3.28.2020 - week 48
the opportunity inside the calamity
turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity;
and quicken thou me in thy way
psalm 119
social distancing is fertile ground for spiritual quickening.
quickening is a king james word. the hebrew word חיה is often translated in a modern version as giving life or preserving life or reviving or recovering. when the busy couple juggling careers and pre-school kids finally got away for a weekend, their hearts quickened towards each other. the first sunny day over 60 degrees (usually in mid-march) in chicago brings a true quickening to the spirit.
i think that’s what god is doing in many of us right now. that doesn’t make being out of a job any easier or the inevitable irritation of long days with your family not frustrating, but it does point us to something higher. like the verse above says, when we turn away from foolish stuff or even good stuff that doesn’t really matter that much, we can’t help but increase our focus on what does matter.
i love sports, not having march madness is such a bummer, but at core its vanity.
i love hipster coffee shops, wandering into a new one for an overpriced pour over to admire the aesthetic brings me happiness, but at core its vanity.
i enjoy following politics, but the horse race of election season (which is vanity) is on the backburner as real governing must happen.
all of a sudden church folks in many places are banding together and rooting for each other even while their petty little foolishness goes away for a bit.
eliminating vanity inevitably produces quickening.
(i guess that’s what the monks and amish are aiming for)
so we are in what feels like the middle (or maybe the beginning of the middle?) of this strange time in our world, don’t hesitate to press in more. these can be the days of greatest intimacy with the father ever. even if you are hustling to work from home or managing kids, the mindset of focus on this being a god appointed time of cleansing and waiting is an opportunity we simply must take advantage of.
the only thing worse than waiting right now, is wasting right now.
so turn your eyes,
allow your heart to be quickened
and see something fresh and beautiful happen.
KG Korner
(a few wise words from lady kristen macdonald)
Since moving into our new home in July I have tried to make it a practice to spend time in God’s Word and prayer with the kids’ in the morning before school or activities begin. I would say we are typically four for seven days a week but I am always grateful for when it happens because it brings us together on what really matters. I have found that during this quarantine, this practice is even more pivotal. Since we are in close quarters with little to no variety we DESPERATELY need to remember what God’s Word says and to keep short accounts with each other.
This morning we turned to our passage and it was 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18,
“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
I found it a great tool to direct our hearts. Are we going to rejoice all the way through the quarantine? Nope, I can confidently say we have already failed. Are we going to pray through the whole quarantine? We have some, but couldn’t say we’ve done it without ceasing. Are we going to give thanks in ALL circumstances? No, we have all had to have time-outs, moments of grumbling and felt the struggle of thanking God for this quarantine in and of itself. But today I know that we have new mercies to hit the reset button and start again in the right direction. We talked through what we are rejoicing in today, who is someone we can pray for today and something we are thankful for.
One thing that has really helped my heart during this quarantine is to get outside and walk either with praise music in my ears {rejoicing} or just listening and looking at nature, again rejoicing in the Creator. When I fill myself up first or take care of myself I have way more to pour into the other five people that live in my home. I have found myself not just saying I will pray for so and so but reaching out and texting a prayer, there’s no excuse now. And lastly, there’s been ample opportunity to give thanks for all sorts of things even if it’s thanking God for the things I took for granted before. I pray this is an encouragement for you to renew your mind this week. Godspeed my friends.
cup of leadership
the problems were solving creating
the atomic bomb. the quarantine. #metoo. the internet. churches operating like businesses. the gig economy. contraceptives. the 2008 bailout. smoking to lose weight. free player movement in pro sports.
important solutions that created new problems. whether the solution is worse than the problem often depends on your viewpoint of course, but this lesson must be observed. very very few troubles can be solved cleanly without producing a new issue to contend with. sometimes that’s worth the solution. sometimes it isn’t.
but don’t allow yourself the idealistic luxury of thinking it won’t happen the way it always does.
(also i posted this on tik tok. yep .. i’m one of those now 😊)
book review
this book is fantastic.
it has a gladwell-esque ability to synthesize strands of information in a really helpful way. not quick fixes or easy answers. really explains how and why ideas spread. if you have been working hard for a while and not totally seeing your ideas spread as fast as you would like, this book will help you.
this book has a niche appeal at this moment, that i am directly in. tells the story of ‘emo’ music movement and the explosion in popularity for bands like jimmy eat world, dashboard confessional, saves the day, and thursday from 2000-04. reading it now feels like taking an emotional time machine back to high school for me. if you are in that narrow demo i am in, the writing unveils a crisp account of american dreams and teenage fancy. i loved it.
content this week
message from last week called, ‘the 3 things you need to bring to this crisis’
watch our worship/preaching/prayer service from wednesday night, with my message, ‘the only thing worse than waiting right now’
3 spiritual practices for extroverts during the shutdown. i got a lot of positive feedback on this short video, might help you along during this weird time
verse of the week
god is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble
psalm 46:1
pieces of good news I saw this week
1. out of all the coverage of the corona virus, i appreciate the data and insight from nate silver the most. he seems to be speak from data as it unfolds, not parrot an already decided upon view point
2. i fell into watching this show ‘tiger king’ about the world of high end exotic animal raisers. it’s crazy town. like making a murderer X1000. so strange and addicting. if you want to forget about the world for a few hours, you will be mesmerized.
3. this little fun song/video about the virus BRIGHTENED my day, especially because my mom sent it.