Searching for Meaning and Purpose...

Our reflective thinking is often clearer at times New Year's than any other time. We evaluate what has been in the past year and think towards that blank slate of the new year. Often resolutions are made and started, but never followed all the way through. For example, how many of us have a One Year Bible that we've never finished? It turns into the One Year Guilt trip and we never get done because we have three weeks worth of readings to make up before we read that day! This year my family and I will be walking through the Bible Recap reading plan and would invite you to join us! It's a chronological reading, meaning the reading walks through the timeline of Scripture. You'll read Job while reading about Abraham in Genesis. Psalms are interspersed with the moments in David's life that inspired them. One of the reasons I love the Bible app is the way it handles plans. If you miss a day (or several) don't beat yourself up- just click where it says, "Catch m...

 One of the most important things we do is engaging the Word of God daily. While it might sound daunting, the tools to do so aren't something only accessible to pastors or people with special education. Here's a simple method you can use to engage God's Word so that it dwells richly in your heart: Pray. Ask God to speak to you through His Word as you read it and to give you wisdom to understand what you read. Read it. Just read the text in front of you. Ask the question, "What does it say?" Read it again. Read the text again. This time, ask the question,"What does it mean?" Read it once more. This time, ask the question, "What does it mean to me?" Pray. Thank God for what He has shown you and ask Him to guide you in living out His truth as He has revealed it. Whether you know it or not, these simple questions form the backbone of most every sermon preached and are some of the most important things we can ever wrestle with!

 Have you ever tried to really wrap your mind around something unfathomable? Like in '07, a man ran into an Amish schoolhouse and shot 10 young girls, killing five, before turning the gun on himself. Human nature tells us to seek justice, which his death already served, and that those who commit injustice need to be punished. C. S. Lewis said the easiest way to know mankind is bent towards a universal morality, is to do something to someone who claims there are no objective right/wrong judgments. His assessment (and rightly so!), was that they would tell you that what you did was not right, or was unfair. That sense of justice, a right and wrong that exists, is universal- even among those who claim everything is relative. In that Amish community in Pennsylvania, losing those young ladies left a huge mark and much trauma, but early on, they made waves when they forgave in the midst of it. Some even going so far as to go to the shooter's burial service and gather money for the wi...

 There are a lot of shades of meaning in the word "pride." We talk about needing to "take pride in our work." We talk about "being proud of people." We talk about having "wounded pride" when we make a mistake. We tell people to "swallow their pride" when they won't listen to wisdom. We tell people that "pride comes before a fall." So you've got good, bad, and ugly undertones in reading the word pride. It can be something we ought to do, like God in creation looking at all He had made and calling it good. It can also be a source of our failure in work, sports, etc. because we think far too highly of ourselves and our capacities. But then in Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis said,  ...the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride.  Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete a...

In our youth, most of us live with a sense of invincibility because we cannot really comprehend the idea of death. It is foreign to our thinking and beyond our knowledge. We'll do things that are dangerous without a thought. Like riding a bicycle headlong down a super steep slope to jump another hill and fly through the air like crazy, until things go wrong and you end up with a bike pedal stuck in your leg. Eventually. most of us have a moment where we realize the value, and brevity, of life. Maybe it's a diagnosis or a health issue, maybe it's a close call, maybe it's someone we love dying, something eventually wakes us up to the simple truth that our lives are short. As we read in Genesis, humanity is just the dust of the earth instilled with life via the breath of God. At the beginning of the Lenten season, Ash Wednesday is a moment to remember that dust is all we are and all we return to. It's another momento mori that reminds us of the brevity of life.  Psalm...

The phrase "fight song" likely conjures a specific tune to your mind. As a guy who grew up in Norman, OK, there's only one fight song that rises to the top- Boomer Sooner. Every single time that song plays (every time my phone rings!), my physiology literally changes. My heartrate begins to quicken and I am prepared to take on anything that might come my way. Music has power in SO many ways. There's a reason every MMA fighter or batter in the MLB has walk up music- it pumps them up, preparing them for their efforts, and announces who they are. I've said many times the most important part of any worship service in the church is the last song, because people will seldom remember quotes and specifics from the sermon but they'll be singing that song as they go into the week! What is the fight song you need in life? To help carry you through the day. To remind you who you are in the middle of the struggle. To encourage you to be who you know you are (or who you kno...