What really matters...

  I shared this picture a while ago on my Facebook page and said that maybe later I would share the thoughts behind it. So here goes: These words are certainly true on an individual level in our own lives, but that’s not where my heart and mind were when I wrote them. I wrote these words after we discussed the first chapter of T he Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism . This book examines the history of the church in the United States and the ways that it has enabled racism both actively and passively. This isn’t the first book I have read on this topic. I also recently read Be the Bridge: Pursuing God’s Heart for Racial Reconciliation . As I’m reading these books and learning more about our history, I am left wondering what we are losing by burying it instead of acknowledging, repenting, and reconciling from it. That is my heart behind these words: There is no redemption without mess. There is no miracle without brokenness. There is no resurr

Ok I've had a couple opportunities to write lately and wanted to share them with you. This first one was written as a devotion on our church Facebook group and was a reflection following Sunday worship in which Pastor Chris shared a message titled "Love Your Enemies" based on Matthew 5:43-48 and using the movie How to Train Your Dragon as an illustration. (The service is here, and worth watching  https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=656995488285956 ) Here are my thoughts: I wanted to continue the conversation about loving our enemies from Pastor Chris’s message yesterday. Relentless humanization is something I have been practicing in these divided days. It’s not easy, but it is necessary in order to love our enemies. We need to look behind actions for the emotions that are driving us. As I look around, I see a lot of people acting and reacting from pain and fear. Fear of change. Fear of nothing changing. Fear of losing jobs and a struggling economy. Fear of coronavirus. Fea