1.25.2020 - week 39 — luke macdonald

on the short term pain of god’s way

so you will walk in the way of the good
    and keep to the paths of the righteous.
for the upright will inhabit the land,
    and those with integrity will remain in it,
but the wicked will be cut off from the land,
    and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.

proverbs 2:20-22

every men’s small group i have ever been in has the same arc. it putters along politely until one of the guys (not the leader), admits he struggles with lust. then inevitably the whole group rises to meet him in that struggle and in a matter of seconds, the intimacy and rate of growth triples in moments.

that moment came recently in a group i’m currently leading with a little twist. the young man expressed through tears how frustrating it is to lose ‘the one’ because he’s saving himself and trying to do things god’s way, from now on after some mistakes. he lost the girl of his dreams because of his refusal to compromise. as his emotion rose, several thoughts immediately came to mind

someday he will be happy he didn’t end up with her.
this probably wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t fallen into sin in the first place.
god is watching and for sure will bless his obedience.

1 + 2 fall squarely in the category of, ‘just because its true doesn’t mean it will help him right now,’ so i really leaned in to #3. if you aren’t waiting in pain for god’s word to prove true in the long run, then you aren’t living god’s way. the scripture is littered with the promise that short term gain comes from foolishness and long term success is anchored in faithfulness. the path that seems to be winning initially

parenting would be easier today if i just let them live on their ipads.

i would be sleeping better if i screamed my side of the story.

i would rather have an LA quality care than be saving for retirement.

and on and on it goes. so if you can, for just one second, pause and see the frustration of the long road as certainty that things are going somewhere better than here.

this is good news.

KG Korner

(a few wise words from lady kristen macdonald)

One time years ago I was walking along the beach while in Florida and I remember coming upon a home that had been battered by a hurricane earlier that year. I have seen footage of storms and their aftermath as well as read about the “house built upon the sand” but seeing the actual wreckage took the reality of the “rains fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it,” to the next level. It’s that “ah-ha moment” as teachers like to say, when the principle and the practical align bringing understanding that hasn’t been achieved before.

Fast forward to yesterday as I drove up to our home and the landscaping service that tends to our neighborhood had pruned a bunch of our bushes. I literally gasped at one of the bushes because it looked as though it had just gotten a bad haircut.

I know very little about landscaping and I have been known to kill a plant or two even in the six months that I have lived in California. That said, I haven’t read up or done research on pruning or trimming trees or bushes. In all honesty when I left our house earlier that morning, I was eyeing the beautiful roses on most of the bushes that line our garage. My thought would have never been to trim them off the tree but to enjoy them as long as possible.

The only possible aim of the landscaper is to make the foliage look the best it can be, to prune as needed knowing that the future blooms will come only if the bush is tended to. The imagery from John 15, came alive in my mind as I saw the lovely roses strewn all over the ground:

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” (v. 1-2)

The bushes don’t look like anything special at the moment but because I know that I have seen the “fruit” that they can bear and that they have been trimmed in the past, I believe more “fruit” is to come. The beauty in the plant isn’t just in the fruit but that it can go to it’s source (the vine) and it can in a few weeks time produce something beautiful.

There’s a season for everything as Ecclesiastes says. I know firsthand that a season of pruning can be painful. But, I believe that the very vitality of the plant, the very health of the believer isn’t just in the exterior boasting of something beautiful and “all together,” but in knowing it’s true source and knowing that the season of bounty is coming. So often in the midst of pruning we lose sight of what we can’t see because what we can see is so drastic from before. Therefore, I pray that whatever season you are in- about to be pruned, just pruned, or recovering from being pruned that God’s Word would come alive to you today and be the living water and bread you need to bloom beautifully again into what He has for you. To Him be the glory, #wontHEdoit.

cup of leadership

efficiency is often at odds with happiness and contentment.

when i was in high school, i used to love this weird restaurant called ‘the ranch.’ it was one of those old school places where you could order ribs or spaghetti or a burger or a steak. it was a strange combo of good and meh. but i liked the food, loved the atmosphere, it was close to my house and our family went there all the time. i loved it.

in 2020 i would never set foot in a place like that. because i would have yelped best places in the area and realized it wasn’t cool or good enough. my ability in 3 taps to find the best burgers in the region or award winning pecan pie has created in me a desire to make every meal something worth remembering and capturing and reporting. my knowledge of a place 7% better 10 min away would make me change my choice.

my favorite baseball player when i was 10 years old was this guy, glenallen hill. he swung really hard, had big muscles, wore cool glasses and mostly struck out. but occasionally he hit a ball clear out of wrigley field into the surrounding neighborhood. his baseball cards stats were fine, but his feats and vibes made him my guy.

in 2020, i can find 100’s of lines of data that explain to me that he wasn’t very good. he was average at best with a career WAR of 9.7 (if you don’t know what that means, you are blessed). my knowledge of his weaknesses makes his gifts seem smaller. my immediate ability to re-watch his feats keeps them right sized, not able to morph to the size of the backyard dog in the sandlot.

the endless quest for the best limits our ability to enjoy the good.

your pastor isn’t bishop jakes or louie giglio, but i bet he’s pretty good.

your husband isn’t will smith or that dude over by the bench press, but he does know how you like your coffee. your son isn’t bronny james or zion, but being the best 8th grader at his middle school is pretty cool. i really like next day delivery, but i really miss wandering through borders books.

our societal pivot towards efficiency lowers price and forces improvement and simplifies life in many ways, but it always makes things less fun. enjoying the thing right in front of you rather than assessing it in real time on your phone is a great way to be a little happier and more enjoyable to be around. efficiency has its costs and you don’t have to pay them.

fireworks are really cool. who cares if the show two towns over is slightly better?

THE BEST BOOK I’VE EVER READ

the story of losing and finding faith through valleys and peaks most of us will never reach, ‘even in our darkness’ moved me in a way i haven’t experienced before.
as of the moment i’m writing this, i have never read a better book. the prose is crisp and bright. the story unfolds in surprising directions. the subtlety of the ‘preaching’ hit me between the eyes over and over. last week, i spent an evening reading the last 3rd and broke down crying over and over. i woke up in the morning and cried some more. if that sounds bonkers to you, just imagine what it looked like to my wife watching it happen from across the room.

i’m sure the traumatic events in my life over the last few years, theological fights and severed relationships and dreams unrealized had some effect on my experience, but i bet you feel the same. it’s filled with real faith. not ‘bless your heart’ saccharine or performance art skepticism both of which can be so self-indulgent, this work just screams authenticity. so little of our theological writing has that unbaptized rawness we crave, especially when the author finds hope in the midst of hardship. jack deere is painfully candid and i will be thankful for a long time that he was.

content this week

we launched a new series called ‘just do it’ – a verse by verse study in the book of james, would love for you to check it out.

listen on the podcast

watch on youtube

verse of the week

“be not a witness against your neighbor without cause, and do not deceive with your lips. do not say, “i will do to him as he has done to me, i will pay the man back for what he has done.”

proverbs 24:28-29

2 pieces of good news I saw this week

1. living in LA, i have grown to LOVE street art. there’s interesting stuff to see everywhere you look. this past week, 1 of my favorite artists did a mural of torrance icon louie zamperini (of ‘unbroken’ fame) across a courtyard from a favorite coffee shop … check it out.

2. my friend tauren wells has a new album out … tons of cool songs, this one is probably my favorite ..

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1.25.2020 - week 39