capacity or technology. it was flexible sub-leased office space with a clever vibe + attitude. yet, the societal desire for riches and success and grandeur allowed the company to pretend it was something else and optimize things for a few at the expense of many. the anger so many people feel about the ‘rigged system’ designed to reward a few at the expense of many is realized in this book. if you like business memoir type books … this one was riveting.
super christian guy
stuff for you to click on
i am having so much fun with good news weekly video edition … check out episode 2
my favorite song of this new year so is the hauntingly honest, ‘jesus i have my doubts’ by jon foreman … if you are feeling a little uncertain, you aren’t alone :)