12.26.2020 - week 85
kristen + i are starting a new church in the nw suburbs of chicago and we need your help. if you have need of a community in the schaumburg area, we would love to get to know you. if you have capacity to help us along financially, the need is real and the opportunity substantial. we would be so blessed by your help. check it out here.
jesus was the only person who ever chose to be born.
so much of life for us is parents we didn’t choose, inherited dysfunctions we didn’t create, and relationships with siblings and uncles and cousins thrust upon us. on some level jesus chose the nonsense that came to him. he came voluntarily to rescue us.
i wonder if in his humanity the foibles of his earthly family were more irritating. i wonder if in his humanity he ever kinda wished he was in a different climate or generation. we are given the challenges and opportunities of our life situation.
jesus chose his. and because he did, everything changes for us.
merry christmas
KG Korner
(a few wise words from lady kristen macdonald)
Have you seen this hilarious meme going around? I died laughing.
“Mary, exhausted, having just gotten Jesus to sleep, is approached by a young man who thinks to himself; what this girl needs is a drum solo.”
-the little drummer boy
The story I’ve always been taught about the drummer boy is that he didn’t have anything to give to Jesus except his songs and so the beauty was that he was willing to give what he had. Perhaps he should have waited to make sure his timing was better (LOL), as I think about what Mary might have needed it was most likely a gift that included a silent night?! I digress.
This week I read Psalm 57, it is a Psalm where David is trusting God alone as his refuge because he is desperate! Verse 4 says, “My soul is in the midst of lions; I lied down amid fiery beasts- the children of man, whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.” So whether that’s what he is actually experiencing or that’s what it feels like he’s experiencing He is definitely in need of God’s help. We aren’t talking sticks and stones here, it’s a whole nother level of opposition. Like many Psalms this one shifts toward the end. He has acknowledged who God is and his need for God to deliver him and the anticipation he has of God coming through as only He can. Look at this shift with me in verses 7-11,
“My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast! I will sing and make melody! Awake, my glory! Awake, O harp and lyre! I will awake the dawn! I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations. For your steadfast love is great to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth!”
The sentence that God solidified in my heart after reading and studying this psalm was, ‘A steadfast heart models praise in the midst of difficulty and uncertainty.’
David is a great example of this because you see it all over the Psalms. Our instinct as humans in the midst of difficulty or uncertainty typically isn’t praise but when we do there’s power that settles a weary soul.
Let’s go back to the Christmas story for a minute. Imagine the chatter from all the different classes of people experiencing firsthand the news of the baby. Not to mention the unmistakable beauty and light of the star and the overwhelming wonder of what this baby would do and that in the midst of it all this little boy came to praise. The lyrics even mention that “he has no gift to bring that’s fit to give our king” and yet he came.
Life these days can be marked by difficulty and uncertainty or it can be marked by a heart that unwaveringly praises God. Our family wishes you and yours a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year & pray that you find yourself praising God no matter what. He sees you, He loves you & no matter what your praise sounds like, he is delighted by the heart behind it.
leadership thought
during this crazy pandemic year of kids spending more time on screens than any of their parents wanted, all 3 of my boys have developed a niche in interest in a youtube sub-world. guys who make videos hyper focused on a certain hobby. carter got into chicago bears youtube, 3-4 people who post daily videos about the team in-season and out. reid got into madden football youtube, watching highlight videos of guys playing the video game. graham got into nerf youtube, where people do ever increasingly strange things with the guns and fluffy bullets. with each of them, i watched the same thing happen: the more time they invested, the more they loved the thing. all of a sudden, cart is crying about some 4 string receiver being cut from the team and graham is hiding in my bathtub to ‘trash-can’ me with a sneak attack. they become hyper obsessed the more time they spent learning and understanding the hobby they chose. reid goes to bed talking about getting a new pack of madden cards and wakes up with the conversation continuing on. for each of them, the singular focus came slowly evolving from 10 kinds of videos they watched, to 5 … down to just a couple.
(yes, this opening paragraph could also be about how social media has made us less well rounded people and that’s why we are all jerks or whatever, but this is the good news newsletter :)
it sounds so obvious, but often we perceive that it works the opposite way. in a moment of ecstatic clarity i know feel such devotion to my god or spouse or fitness that i dedicate time and energy towards it. that progression is rare. more often, a little investment creates a little love and devotion, creates a little more investment etc. so as you are thinking about who you want to be in 2021, just remember this simple concept, you love the things you dedicate time to and invest in.
book review
eugene peterson is a christian cowboy. he hangs out with bono and paraphrased the bible and lived in the mountains and generally maintains that prayerful vibe that makes you feel inadequate and attracted. this is one of his older books that challenges pastors to think about their work in a different way. less about scale and size, more about prayerful patience. more guide, less guru. thinking about this book through the lens of the social media generation almost made my head explode in guilt, but if you want to be pushed or challenged, this might be one worth tracking down :)
super christian guy
stuff for you to click on
1. we have two weeks left in our study of the book of mark .. this weeks message is called, don’t watch what they say, watch if they pray .. watch it here!
2. i love the old sylvester stallone movie rocky IV, this parody of the movie reimagined as a sports documentary, really made me laugh