4.18.2020 - week 51
on how to feel about where you are right now
god’s design for you in this season is to do your job in your lane the best you can.
the life stage you are in dramatically effects your experience during the quarantine. those with teens are endlessly tested, those with school aged kids bogged down in home schooling, empty nesters either bored or financially panic-y or both. young folks with no kids all appear to be trying to write the next great american novel. and on and on it goes.
1 corinthians 7:17-24 brings a powerful concept with great application to this reality. paul affirms that new converts should continue to live the life god put them in. god saves us to leverage us in our already existing situations, not for us to run away and hide. paul knew how tempting it was for christians to want someone else’s life or to isolate from society out of some convoluted desire to avoid worldliness. paul says to keep going strong in the lane put god you in. paul tells timothy to ‘fulfill your ministry,’ not someone else’s, not yours 10 years from now.
this new friend of mine has opened up a lot about caring for his elderly mother. she’s past 85, struggling with dementia, and failing very slowly. he’s her primary caregiver and a lot of the things he wanted to do in this stage of his life professionally and socially have been put on hold. the other day he said:
‘to be honest pastor, one of our normal nurses was exposed to the virus and we haven’t been able to replace her yet, so i had to bathe and wipe my mom last night and that was a pretty rough experience.’
i shared with him that my overwhelming thought as he shared that was how pleased god must be. he’s faithfully doing unglamorous brutal work because it’s what god has assigned him, to the glory of god. i wonder how many of us (self-included) would be more content right now if we genuinely believed that quarantine with little kids or another career set-back or a business with a sudden revenue free fall is where god wants to work right now …
god doesn’t want you to live anyone else’s life, he wants you to make the best of yours.
KG Korner
(a few wise words from lady kristen macdonald)
Y’all have made it through another week of quarantine, congrats! I am very late in all honesty turning in my portion of the newsletter because we were getting back into the groove of school being in session after spring break and it completely slipped my mind. I thought I would share just a few tid bits that have been a blessing to me the last week.
I am going through A Woman After God’s Own Heart by Elizabeth George with a new small group. A friend of mine and I were all excited to start this small group before quarantine hit and it looks a lot different than what I had pictured the group being like because it’s on Zoom but meeting with other women and talking about God’s Word and sharing our burdens with each other so that we can pray has become a bright spot during my week. If your church is offering fellowship opportunities online and you are skeptical whether it’s right for you I would encourage you to take part - the holy spirit can minister in ways that are beyond our preconceived notions.
Although I can’t keep up with Luke’s volume of reading, I do find reading life giving. I have tried to daily read a chapter of a book and it’s been surprising the progress I have made! I wanted to re-recommend these three titles in case you missed them and have some time to read: The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer, Emotionally, Healthy Spirituality by Pete Scazzero and Acres of Diamonds by Jentezen Franklin. Also, Suffering is Never for Nothing by Elisabeth Elliot is a great read if you have been through a significant trial.
Lastly, I have been reading and thinking about some of the wisdom literature in God’s Word. As I have been reading through Job I have seen how his friends came to comfort and sit with him for a week and I am currently reading about what they said to him. There’s no question that it’s difficult to be a friend to someone in deep pain because I have found you rarely know the right words to say or actions to take. Nonetheless as I tried to learn more about one of the passages I found this quote from the Enduring Bible commentary online really helpful (most of which is) from Spurgeon to think through in relation to Job’s life.
“Once more, we benefit from knowing the story-behind-the-story, which Job and his friends do not know at this point in the narrative. Job believed that God was against him and was punishing him, but it wasn’t true. “Job was not being punished; he was being honored. God was giving him a name like that of the great ones of the earth. The Lord was lifting him up, promoting him, putting him into front rank, making a great saint of him, causing him to become one of the fathers and patterns in the ancient Church of God. He was really doing for Job such extraordinarily good things that you or I, in looking back upon his whole history, might well say, “I would be quite content to take Job’s afflictions if I might also have Job’s grace, and Job’s place in the Church of God.”
cup of leadership
gold medal love.
we think it’s impressive to love the irritating yet jesus calls us to the enemy.
most of us are spending a lot of time around a few people right now. and when that happens their endearing and irksome qualities are on full display. the 11 yr old is pretty self-focused, the 9 yr old is prone to emotional outbursts, the 7 yr old leaves clothes all over the place, and dad leaves cups everywhere. (notice the wisdom and restraint in not mentioning anything about my girls).
but they are my sons. they can be annoying, but i would lie in traffic for them.
that’s not tough love. it’s bronze medal love at best.
most of us are also seeing our co-workers most aggravating patterns right now. if you are blessed to be able to work right now, you are noticing how they constantly forget to unmute on the zoom call or don’t return emails or whatever it might be. but at core you are partners. and each other’s success produces economic security for your family. loving an irritating co-worker is at best silver medal love.
enemy love is to want good fo someone who has damaged you. it’s rooting for what they stole from you to prosper. it’s refusing to allow disappointment to become hatred, to not defining someone by the way they hurt you. this requires radical trust in god and incredible graciousness.
gold medal love is to love those who don’t deserve it all.
book review
this is a classic and worthwhile during this weird moment where we are re-evaluating our relationships. bonhoeffer doesn’t write with rose colored glasses, but he believes in great potential for the possibilities in christian community. this book is short but pack a great punch. bonehoeffer interprets all elements of his theology through the lens of how it will be worked out practically in community. this isn’t dense academic work, i think you will be helped by it.
i started reading this when it seemed like america might be considering electing a socialist president. recommended by a great friend (thx fierce ) if you can get past the partisan jostling, there is a lot of concise, data based brilliant analysis here. in theology, we are taught that there are no new ideas, just re-packaged versions of old heresies. in reading this book, i came to realize the same is true in politics. are there lots of inequities and injustices in our version of capitalism? yes. is choosing a system that has never worked and only ever ruined lives and empowered despots the answer? probably not
content this week
kristen + i did a marriage talk. 5 things that might help you along as quarantine enters month 2. we got a lot of great feedback on this one, really encouraged me.
i have been posting a lot of social media content .. this video in particular struck a cord with a lot of people.my brother landon + i have started a show, called, ‘the luke + landon show.’ it’s a youtube/facebook/podcast, which is a collection of our weekly content with our typical non-sense banter .. we would LOVE for you to check it out.
keep an eye out tomorrow on my facebook page for this week’s content collection
if you need some encouragement, my wednesday night sermon (along w worship + prayer) are on youtube. the message was titled, ‘grace for the reluctant waitor’.
verse of the week
only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. this is my rule in all the churches.
1 corinthians 7:17
pieces of good news I saw this week
1. one of my new la friends jake sweetman has a cool church that put a great new worship song out last week … i really dug this performance of it …
2. my first so cal friend was anthony thompson. he has been writing pretty profilically during the quarantine. he is as honest as they come, which if you can handle it lol, you will really dig.