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What do cork, tile, sardines, and nativity scenes have in common? They are all points of pride for the country of Portugal! Darla and I recently made our first trip there and we were amazed by their sheer volume of cork production, the handiwork of local tile artisans, and the variety of sardines to choose from. 

The nativity scenes, though, captured my attention most because they’ve always held a special place in my heart. These scenes may not exactly represent what occurred in the stable on the night that Jesus was born, but the symbolism of these men and women from the New Testament, shoulder to shoulder as God’s plan for redeeming humanity unfolds, is beautiful to me. 

And, because I believe that Jesus as a child was a playful and joyful little boy, I do find some fun in moving him from his place next to his mother in the scene to other discreet locations, like laying next to the sheep or climbing onto the back of a camel. It drives my family crazy. But I digress. 

The Bible has many rich layers and it’s simply not possible for everyone who played a role in the story of Christ’s birth to be visually represented in the nativity scene. But two intersecting stories that I wish were included would be those of Simeon and the prophetess Anna. Told immediately following the story of the shepherds in Luke’s Gospel (Luke 2:21-38), Simeon and Anna, advanced in years, had long waited to see God’s promise fulfilled for restoration of Jerusalem. 

According to Jewish law, after 40 days of “purification” (like a maternity leave), mothers and infants would be brought to the temple to be presented to the Lord. Mary and Jesus were no different so she and Joseph went to the temple in Jerusalem to present Jesus to the Lord. 

The passage tells us that Simeon was moved by the Spirit to go to the temple on that particular day and he met baby Jesus. It was not just coincidence and he saw in that moment the big picture of God’s perfect timing as His divine plan continued to unfold. 

Likewise, Anna had been a widow for a long time and gave most of her days to worshiping, fasting, and praying in the temple. She, too, met Jesus on that day and gave thanks to God for His fulfilled promise to redeem Jerusalem.  

We serve a God who is faithful to keep His promises and to bring restoration to our broken world, even when we don’t understand His timing. He has been doing so since the beginning of time, continues to do so in our present day, and will do so into eternity. As you wait on promises from God, do you find yourself asking, “How long, Lord,” as Simeon and Anna likely did? Do you wonder sometimes if God has forgotten you? 

In our waiting, the prophet Isaiah reminds us that God doesn’t grow tired and He gives strength to the weary. Because His power is made perfect in our weakness, when we hope in the Lord He will renew our strength.

So, in this season of joy and contemplation, take inspiration from Simeon and Anna, waiting witnesses of the Christmas story.  Our God keeps His promises in His perfect timing. He is faithful.

Additional reading: Isaiah 40:27-31

Did you know that, long before Franklin Delano Roosevelt chose the fourth Thursday in November for America’s observation of the Thanksgiving holiday, government leaders recognized that their cultures needed to pause for a time of gratitude?

These days haven’t always been celebrated in autumn, but before Abraham Lincoln specified a national day of Thanksgiving in the month of November, and before what we think of as “the first Thanksgiving” during colonial times, we have long set aside time to recognize God’s provision and protection of His people.

In my recent study of the book of Nehemiah, I really enjoyed exploring what appears to be their own feast of Thanksgiving. To understand why this beautiful moment in Scripture is important, cultural context from that time is also important.

In the year 586, the southern remaining kingdom of Judah was conquered by the Babylonians and Israelites were being held in captivity. The city of Jerusalem was falling into ruins: the wall was broken down and the temple was destroyed. The population had scattered.

After about 140 years of this exile, decline, and decay, God led Nehemiah back to Jerusalem. He was a cup bearer to the king, and called by God to rebuild the wall and provide protection for Israel once again.

This brings us to Chapter 8.

Once the Jerusalem wall was rebuilt and physical safety was restored to the city, Nehemiah called the people together for a reading of the Torah. This was a big deal and the entire population gathered. They had a special platform built and brought in people to interpret the reading of the law. Then, for what was likely the first time in their lives, this generation of Israelites heard stories from Genesis through Deuteronomy.

Imagine it! They finally heard the stories of Adam & Eve, of Noah, of Abraham and Sarah, and of the patriarchs from their history. They heard about the Ten Commandments and other laws God had put into place for their flourishing. And in response, the crowd spontaneously broke into weeping, realizing how far they’d fallen from God’s original plan for them.

But Nehemiah, and Ezra the priest, who was reading the law, said to them, “Everybody, stop weeping! You have been blessed with hearing the law! This is not a time for sorrow. This is a time to celebrate that the law has been restored!”

What comes next is so wonderful:

“Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

Then everyone went back to their homes and enjoyed a massive celebration.  

Here today, we can be encouraged to do the same—particularly in sharing with those who have need so they can celebrate, too. Our society lives with an epidemic of loneliness, but God calls us to celebrate with thanksgiving and make sure that everyone is included!

As you gather around your table this Thanksgiving, I’d invite you to take part in an intentional activity: giving thanks to God and others with specificity. While it’s good to go around and share what you’re thankful for, it’s also important to remember that genuine gratitude always has a referent—someone you are thanking. A subtle point, but an important one. If a child at your table says, “I’m thankful for my Nintendo,” what they’re really saying is, “I’m glad I have a Nintendo.” But it’s not true thanks unless they can extend it to acknowledge the source of the gift, like, “I’m thankful that my grandpa bought me this Nintendo.”

It’s so important to personalize our gratitude—for us and for those we are thanking. That will also help us remember the Ultimate Source of all we have, that every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights who never changes (James 1:17).

Even in the most difficult of times, there is so much for us to be thankful for. So let’s take some time this Thanksgiving to enjoy one another and to feast, because the joy of the Lord is our strength.

Additional Reading: Nehemiah 8

The term “calling” is one we use frequently at Malone. We are intentionally counter-cultural by talking with students about more than just job placement; we emphasize the cultivation of lives of purpose and meaning. We are committed to the idea that our students are uniquely gifted by God with a combination of talents, dreams, and abilities, and it’s our goal to equip them for a lifetime of flourishing.

For many of us, it’s rare that our paths to our God-given callings are clear and direct. Most of the time, God leads us on a long and winding road before we can settle into the role He has chosen for us. And along the way, we stumble into other opportunities to learn and grow—maybe as a door-to-door salesperson or call center debt collector, someone who prunes Christmas trees or works on assembly lines for car seats or jars of pickles, or even dresses in Chuck-E-Cheese or Captain Vitamin costumes to perform job duties (these were all pre-Malone job opportunities for our current faculty, by the way). 

This circuitous path creates conflict in our minds as American culture preaches that our identity is found in how we spend our working hours. That’s why we must remember, first and foremost, that our primary call is to follow Christ. To do so, we need to put Him first in everything we do and choose to find our identity in Him rather than in the world.

To follow Christ, we must deny ourselves.

We often think of “taking up our cross” as enduring difficulty and suffering. Indeed, that can be the case. But the emphasis Gospel-writer Matthew makes in Matthew 16, and the Apostle Paul makes in his letters, contrasts a life lived “Christ’s Kingdom First” with a life lived “self first.”

Theologian John Stott says, “There cannot be any following of Christ without a previous forsaking of self.” For the first disciples, this often meant leaving their homes and abandoning their jobs to follow Jesus. That call is for us, too. Global revolutions have begun on the smallest of scales, sometimes including only a few people. Imagine what God could do if our whole church congregations were completely given over to doing God’s will?

To follow Christ, we must find our identity in Him.

If your identity is based on your achievements, talents, and abilities, when these falter or are inadequate, you’ll be tempted to fake it or project yourself to be someone other than who you are. While this isn’t an excuse for laziness or lack of preparation, it’s meant to recognize that, in ourselves, we are not enough. 

But, in Christ, we are more than enough! This is a critical part of grounding our identity. It’s not in who others say we are, but in who God says we are. You are worthy to be loved and appreciated. Not for your potential or your accomplishments, or for who you pretend to be or for who you once were, but for who you are authentically right now.

Maybe you think that if others really knew who you are, they would never accept you. Know that it’s no accident that you are exactly where God has placed you today. You are loved as a child of God more than you could ever imagine!

One thing our culture often gets wrong, though, is that love does not equal unconditional acceptance. 

God loves you more than any human parent could and He wants your best. And that means He does not simply love you and leave you as you are. That’s why all believers are given the Holy Spirit to work in us and bring us to be more like Jesus. This is sanctification.

Society tells us that if we don’t accept a person just the way they are, we don’t really love them. But the Gospel says that God loves people so much He doesn’t want them to stay just the way they are. What kind of coach would tell an athlete, “I really love you and I’m not going to try at all to make you any better?” If your coach is not helping you to get better, that’s not love. It’s the opposite of love and probably means you won’t get much playing time.

The difficult process of sanctification is worth it. Zephaniah 3:17 tells us, “The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in His love He will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.” What an amazing word picture that is!

If you are in Christ, you are a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17), so go live out that new life in the power of the Holy Spirit. From our call to follow Christ comes the freedom to serve. Not to try to earn points with God or others, but out of sheer gratitude for everything He has given you.

One might think that to follow Christ is to take us out of the world. But instead, it throws us back into messy daily life. As Christ served, so we, too, are called to serve.

In Christ, all work is service to others. Every calling is equally important. There are no “big people” or “little people” in the kingdom of heaven. Just faithful people. As you fulfill your primary calling to follow Christ, you’ll also serve in a variety of secondary callings. In your families, in your workplaces, in your churches, remember:  you do it in service to Christ. 

Work and play in God’s name and let the world stand back in wonder.

Additional reading: Matthew 16:24-27, Zephaniah 3:14-17

Have you ever been lost? In our world with smart phones and GPS devices, it’s more difficult to get lost than it used to be, but it’s still possible.

Even if you haven’t felt physically lost, I’ve no doubt that you’ve felt metaphorically lost: confused about a decision you have to make or at a crossroads where you don’t know what to do about something.

In these moments, we can lean on a promise from Scripture that God will provide the direction and guidance you need. It’s not a conditional promise, but a promise that reminds us we can find full assurance in Him:

In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.  

So how do we acknowledge the Lord in all our ways? I’ve found a particular interpretation of this phrase to be helpful– to walk through your day with a God-consciousness. In our society, I think it’s easy for us to live as functional atheists. We might connect with God once during the day if we think of it, but mostly navigate our daily decisions as if God doesn’t even exist. We lose our connection point, which makes it all the more important that we remain God-conscious. To do so, I’d like to offer a couple practical suggestions. 

1. Build conversations with God into the rhythm of your day so that you’re connecting with Him often. I have a friend whose alarm goes off every day at 9 a.m. and the alarm reads “This could be the day that the Lord returns.”  It stops his tracks and reorients his thinking immediately. For me, I begin my day at 5 a.m. with coffee and prayer before I go for a run. After I’m done and showered, I bring coffee to my wife so we can pray and read Scripture together. Then at noon, I try to pause for five minutes to connect with the Lord. You don’t need to read a chapter of Scripture every day or pray a long, elaborate prayer. I usually pause to slowly pray The Lord’s Prayer. It’s brief, but it reconnects me to my Power Source. Then again with my afternoon coffee. And before I go to sleep, one more time, I pause and pray and reflect on the day with the Lord. But that’s my routine and you have to find a rhythm that works for you.
2. Take some time each week to memorize a portion of Scripture. We don’t live in a culture of memorization; instead, we just Google information when we need it. There is definitely a power to the memorization of Scripture! The Lord will direct your mind to a particular phrase– not even necessarily an entire verse– and it will be just what you needed for that particular moment. If you have God’s Word in your heart, nothing and no one can take it away from you. The enemy is real and he comes to seek and destroy you, your faith, your body, your mind. And when he attacks you, your best weapon is the sword of the Word of God. 

The second half of this verse brings our big promise: He will direct your path. As you pray and memorize Scripture, He will show you what step to take.

How does He do this?  

1. Walk in the Spirit. If you are a committed child of God, the Holy Spirit dwells within you. And when you slow down and quiet yourself long enough to listen, the Spirit will lead and direct you. “Nudges,” I call them. Have you experienced them? An uneasy feeling like “no, maybe I shouldn’t go there” or “I just feel like I should text this person.” Sometimes they can be lifesaving! So be quiet and listen to that nudge. You never know who is suffering around you and how you can be the hands and feet of Jesus for them. As you walk with Christ, you’ll gain an increasing sense of the Lord’s direction of your steps. You can’t know your path for the future well in advance, but when you walk faithfully with the Lord, He will direct one step at a time.  
2. Let the Word of God guide you. All leadings of the Holy Spirit must be congruent with Scripture. If you think that the Spirit is leading you to do something but it is out of line with what the Bible says, you can know that it’s not the Holy Spirit you’re hearing. Spend time in the Word so you can know for sure. The Word and the Spirit work in our lives in tandem. You can be certain that nothing the Spirit leads you to do will contradict God’s instructions for us in Scripture.
3. Consult with your “weighty friends.” In our Evangelical Friends tradition, this refers to friends who also pray for discernment from God. It’s actually a beautiful compliment to them, even if it doesn’t sound it like (I wouldn’t suggest you tell someone, “you’re one of my weighty friends” without at least giving them some context for it!). A circle of friends to surround you who value walking in the Spirit and knowing God’s Word is incredibly important; the Holy Spirit will use them to be honest with you based on what they know about the truth of God’s Word rather than just telling you what you want to hear.  

Thomas Merton, one of the most important Christian writers of the 20th century, wrote a prayer that beautifully captures the assurance the Lord has for us:

“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end, nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following Your will does not mean I’m actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please You does, in fact, please You. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this, You will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust You always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for You are ever with me, and You will never leave me to face my perils alone.”

Additional reading: 1 Thessalonians 5:17, Psalm 119:11, Isaiah 30:12, Psalm 25:4-5, Proverbs 13:20 

On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side.” Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also with Him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling.  But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “P�𲹳���, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!”   Mark 4: 35-41 NKJV

In the spring of 1990, Darla and I were in Boston, getting ready to move with our one year old son to East Germany for my doctoral dissertation research. My parents came for a visit and I wanted to take them to a little gem of a museum called the  so that I could show them one painting in particular. By Rembrandt, done in 1633 while he was in his 20s, “Storm on the Sea of Galilee” was the only seascape he ever painted. A few days later, on March 18, we woke up to learn that the Rembrandt painting, and a few other high value paintings, had been stolen. Two thieves literally cut the painting’s canvas from its frame, rolled it up, and it hasn’t been seen since. This means that we’re among the last members of the public to have seen this fine piece of art.

One of the reasons I liked it so much is because it captures the moment in the storm right after the disciples woke Jesus up. Let’s take a closer look at this scene so that we can better understand life as it was in the first century A.D.

The Sea of Galilee is actually a freshwater lake in northern Israel. It stretches about 13 miles north-to-south and about 8 miles east-to- west. Compared to Lake Erie (241 miles across and 57 miles north-to-south), it’s a small lake. When you’re in the middle of the lake, you’re four miles from land. It happens to be the lowest elevation freshwater lake on the planet, and it’s surrounded by low hills on all sides, so pop-up storms were common and often severe.

A typical fishing boat in Jesus’ day was not a large craft: about 27 feet long, less than eight feet wide, and about four and a half feet high on the sides, not leaving much room for passengers. A storm tossing around a boat of that size would have been a frightening experience.

This story of the storm on the Sea of Galilee is found in the first three Gospels (the Synoptic Gospels) which portray the same stories in their texts from slightly different perspectives. I love Mark’s telling of this story because he includes one interesting detail that Matthew and Luke don’t: a pillow.

The first three chapters of the Gospel of Mark feature stories of Jesus demonstrating his sovereignty as He begins His ministry. He demonstrates through miracles His power over demonic forces, His power over human sickness and suffering, and His superiority over the law, all setting the stage for the calling of the twelve disciples. In fact, this story is almost the very first thing that happens after the public calling of the His disciples. He calls them to himself and then they have a pretty challenging first week together.

First, religious leaders from Jerusalem tell them that the reason Jesus can do the miracles is because He’s possessed by the devil. Next, a crowd gathers around including the disciples and Jesus’ mother and brothers; He says to the crowd, “Who is my mother and brothers? You all are my mother and brothers.” In other words, “Disciples, if you’re going to follow me, that eclipses even your own family.” These newly called disciples had to decide immediately if Jesus’ claims about who He is and what He can do were trustworthy.

They boarded the boat in Capernaum, ready to sail the length of the sea toward the Decapolis, and Jesus knew that He would be leading them directly into a storm in the middle of the lake.

While the storm rages on their little boat, the disciples wake Jesus and ask a bad, albeit understandable, question: “Jesus, don’t you care?” I have been in ministry about 40 years and, in my experience, this is a prime reason why people lose their faith. They encounter a storm, something devastating, and they feel they can no longer trust that God really cares about them.

In this passage, I love that Jesus actually awoke and calmed the storm. He addressed their lack of faith, but He also delivered. And He will for you too. But that begs the question: what if He doesn’t calm the storm the way you hope He will? What if you have to endure the middle of the storm for an extended time? 

Take another look at Rembrandt’s painting. How many people do you see in the boat? There are 14, which is not a mistake on the artist’s part. He’s making a theological point: he painted us into the “Storm on the Sea of Galilee.” We’re right in the middle of the scene, where there are a variety of human responses to the storm including anger, apprehension, and seasickness.

Which one are you most like? When storms happen, what’s your natural response?

I’d like to invite you to bring your pillow and rest alongside Jesus when the winds and waves of life become turbulent. Sometimes, even when you’re doing everything right, God may still lead you into a storm. And when you make your anxieties known to Him, you can rest in Psalm 46:10: “Be still and know that I am God.” 

Additional reading: Matthew 8:23-27, Luke 8:22-25

Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 1 Corinthians 9:25

Every four years, an amazing, global tradition occurs—one that some people work their entire lives for an opportunity to participate in: the Olympics! As a runner, I love the Olympics because it’s often the only time that the general populace seems to care about distance running.

The Olympics date back to New Testament times and, while the running sports of the ancient Olympics were important, the fighting sports were equally important to the people of that time. There are many references to wrestling and boxing in the Bible, so if we understand the historical context of these sports, the more deeply we can understand the Scriptures, too. 

In the Apostle Paul’s day, there were three kinds of ancient Olympic combat sports: 

1. Boxing: A preserved sculpture might show us a lanky, fit-looking man. But if you looked closely, you’d see him with a broken nose and many scars. Ancient Olympic boxing was ruthless– no weight classes, no boxing gloves, no rounds so that fighters could regroup, and no ring. Two boxers simply duked it out until one of them was incapacitated or they gave up. 
2. Wrestling: Think of two strong combatants whose goal was to put their opponent on his back three times. As in boxing, there were no rounds, and some of the matches went hours in length until one opponent took the other down to the ground. 
3. Pankration: In this brutal contest, absolutely anything was fair game except for biting or eye gouging. It was like mixed martial arts. One ancient Olympian, Sostratus, won this event three Olympiads in a row over a 12-year period and had the nickname “the Finger Tipper.” He would grab hold of his opponent’s hands and break one finger at a time until the opponent gave up. 

When Paul wrote to his readers about fighting, these contests were their framework. More than once, he reminded them that they, too, were in a fight– and so are we. Our fight can be brutal, but Scripture also promises us victory in Jesus. 

The fight against sin

Paul realizes that he’s in a fight against sin and temptation. He writes, “Therefore, let anyone who thinks he or she stands, take heed lest they fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12) as a reminder to Christians to be on guard because sin can be a devious wrestler that quickly knocks you on your back if you’re not trained against it. If we don’t guard our hearts and minds from sin and temptation, it can lead to what I call the “sinkhole effect.”

When Darla and I were living and working in Pennsylvania, before we came to Malone, we got a call from a family friend asking if we could go to New Jersey and visit their son in prison. I was confused, because the last I had heard, he was pastoring in Colorado. No one knew exactly what had happened, so I agreed to go. When I asked what happened, he explained that he was, indeed, serving as a pastor in Colorado and the church was thriving but, over time, he’d begun living a secret life online when his wife and family weren’t around. He believed he could handle the temptation on his own, but he became entangled in it. 

On the outside, everything looked great, but on the inside the acid of this sin was eating away at him. He met a woman online and, without letting his family or the congregation know, he simply disappeared. He moved in with her in New Jersey and she had a baby. He was bathing the baby, but when it began acting out, he just snapped. He angrily shook the baby, causing it to go into convulsions. And to prison he went.

For this man, it was the sinkhole effect. When we try to handle our sin in isolation, there’s often complete collapse to the surprise of everyone.

We are all in a fight with sin whether we want to admit it or not, and we are vulnerable when we go it alone. Sometimes we can’t even recognize our own sin, like walking around with the tag up on the back of our shirt. We need people who love us enough to make us aware of our sin and lovingly offer help when we’re struggling. James 5:16 tells us to, “confess your sins to each other and pray for each other,” and I think there’s something powerful that happens when we realize how sin shrivels up when it’s exposed in the light. In Christian community, we can pray and devise a battle plan together.

Remember that our greatest ally is the Lord working through this gift of community. We know this because there are so many scriptural promises for God’s power to help you overcome your fight against sin and temptation: 

1 Corinthians 10:13—“No temptation has overtaken you besides what is common to mankind, and God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted He will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” 

Psalm 46:1—“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

James 4:7b—“Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”

2 Thessalonians 3:3—“The Lord is faithful, he will establish you and guard you against the evil one.”

There is power in the Word of God! Take hold of one of these promises and use it to stand firm in this boxing match of life. 

Additional reading: 1 Corinthians 9: 24-27

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. Romans 8:18

The first time I ever drove a car was because of the rapture. 

I was about 10 years old when the evangelistic film “A Thief in the Night” came to our church in western South Dakota. This 1970’s classic film starts out with a scene of an electric razor buzzing in the sink but nobody in the bathroom to shave with it. Then the camera pans to images of pots bubbling on the stove in an empty kitchen and a radio playing but no one there to listen to it. The rapture has happened. The remainder of the film tells the story of the tribulation, the antichrist, and Christ’s powerful return. 

One day, soon after seeing the film, I came home from school and it was just like the movie: I walked into an empty kitchen with a bubbling pot on the stove and a radio playing. I called out to my mom, “Where are you?” and I couldn’t find my dad outside. I thought, “This is it. The rapture has happened and I have missed it.” So I picked up the church directory and started working through the phone numbers of the people I knew wouldn’t have missed it. Nobody answered, and we didn’t have mobile phones, so I was at a dead end.  

I knew what was going to happen next. My only possible chance of survival was to pack up the family car with canned goods and drive into the Black Hills to hide from the antichrist for seven years. Since I’d driven a 1940s dump truck with my father to feed the cattle, I thought that driving a car would work the same way. Our farm was very rural, so it wasn’t uncommon for everyone to just leave the keys in their car. I was so short then (laugh if you want) and I couldn’t sit and reach the pedals to drive, so I was crouched along the floorboard, furiously trying to pedal the automatic vehicle. I drove down the gravel road to our nearest godly neighbor, about four miles away, and parked the car in their drive. Panicked, I ran up to the door and, to my relief, Barb opened it. She asked, “Greg, what are you doing?!” And I just replied, “Oh, nothing,” then got back in the car and drove home. 

It was a long time before I told my parents that story.  

In those days, we thought a lot about the coming of the Lord and our own homegoings. It was the theme of many hymns and sermons and, perhaps, sometimes a source of fear. Today, I think the pendulum has swung back the other way, as if we don’t talk much at all about the second coming of Christ. But there is a future life to come! For those of us who are in Jesus, we’ll have complete victory in the end and it would help us to reorient our perspective so that we might better understand what that means. 

Future victory begins with hope in Christ, and the Christian life makes no sense without His resurrection at the heart of it all. The Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:19, “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied above all men.” Why would Paul say something like this? It sounds so counterintuitive– which it is, because Christ didn’t come to earth to make your life easier. In fact, the call to follow Jesus always has a cost, especially in our cultural moment where everything is pushing against following Him and relying on the authority of Scripture. 

Remember that Jesus told His disciples what it would take for them to truly follow Him – taking up their cross! 

Sometimes when people come to Jesus, they’re surprised by the challenges they immediately face. There is a reason for that. We have real enemy who seeks to kill, steal, and destroy. But we also know that this world is not all that there is, and Hope is what sustains us! With practice –asking God to help us see rightly– and with the support of our Christian community, we can take the long view looking at our suffering in light of eternity. 

C. S. Lewis once said that the sufferings of our life will seem like nothing more than one night in a bad hotel. But there’s more! We are conquerors through Christ because, “we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to his purpose,” (Romans 8:28). 

But Paul doesn’t end his discussion with verse 28. He finishes the chapter by saying, 

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or the sword? For as it is written for your sake we face death all day long, sheep to be slaughtered, Know in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 

As Christians, we are more than conquerors! We don’t know the day or hour of the Lord’s return, but we do know that God will make the heavens and the earth new once again. That’s beyond our ability to fully imagine, but it’s put in beautiful, poetic terms in Revelation 21. If you are a follower of Jesus, John’s promises from this passage are for you. There he talks about heavenly rewards, and we should, too.

One of the most beautiful moments in my life occurred in front of our fireplace in Ohio when our three boys were reading through C.S. Lewis’ The Last Battle for the second time. The closing passage about the life to come on the other side of Revelation struck us poignantly: 

“And as he spoke to them, he no longer looked to them like a lion, but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of the stories, and we can most truly say they all lived happily ever after. But for them, it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page. Now, at last, they were beginning Chapter One of the great story which no one on Earth has read– which goes on forever and in which every chapter is better than the one before.” 

I closed the book and there was silence. One of the boys asked, “Will we get to see Grammy in heaven?”  I said, “Absolutely.” Then another asked, “Will there be ice cream?” And I said, “The best you have ever tasted.” 

Nothing that is good and true and beautiful is ever lost. How we serve God in our families and workplaces and churches is not lost. It is taken up and glorified in the life to come. 

What are you willing to do and endure to enjoy this promise? For me, more than anything else in my life, I want to hear the words when I stand before my Lord and my redeemer, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” 

We are not simply holding down the fort until Jesus comes. We are charged to roll up our sleeves and wade into the difficult and messy work of the Kingdom, even when it feels exhausting or hopeless. We can keep our eyes on the prize of our heavenly calling because we know this life is not all there is.  

Additional reading: Romans 8:18-39, Revelation 21:1-7

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.  Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. James 1:2-4

Long-distance running is one way that I’ve learned about perseverance in my life.  Since high school, I’ve competed as a runner, and I went on to become a marathoner in my 30s. I wanted to try for the Olympic qualifiers in the 2000 cycle, but I ended up burning myself out instead. After exploring triathlons and learning that neither cycling nor swimming was my thing, I stumbled on a book about a man who ran 100 mile races. This piqued my interest, so I signed up for my first long race at Mohican State Park after convincing Darla that I would, indeed, survive the experience. I was greeted that early morning by 300 other crazy people who were just like me and my love for ultra-running was born. 

I find these long races to be really interesting experiences; mentally, physically, and spiritually. I decided that I wanted to assign some Scripture to every race I entered. The passage I chose for that first race was from the beginning of the book of Joshua. He had just replaced Moses as the leader of the Israelites who would guide them into the Promised Land. In the first nine verses of the first chapter, God says to Joshua three times, “Be strong and courageous.” I remember standing at that starting line at Mohican, nervously adjusting my little headlamp, and thinking about 100 miles of trails in front of me. It was absolutely overwhelming. 

Since that time, I’ve learned these particular lessons about “grit” through ultra-running:

1. Always run from aid station to aid station

About every 5 miles, they have a booth staffed by volunteers that offers snacks and beverages to help runners keep their energy up– kind of like a NASCAR pit stop. They change your (metaphorical) tires, help you refuel, and send you on your way. 

If you stand at the start of a long race and only think of the distance to the finish line, it’s pretty likely that the race will feel long and painful. In a way, Jesus addresses this in the Sermon on the Mount when He says, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own (Matthew 6:34).” But we can have confidence that God faithfully meets our needs, so when we trust Him to help us navigate the race one aid station at a time, we can have peace that He runs every step with us.     

2. Never think deep thoughts while going up a hill

Sometimes when you’re running up a hill that feels like it’s never going to end, negative thoughts can creep in. So instead of arguing with myself over whether or not I’m going to make it, I choose not to think any deep thoughts at all while I’m climbing the hill. It quickly impacts the way you think about everything and that’s just not productive or helpful. 

Instead, this becomes a great opportunity to “take your thoughts captive” (2 Corinthians 10:5) and not make any significant decisions while you’re still ascending the hill. Instead, press on in the moment and wait until you’re on the other side of the hill. Then you’re more likely to have some clarity. 

3. It doesn’t matter how bad you feel, you can always recover

The Midwest Grand Slam of Ultrarunning (four 100-milers in the course of one summer) is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. The fourth race in the series was aptly named The Hallucination 100 (and aptly located in Hell, Michigan) and it started in the afternoon rather than early morning. The shift of running the overnight stretch earlier in the race messed with my strategy for calorie intake and I suddenly became groggy and felt horrible, like I couldn’t continue another step. I slowed to a stop and ended up lying in the fetal position along the side of the trail. 

It was September, in the middle of the night, and I started to shiver; I actually wondered if my body was going into shock. But I talked myself into getting back up to walk and suddenly remembered that I had an energy gel with my water bottle. I didn’t feel particularly hungry, but had nothing to lose, so I ate it and I was surprised how much better I felt. I walked to the next aid station for a bite to eat, then on to the next one, and by the time the sun came up I was running as I had been at the beginning of the race. 

In ultrarunning, we are constantly thinking about RFP: relentless, forward progress. If you can’t run, walk. If you can’t walk, crawl. The book of Isaiah reminds us that, “Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint, (Isaiah 40:30-31)”– and this can be an encouragement to us! In the moment, it doesn’t matter how bad you feel. With Christ as your advocate, you can always recover. 

4. Count your steps

This might sound strange, but in the middle of some long races, I actually count my steps. I tell myself this little story: “You only have to run for 100 steps, then you can walk.” When you get into a run-walk pattern, thinking ahead only a little at a time, it’s much easier to keep moving. This practice keeps me grounded in what I’m doing right now and helps me to focus on the moment rather than thinking too far ahead. I am reminded of 1 Corinthians 10:13, that “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” When every step counts, know that God has made a way for you.

In our daily work, this can mean doing part of one task at a time so that you don’t become overwhelmed and shut down. It’s okay to tell yourself, “just 30 minutes, then you can take a break,” if it will prevent you from avoiding the task all together (as they say, writers on a deadline have the cleanest kitchens). If you focus on one piece of the puzzle at a time, it’s amazing how much ground you can cover without even thinking about it.  

5. When you walk, you get to enjoy the scenery

When trail running, you have to look at the ground so that you don’t trip on roots and rocks under your feet. If I’m not careful, I fall at least once during each long race and it’s the worst. Running requires concentration. But when you build in a walk break, that’s when you get to look around– and the scenery can be awesome! I once did a 100-miler in Colorado at an elevation of 10,000-13,000 feet and it was some of the most beautiful scenery I’ve ever enjoyed in my life. It made me think of King David’s Psalm 19, verse 1, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork.” 

I would have missed it while I was running, but I took a walk break.

In the midst of perseverance, you need to know what your limits are. If you walk the whole race, you probably aren’t going to finish well. But when you’re strategic with the breaks you take, it does enable you to revel in the scenery. Pause and thank God for what He has created and who He has created. Enjoy the people who are around you; God places the treasure of relationships on our earthly journey out of His goodness to us. 

6. Mind the Basics

Part of grit and perseverance in ultrarunning is taking care of yourself with appropriate rest, calories, clothing, and gear. You won’t succeed unless you’ve attended to these things; don’t skip the aid station because you just want to keep running. It’s wise to intentionally take the time to pay attention to your physical needs. 

Elijah, too, forgot the basics for a time, as we see in 1 Kings 19: 4-9. Haggard and worn out from a journey, Elijah laid down in despair, going so far as to say “I have had enough Lord, take my life.” However, an angel of the Lord, on two occasions, told Elijah simply to eat to have enough strength for the journey. Elijah did, and traveled forty days and nights. 

The application for this one is fundamental: your body will quit on you and you’ll get sick if you don’t take care of yourself. Sleep, hydration, and nourishment isn’t optional. If you want to persevere, you have to take the basics seriously.

7. Picture yourself crossing the finish line

In the midst of the race, sometimes it really helps to picture yourself crossing the finish line. It helps to imagine telling those you love, “I just ran a 100 mi race.” If you want grit and perseverance, you need to imagine yourself on the other side of what you’re doing right now. Imagine your family cheering for you as you walk across the graduation stage, as you accept that job offer, or as you share your wedding vows or bring your first child home from the hospital. 

If you only focus on the minutiae of your daily tasks without lifting your eyes to see what’s possible, you’ll get lost in the grind. It’s one of my great joys to hear from our alumni about where God has placed them in the world and to see how He ordered their steps while they were still in the thick of their college educations.  

Moreover, as you endure through the trials of this life, take heart and remember the words that we prepare ourselves to hear from our Lord as they are written in Matthew 25:21, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Picture yourself crossing the ultimate finish line, running to the arms of our Savior, as you hear those sweet words. 

He is with you as you persevere, too. May I encourage you to choose a passage of Scripture for your race? Time spent in His Word will remind you, “not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9).

Additional reading: Joshua 1:1-9

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 1 John 5:14

Although I’ve spent 40 years in ministry, there’s a lot about prayer that is still mysterious to me.

To be sure, I know that God isn’t a wishing well or a divine butler that we ring when we need help finding the car keys. I’ve witnessed prayer being abused, sometimes damagingly (when prayer request time is used as a thinly veiled opportunity for gossip) and sometimes humorously (when Darla calls out to God during movie night that He would help Rocky Balboa win the boxing match).

And yet, despite our human failings, Scripture is clear that God can and does act in response to our supplications and intercession. I know there’s no part of our life in this world that is too big or too small to bring to the Lord!

So I endeavor to follow the guidance of Scripture in my prayer life, even in prayer’s most mysterious moments, and one practical tool for doing so is my prayer journal. After I start my prayer with the Daily Office, I open my journal and write as I talk with the Lord.

Here are three things I’ve learned by keeping this particular spiritual discipline:

1.    It is easy to see how many prayers God has answered!

When I go back and read previous journal entries, I can see where God’s hand has been at work in our family, on behalf of Malone, and in other aspects of my life. I am reminded of moments when I had no idea how something could work out for good, literally crying out to God, and then moving on and subsequently forgetting it was an issue. At times I’ve been embarrassed by how brief my thanksgiving was before I petitioned God about the next crisis. This has prompted me to actually go back through previous pages and write “Thank God!” beside each answered prayer—and there were so many occasions of His faithfulness that this small gesture quickly seemed redundant and overwhelming.

This observation changed my daily practice, and now I make sure to write down at least one thing each day for which I am grateful before jumping into my list of specific needs or concerns.

One of the key imperatives of the Hebrew Scriptures is the word for “remember:” zakar. It’s used a remarkable number of times (more than 220), many of them to remind the Israelites of God’s miraculous provision. How quickly we all forget! This observation has taught me that remembering God’s loving care will ground my faith in Him.

2.    Sometimes my prayers change as God and I walk through life together.

I know both theologically, and from personal experience, that prayer changes the heart of the one who prays, even more often than it changes actual circumstances, but it’s been so eye-opening to watch this occur across the pages of my prayer journal.

James 4: 2-3 tells us that, “You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives,” and I ask myself how I can have so many blind spots even after following Christ for as long as I have. More often than I’d like to admit, I still pray for my own will to be done rather than God’s will.

Scripture says that we can confidently approach the Throne of Grace when we pray according to God’s will because He hears us. So how can we know if we’re praying according to God’s will? I watched it in my journal: as God changed my heart and my desires, the tone of what I wrote down began to shift. At first, I was praying for what I wanted and not what God wanted, and I watched as my prayers for one particular circumstance pivoted over a period of months until it was in alignment with God’s will—then I watched Him do it!

In this instance, I was what changed! And now, almost every day, I double-up on one line from the Lord’s Prayer: After I pray, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” I add “Your will be done at Malone (or in my family, or in my church) as it is in heaven.”

3.    Some prayers remain unanswered.

Although some of my prayers have changed over time, I haven’t crossed all of them off; several just remain unanswered.  

In Luke 18, Jesus tells his disciples the parable of the persistent widow to show them that they should always pray and not give up (verse 1). I need to be that widow, and so do you. If this was a teaching moment of Jesus’, it indicates to us that we shouldn’t be surprised if there is a long delay in answers to prayers. That delay may even extend beyond our lifetimes on this side of heaven, but that doesn’t mean God is unfaithful or His timing is wrong. We know from Romans 8:28 “that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose,” so we can trust that He is still working even when it takes longer than we’d like or in a different manner than we would choose.

Spiritual warfare is all around us, and Christians are on the front-lines to show Christ’s love to a confused and hurting world. Your kingdom work may look different from my kingdom work at Malone, but no matter how we spend our hours we need to take prayer seriously because it shapes and forms us to be more like Him.

Kingdom work is worth fighting for, so it’s also worth praying for.

Additional reading: Luke 18:1-8

Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: ‘Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.’ Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh. Jonah 3:1

20th century writer and minister Frederick Buechner once said that vocation is “at the intersection of your great joy and the world’s great need.” While in general I think that’s quite true, I also struggle with it because I have seen God’s call for our lives sometimes prioritize the “great need” part over the “great joy” part.

A story that comes to my mind when I think about difficult callings is the one found in the book of Jonah. It’s an interesting little book – only four chapters— about a prophet who was miraculously rescued by God after running from his calling so that he could have a second chance at proclaiming God’s Word to Israel’s ancient enemy.

Though Jonah’s response of boarding a boat for Tarshish (modern day Spain) when God told him to go to Nineveh (modern day Iraq) was the wrong response, it is also an understandable one. Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire, and in the eighth century B.C. they conquered the entire Fertile Crescent area of the Middle East with the first massive use of iron weaponry.

They were well-known for their brutality.  

I imagine a fantasy in Jonah’s mind: instead of embracing the call God gave him, he could sit on the sandy beaches of Tarshish in whatever form of ancient sunglasses he may have had and be free from the difficulty of the task at hand. And that’s what he chose to do. He boarded a ship in Joppa’s ancient sea port and it wasn’t long before a storm emerged on the Mediterranean Sea.

When the storm arises, the Bible tells us that Jonah was asleep in the boat. The others on the boat drew lots to determine who was at fault for the storm, and when the lots fell on Jonah, what he already knew deep down was confirmed: the storm was the result of God’s displeasure with him, so he told them to cast him into the sea. Maybe he thought to himself that death by drowning was better than death at the hand of the Ninevites.

When the others on the boat threw Jonah overboard, the storm calmed. But God wasn’t done with Jonah yet.  

The second chapter of the book shows Jonah coming to his senses. As we know, God provided a great fish that swallowed him up and, entangled in seaweed, he cries out to God for help. It’s very poetic. When God gives him another chance at obedience, the fish vomited him onto the shore then the first verse of Chapter 3 contains one of the most humorous verses in all of Scripture:

Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.” Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh.

So what’s the right response, when we’re called into challenging circumstances?

I learned a lot about this from my father as I watched him endure many years of difficult circumstances for my family. You couldn’t find a godlier person walking in the footsteps of what he’d been called to do and, let me tell you, there was no joy in watching and experiencing those events. But for Dad, he knew his vocation was to care for people and that his job was simply whatever he could do income-wise at that moment to make the care for others possible.  

I remember asking Dad at one point, “How can you embrace this calling that God has given to you?” and he told me about a dream he had that he’d never forget:

He was sitting at a long banquet table and there was chaos all around him. He was growing increasingly agitated about the chaos and when he finally reached a boiling point and he slammed his fists down on the table. The cutlery jumped and he yelled “this is enough!” In response, he heard a small voice gently say, “I’ll tell you when it’s enough.” Then he woke up.

For Dad, the “peace that passed all understanding [guarded his heart and mind] in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7),” making it possible for him to remain faithful to his calling. And when it’s our turn, the Bible promises the same for us.

When you are afraid to step into a difficult calling, may I encourage you to ask God for His help?

George Fox, the founder of the Friends movement, once shared some encouragement with faithful servants of Christ who were persecuted for their faith—sometimes to the point of imprisonment or death. In a letter to some of the Friends when they were in jail, he said:

“Sing and rejoice, you children of the day and of the Light. For the Lord is at work in this thick night of darkness that may be felt. Truth does flourish as the rose, the lilies do grow among the thorns, the plants atop the hills, and upon them the lambs do skip and play. Never heed the tempest nor the storms, floods, or rains. For the seed, Christ, is over all and does reign. And so, be of good faith, and valiant for the truth, for the truth can live in the jails. Fear not, the loss of the fleece, for it will grow again and follow the Lamb, if it be under the beast’s horns or under the beast’s heels, for the Lamb shall have victory over them all.”

Additional reading: The book of Jonah

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5

If I were asked to make a list of the five most important words for the Christian life, “trust” would be near the top of my list. It’s not uncommon for the concept of trust to be overshadowed by the concept of “faith,” and sometimes it’s easy to be confused about what it actually means to have faith.

When I’ve asked people to define faith, I’ve received a variety of answers. The saddest one I ever heard came from a Sunday School class when the teacher asked “what does faith mean?” and a child raised his hand and said “Oh, I know! Faith means trying really hard to believe something you know isn’t true.”

Nope—that’s not the right answer.  

If faith is not a kind of mental energy that we work up within ourselves, then what is it? The definition that I use is linked with trust: True faith is trusting that what God said is true.

So what has God said about us and our lives today? Many things, among them that He promises to take care of us, that He won’t leave or forsake us. And that all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).

For us to fully trust in the Lord, we have to unclench.

Our society is so accustomed to being anxious that we literally live clenched up lives, but Jesus said “Come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). The Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 4 that we shouldn’t be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, we can present our requests to God. Then the peace of God, that passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:6-7).

As we learn to trust in the Lord and set our anxieties aside, a beautiful exchange occurs. Instead of trying to think our way out of anxiety, we can lift our requests to the Lord with thanksgiving – not thanking Him for the problem, but thanking Him that He is with you in the midst of it—and a peace that you can’t  drum up within yourself comes down as a gift from God.

When you trust Him, He protects your heart (your emotions) and your mind (your thinking) in Christ Jesus. This means you can trust Him with your whole heart.

There’s not a lot we should trust with our whole heart. We’re called to love people, but it’s also wise for trust in other people to be earned.  But not so with Almighty God, who has already proven Himself completely trustworthy.  

When our life circumstances are challenging or painful, it can be difficult for us to fully trust the Lord. For some, it’s easy to trust God with their money, but not their physical health. For others, they trust God to heal their bodies but not to take care of their children. Each one of us must continue to ask God to help us trust Him completely and unconditionally.

I once rode with my father in a little four-seat airplane from Rapid City, South Dakota to Des Moines, Iowa and back, and it was a turbulent and nerve-wracking experience. When we landed on our return flight, I remember looking over at my dad as he peeled one finger at a time off the handle overhead. He looked at me and smiled and simply said, “Well, somebody had to hold the plane up.” I guess Dad trusted the pilot enough for the two of us to ride in it, but I don’t think he trusted him with his whole heart.

How often do we do this with God? We say we trust Him, but we also think it’s our responsibility to keep the plane in the air. Perhaps this is because we are so quick to lean on our own understanding.
There is a fine line between using our understanding—that is, the wisdom and intelligence given to us by God—and leaning on our own understanding. It’s such good news for us that the Holy Spirit will bring us clarity to know when we’ve crossed the line from trusting God whole-heartedly to trusting in our own abilities to solve our problems.

James 4 can be helpful here. For us problem-solvers who begin each day with a to-do list (guilty!), we can be tempted to try to find our own solutions to life’s problems. But time and time again, the Lord nudges my heart and reminds me that I don’t need to scheme and plot—that’s leaning on my own understanding. Instead, I can choose to trust that He has a plan and knows what He’s doing.

So, each day, let’s unclench, take a deep breath, and trust our Heavenly Father. He’s got you in the palm of His hand and He’s not going to let you go.

Additional reading: James 4:13-15

God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him. It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness, and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”  1 Corinthians 1:28-31

When you think of pottery, what comes to your mind?
•    A potter’s wheel?
•    A recreational studio where you can paint your own pottery?
•    Expensive decorations that nobody can afford from homeware stores?

In the ancient world, pots were used to hold almost anything, and they were so common that broken pieces of clay pots were used like scratch paper for notes around the home. Like our cardboard boxes of today, clay pots were the most ordinary kind of container you could use.  

When you store your most precious possession in a cardboard box for safe-keeping, the box itself increases in value. In the same way, when Christ is within you, you become infinitely more valuable. No matter how accomplished you are or what you’ve achieved, the true value and meaning of your life comes from Christ dwelling within you. It’s like you’re a cardboard box for the glory of God!

There is one thing about comparing cardboard boxes to clay pots that doesn’t quite work, however. Pots break. Then what are they good for? Well, nothing, except maybe scratch paper.

King David lamented in Psalm 31:12 that he felt as useless as a broken pot, and it’s likely that we’ve all felt this same kind of brokenness. We live in a fallen world and we’ve all sinned, falling short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23). But the heart of the Gospel, the Good News, is that this isn’t the end of our story. God loves to redeem our brokenness! Our sins can be blotted out– removed like a mist– when we turn in repentance to Him (Isaiah 44:22). Not only can you be made whole again, but the Lord can redeem your brokenness into something beautiful.

The Japanese art form Kintsugi takes broken pottery and repairs it to make it whole again. But not just whole—this technique holds the broken pieces together with precious metals like gold, silver, and platinum. It takes something broken and turns it into a work of art, one far more valuable than the original pot ever was in the first place.

Kintsugi doesn’t pretend that the brokenness isn’t there, but in the hands of a master craftsman it demonstrates that brokenness can become beautiful once again.

If you feel broken or weak, wondering how God can use someone like you, remember that He loves to use broken people who think they are nothing (1 Corinthians 1:26-29). Those are the people who God chooses to make a difference in our world.

There are all kinds of pots for all kinds of uses; likewise, you are perfectly made for what God has called you to do. No matter how broken you may be, God is eager to do His Kintsugi work in you. Let Him bring you to wholeness by turning to Him in repentance and faith. His power is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9) and the beauty of His work in you will make a difference in the lives of those around you.

Additional reading: Isaiah 44:21-24 and 1 Corinthians 1:26-31