09.21.19 - week 21
on our intellects
i read the paragraph below this week for a class i’m taking at talbot seminary:
something about this section hit me hard. every time we try to use language and concepts from our literal physical world to try and capture the realities of the heavenly realm, we fall short. we can’t understand god’s timing, because he isn’t bound by our rules. we can’t understand how stars a million light years away could be shining now if the earth is only 10,000-ish years old, because god isn’t bound by our rules. we struggle to see how he could possibly bring good out of the situation we are currently in because ….. god isn’t bound by our rules.
so a simple, but i hope helpful thought today, what if you stopped assuming your mind can understand?
for my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the lord.
for as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
isaiah 55:8-9
KG Korner
(a few wise words from lady kristen macdonald)
Hope.
The word that can be used in so many extremes. Every week my boys spend countless minutes talking about how they HOPE their fantasy football team wins. The college student HOPES that they test well after studying all night. The new mom HOPES her baby will finally sleep through the night. The unemployed man or woman prays and searches diligently HOPING they will soon accept a job. The parents of a hospitalized child HOPE for good news and improvements as they wait on the prognosis and future of their child’s life.
Hope.
It can also feel elusive. Some days where you have it by the horns with joy and excitement in your step while others you feel like when you barely grab it by the fingertips and it slips through your grip.
I’ve lived in both of those seasons this year, you’re not alone.
On Monday afternoon I was reading my Bible and came across Romans 15:13 which says, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” It struck me as a verse not to just mark in my Bible but to pray over my life. It reminded me of the supplier of hope, peace and joy. He made me to hope and wants me to believe that thru Him I can be filled up. Nonetheless it mentions that I can abound in hope - the type of supply that cannot run out! That’s the hope I want. The Holy Spirit has so much power. I know that too often I put him in a box, He is so much bigger than giving me a medicine dropper full of hope today and maybe two drops of hope tomorrow if I do well today! That’s not how it works at all - He’s the supplier & wants me to come to the factory of hope (HIM) but be filled to overflowing not in my circumstance but that he is the one I am hoping in and will not disappoint. He is at work in you and I today and he wants to be invited into whatever you or I are lacking in that powerful trio - ask him.
Get down on those knees of yours and pray those simple but profound words : God of hope, will you fill me today with all joy and peace in believing. Help my unbelief Lord. I invite you in holy spirit and I pray that by your power I could abound in hope. It is possible through you, I trust you for it today in Jesus’ Name Amen.
Cup of Leadership
(on the return of measles + instagram theologians + monday morning quarterbacks)
semi-pros are the least fun + most harmful + max arrogant people around.
i learned this from playing in bands and on worship teams. pros ask for direction and then deliver. novices are happy to be there and desperate to please. semi-pros want to fight about everything and can’t live up to their own grand illusions.
bad golfers hack away and laugh and have a good time. great golfers amaze you + typically barely make a peep on a bad shot. good golfers tend to try to prove to you how good they should be by how angry they get when they make a mistake.
great investors know that luck/time/expertise/self-discipline combine to build wealth. novices find someone to make decisions for them and willingly pay a fee. people who know just enough to think they can predict the future fund goldman exec beach houses.
true expertise takes a lot of time + work to assemble.
gain that mastery if you can and stay in your lane, otherwise trust people who do.
Book Review
i have a confession. between grad school + work study + leisure reading, i have 24 books in various stages of being read right now. i have declared (michael scott syle) book bankruptcy. no starting anything new until i have finished some of what i’m working on. so … for now, my favorite new book i’ve read in 2019.
i loved this book because it took an unusual path. it graciously showed me some better ways to take, didn’t induce guilt by telling. the prose and story-telling made for enjoyable reading. the ideal being presented was well nuanced and explained. i found myself readily applying the core concepts to conversations in real time. kindness is strength, niceness is weak. the ideal posture for the world we are living in is to have a firm center with soft edges. conviction must exist, but so must love.
Sermon of the Week
part two in the joseph series i preached at faithful central bible church
3 Things I Really Liked This Week
1. i loved this short teaching on relationships from pastor steven, blessed me very much.
2. there has been lots of conversation in the last few minutes about purity culture and the legacy around it. this podcast discusses that + presents a view on proper christian sexual ethics in 2019 that i found incredibly exciting.
3. this guy seriously argues that the alphabet should be in a different order .. a highly enjoyable 7 minutes.