Courage

October 13, 2023 | Leave a Comment

Those jobs we never asked for

I had lots of ideas as a kid about what I wanted to be when I grew up. I never, ever, in a million years would have thought I’d end up in ministry. Not ever. I wasn’t even raised in the church. It never even could have crossed my mind. But here I am. Or, should I say, “Here I am Lord” (1 Samuel 3)?

Our Old Testament friend Jonah did not set out to be a prophet. No, God made him a prophet when he spoke to him that day and told him, “Go. Go to Nineveh” (Jonah 1:1). So, he did what any reluctant prophet would do. He ran the other way. You may know the story from there: a storm came, a big fish swallowed him, the same big fish vomited him back out on the shore, and then finally Jonah did his job. He prophesied, and the people of Nineveh repented.

Nothing could have felt worse for Jonah. He’d been stuck doing something he didn’t want to do, and he was successful at it. It was all God’s fault.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that there are a few of you out there who have been there: In the place you’re supposed to be, doing what you genuinely believe God wants you to do, but not necessarily enjoying it.

God has the same question for us in these moments that he had for Jonah. “Is it right for you to be angry?” (Jonah 4:4). Still, God builds Jonah shelter, and it makes Jonah “very happy” (Jonah 4:6), but God’s not done. God has more to teach Jonah, so God withers the plant. [Read more…]

March 9, 2023 | Leave a Comment

Confidence!

(Adapted from Sunday message, March 5, 2023)

Confidence. I always picture Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music, dancing her way down the road to introduce herself as the Von Trapp family’s new governess. “I have confidence in confidence alone. Besides, which you see I have confidence in me!” she sings jauntily.

It doesn’t last long when faced with 7 children, a captain with a dog whistle, and a Nazi butler. Oh, and the frog. I can’t forget the frog in her pocket. Confidence is a fragile flower.

There’s another, far more durable confidence that comes with faith in Christ, when we know and trust the essential, inescapable, and most beautiful truth that God the Father sacrificed Jesus the Son to reconcile us to Himself.

Not too long ago, my daughter was on her way to New Mexico for a service learning trip with her college. She was studying water and water filtration systems. Two days into the trip, she came down with a nasty case of COVID. Into isolation, she went.

There was a point in time, later in the week, when I was not at all convinced that there was anyone in New Mexico looking out for her on the campus where she was staying, especially when the rest of her group was supposed to take off overnight for the Grand Canyon. I did not want her there by herself with her oxygen levels unsteady.

I called and started quizzing her. Who’s going to be there? What are their names? How close will they be? “So help me,” I muttered, ‘if they leave you alone there on the campus with a pile of pop tarts outside your door, there are a few choice phone calls I’m going to be placing to your college administration…” You get the idea. Crazy mama was coming out.

My daughter got quiet for a moment and told me she was sending me a screenshot.

It was from a woman named Eryn, a local woman who’d driven her to the hospital on Wednesday afternoon.

The texts from Eryn began, “You won’t be alone.” There was a long description of where she’d be and when, and finally, at the bottom of the text, “I’m here for you!” Exclamation point.

Okay. Crazy mama could breathe again.

I think that’s pretty close to the message God is trying to get through our thick heads in Romans 8:38-39 when Paul writes, “I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

You won’t be alone, God is saying. I’m here for you!

With that knowledge, with that reassurance, really, is there anything we can’t do? The answer, friends, is no. Exclamation point.

November 29, 2022 | Leave a Comment

Advent 1: Do Not Fear

“The extraordinary thing that is about to happen is matched only by the extraordinary moment just before it happens. Advent is the name of that moment.” -Frederick Buechner

I was a little surprised one day, visiting an older couple, to find myself sitting on brand-new living room furniture. This sweet couple was of modest means, and I didn’t remember their previous living room furniture being raggedy at all, so why the splurge? They told a story.

A friend of theirs, decades ago, had fallen on hard times financially and asked them for a loan. They didn’t have much, but they gave him what they had. It couldn’t have been more than a few hundred dollars. He promised he would pay them back, but, as happens, time passed, and they lost touch. They had not heard of him or from him for years, until a letter arrived in the mail with a check for $2000. He’d sussed out their address, adjusted for inflation, and sent along a note. “I bet you thought I’d forgotten,” he’d written, “but I never forget a promise.”

God really never forgets a promise. Through the ages, over centuries and moment to moment, God has remained faithful to his people. He’s faithful to us still now.

“So do not fear, for I am with you,” God told us through the prophet Isaiah, “do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10)

Do not fear? Easier said than done, right? There’s so much in the world that could reasonably terrify us? How do we trust God enough to let go of the fear?

The key to begin letting go of the fear is to take the long view of life, of history, and of ourselves. Even this famous verse from Isaiah 41:10 takes the long view of God’s faithfulness, all the way back to Abraham. More than that, these words point us forward to Jesus: our champion and defender who sets us free from the fear of death. It’s Jesus who promises a day when every tear will be wiped away, “There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain” (Revelation 21:4).

The testimony of the past and the promise of the future are embedded in the story we tell every year of Jesus’ birth. It’s the story of a promise of a better, brighter, painless future. It’s a beautiful vision of tomorrow.

Do not fear, friends, because God is with us. He will strengthen us and help us. He will uphold us with his righteous right hand.

Whatever big job or little task we have in front of us, whatever niggling fear is keeping us from that proverbial first step, whatever ridiculous doubt of our own worthiness is whispering to us today, God is with us.

That’s a promise, and God never breaks a promise.

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