Keep The Lights On (Friday Devotional)

Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

- Matthew 5:15-16

Over the last couple of months, my kids yelled the same refrain any time we were coming home at night and I prepared to turn into our alley: “Can we see the Christmas lights?” If they shouted it out quickly enough, I would invariably stop short of the alley, turning instead down one of our neighborhood streets so that we could all get a glimpse of the colorful lights.

But starting December 26, there have been fewer and fewer Christmas lights to see over the past few weeks on our journeys home. Indeed, I even boxed ours up just this week. So when the kids asked me the other night to pull into the street for a look at the lights, I broke the news to them: everybody’s put their lights away.

Some lights work that way, useful for a time only to then be hidden until needed again. Such lights are exclusively decorative, not ones you rely on day-to-day. Putting them away doesn’t leave you shrouded in darkness.

But no homeowner hides all the lightbulbs in their fixtures. No office building takes out their fluorescent bulbs and throws them in storage in the middle of a workday. Cities don’t extinguish their streetlamps. That’s because these types of lights aren’t decorative, they’re necessary.

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus calls his followers the light of the world, and calls on us to let our light shine before others rather than hiding it from view. What he’s saying is that making our faith visible through good works isn’t optional, it’s necessary.

In a tradition where we understand salvation to come by God’s grace and through faith, there is sometimes a dismissal of the importance of works in the Chrsitian life. After all, if works don’t save you, surely they are secondary, just something you tack on. But Jesus is clear here: good deeds are not merely a decorative part of the life of faith. It is in part by seeing faith in action that others come to know the Lord. So don’t hide your light–you never know whose kid is crying out to see it.

Newness and Nostalgia (Friday Devotional)

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

- 2 Corinthians 5:17

On December 21, about an hour before our church’s candlelight Lord’s Supper service, I left my laptop sitting on my desk while I went to the bathroom. When I returned to my office, I was greeted by a sight no one wants to see: the dreaded “blue screen of death” indicating a major system failure. Over the next few days, our church’s point man for all things related to technology worked his magic, but to no avail. Regretfully, he announced that my computer had bitten the dust and it was time to go shopping for a new one.

So as I type this, I am doing so from a brand-spanking-new machine. It’s more powerful than the old one, its hard drive is less cluttered with programs and files, and I haven’t yet put any fun stickers on its exterior. It runs faster, it has a more advanced operating system, and its graphics are crisper. It is objectively a better computer than the old one.

Nevertheless, I am dealing with a few growing pains. Microsoft Office isn’t installed yet. Passwords that were saved on my old computer’s browser are having to be looked up or reset. The trackpad’s sensitivity is just a hair different from what I’m used to. Little things…but things that make me long for what was when I ought to be grateful for what is.

As the flush of New Year’s Day gives way to the return of routine, I’m reminded that newness always seems to work that way. You greet it with excitement, you revel in those things which are better than before, and you are hopeful for what you have yet to discover. But it doesn’t take long for you to start missing some of the things that are now gone–even when they’ve been replaced by something better!

But if there’s one area where that kind of nostalgia has no place, it’s in your spiritual life. The apostle Paul describes life in Christ as being made new–the old, sinful self has “passed away,” buried in the waters of baptism, and you emerge as a new creation in the Lord. Conversion isn’t a matter of a few cosmetic changes, it’s a total spiritual transformation.

And the promise of Scripture is that you can greet that new life with unreserved joy. You need not look back with fondness to the days when you were enslaved by sin, because in Christ you are set free! You have no reason to be nostalgic for the days when you were lost, because now you are found!

Jesus makes you new, and that is reason to rejoice. So don’t let the enemy convince you things were better before you knew the Lord–because the truth is, in Christ, you are given new mercies every morning, and the best is yet to come.

Making Things New (Friday Devotional)

 

He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

- Revelation 21:5

On Wednesday night, the clock struck midnight and a ball dropped in New York City. All around the country, couples exchanged kisses, resolutions were made, champagne flowed, and fireworks exploded into the night sky. After all, it was a new year!

Hours later, those same people woke up after their night partying and discovered something they’d known when they lay their head down to sleep: 2026 offered them the exact same world as the one 2025 had left behind. The calendar had changed, but seemingly little else had.

For believers in Jesus, the hope of a new year—much like that of a sunrise or the blooming of a flower—is merely a shadow of a promised future day when, by the power of the Lord, things will look different. On that day, the Bible promises, fear will give way to victory and sorrow to joy. On that day, faith will become sight and the redemption all believers have experienced spiritually will cover creation. There will be a new heaven and a new earth, and the home of God will be with mortals forever. Everything, Scripture promises, will be made new.

Yet for now, we wait, stuck in a December 31 world, anxiously waiting for the clock to strike midnight. With eagerness, we look forward to Christ’s return and the newness he will usher in. With faith, we place our hope in the future won on Jesus’ cross and sealed by his resurrection.

And there’s one more thing you can do while you wait: you can begin preparing yourself and the world around you for that new day. Instead of playing by the world’s rules, you can live according to eternity’s. Instead of holding tight to the promise of the gospel, you can share it freely. In a world of selfishness and strife, you can be a beacon of the generosity and peace to come. With the knowledge that Jesus is coming soon, you can be his ambassador.

It’s a new year, and until Christ returns, it’s probably going to look suspiciously like the old year. But in his name, you can do your part to make things new.

My Resolutions for 2026

Every year I make a list of New Year's resolutions, all of which have been rattling around my brain for weeks and all of which I fully intend to keep for the duration of the year. They're New Year's resolutions, so that never happens...but dare to dream, right?

So for your entertainment and my accountability, here's the list for 2026!

1. Get in shape.

I know, what a creative choice for a New Year's resolution! 😜

But yes, after several brief, ultimately aborted attempts to do this last year, I fully intend to take this goal seriously in 2026. I've done all the research on what foods to eat and when to eat them, I've decided what kinds of exercise I'm going to emphasize, I've figured out when I'm going to work out each day—the prep work is done. Now I just have to follow through.

My goals for the next twelve months: gain 20-25 pounds, increase core strength, be able to run 5 miles at a 8:30 pace, and develop a consistent, healthy diet that cuts out excessive sugar and junk food. You'll see at this time next year whether I pulled it off!

2. Listen to 300 albums.

Ever since getting into podcasts (in college, WAY before it was cool!) I have listened to way less music than I wish was the case...and what music I do listen to is often dictated by what my family will tolerate in the car. But the fact remains that I own over 10,000 songs, to say nothing of the 30 kajillion available for streaming on Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, etc. There's a lot of music out there, and I'm wasting opportunities to hear it...if I don't do something intentional now, I'll be that grumpy 70-year old complaining that nobody's recorded any decent songs in 50 years.

So this year I'm running back a failed resolution from 2023 and am aspiring to listen to 300 albums over the course of the year, which I will document and share at the end of 2026. I'll try to have a good mixture of music I know and love alongside stuff I've never listened to. Hopefully you'll be surprised at the end of the year by some of what I enjoyed!

3. Go on one long walk per week.

Sometimes it seems like my life is lived in 2-minute increments, with very little time for the proverbial stopping to smell the roses. Some of that is keeping up with the pace of 21st century life, some of that is being a dad of three young kids, and some of that is me giving in to a culture with a short attention span. Regardless, it seems like I ought to make it a priority to find more time to slow down.

So in 2026, I resolve to go on one long walk per week: 45+ minutes in which I'll put some music on, leave my phone in my pocket, and just be. I expect that most of these walks will happen on Thursdays (my day off/Sabbath) and that I'll make an effort to find solitary places like the Rowlett Creek Preserve for them.

4. Cut my screen time down to 2 hrs per day.

This is what I said in 2023 when I made this is one of my resolutions for the umpteenth time:

Every year I've made it a resolution to put my phone down—to be more present with my family, more open to boredom, and generally more willing to let a minute pass without being stimulated by media. And every year I've given up almost immediately, falling prey to the siren songs of social media and push notifications.

This year, in an effort to make the resolution for measurable, I'm looking to cut my average amount of screen time down from the 4 hours I average to half that. That may mean taking a bathroom break without pulling my phone out of my pocket <gasp> . It may mean eating lunch in silence instead of while watching YouTube videos. It will certainly mean giving Lindsey and the kids my undivided attention instead of checking my Facebook notifications.

Seems like a resolution worth making.

Yep, let's run it back. To better fortune in 2026!

5. Go on a "date" with each member of my family once per month.

Quality time is important, but it can also hard to come by in a family of five. So this year, I'm making it a priority to give each member of my family some undivided attention at least once per month.

For Lindsey, that means a date night or a Starbucks run or a walk around the neighborhood, but it DOESN'T mean the two of us sitting next to each other doomscrolling after the kids go to bed. For the kids, it could mean anything from ice cream to watching a baseball game together to snuggling up and reading a book for half an hour.

The point is for it to be intentional, preferably planned in advance, and at a time when nobody's competing for my attention. Looking forward to this one!

6. Wear my mouthguard. 

This one's pretty simple and should be oh so easy to pull off. Nearly a year ago, my dentist prescribed a mouthguard for me to wear at night, because apparently I grind my teeth in my sleep. I went in for a fitting. I paid several hundred dollars for said mouthguard. I picked up the mouthguard once it was ready for me.

...and it has sat in its case, unused, every since. Vanity is a powerful thing.

Let's see if I can't do better in 2026. I spent too much on the stupid thing not to wear it.

7. Read 6 big books.

I have a TBR spreadsheet (that's "to be read" for those not on BookTok) where I not only keep track of the number of books I own and haven't read, but also the page numbers for each of those books. The total number of pages I have to read to finish the list is...intimidating. Let's just say I won't be knocking it out this year. Or next year. Or the year after that.

What I DO want to do is tackle some of the books on that list which I've been actively avoiding because of their size: Les Misérables, Lonesome Dove, It, etc. I won't get the thrill of crossing a book off the list as often, but I'll still get to put a dent in my TBR's page count that way. At 6 in a year, we're looking at one big book every month, which is ambitious but attainable.

What is "big?" I'm not going to put a legalistic number to it, but generally it means any book on my shelf where I've considered starting it only to hesitate because, "Ehhh, too long." So we're probably talking 800+ pages unless the font is really tiny or the material is pretty dense.

8. Get my finances in order.

Lest this resolution scare you, we're doing ok for our stage of life. Bills get paid on time every month. We're debt-free except for our mortgage. We can afford to pay for any sub-$10,000 emergency without being in trouble. And most months we bring in more than we spend.

But also, our money is still sitting in the First National Bank of Central Texas, whose nearest location is 2 hours from our home. Because of the nature of my job, I have no retirement account, stock options, or any of that other jazz that comes standard with corporate jobs. And in 9 years, the first of my three kids will (presumably) want to go to college.

So this year (sooner rather than later) I resolve for me and Lindsey to have a long, potentially boring and/or unpleasant conversation where we make a financial game plan and stop operating our finances on autopilot. It's time.

9. Watch every MLB team play at least one full game.

One point of pride for me is that I am not a Texas Rangers fan who follows Major League Baseball; rather, I am a Major League Baseball fan whose team is the Texas Rangers. I follow all the goings-on in MLB—online, through several podcasts, via a couple of newsletters, etc. But what I don't do as often as I'd like is actually sit down and watch a non-Rangers game (at least until October) for more than an inning or two at a time.

So in 2026, I resolve to watch every team at least once—a full nine inning game for all 30 teams. Theoretically, this can be pulled off in as little as 15 days; it's easily achievable. I'm hoping that by doing so I'll learn some new names, get introduced to some broadcasters I've never heard before, and maybe even luck into some great performances along the way.

To keep myself accountable, my plan is to actually keep score of all of these games (whether from home or, in those fortunate instances when it applies, at the ballpark.) That's something I haven't done much since we started bringing small children to games, and I miss it. I'll let you know at the end of the year if I saw anything particularly memorable!

10. Be more joyful.

As I shared in a sermon a few weeks ago, my son Andrew recently said something to me that's been haunting me ever since. I was fixing lunch for him and his siblings after church one Sunday, chatting away with them all, and he remarked, "This is nice, Daddy! You're not grumpy like usual!"

He didn't mean for it to be the absolute kill shot that it was. But man has it stuck with me.

So I'm ending this list with a resolution that is far from measurable, but one I'm taking very seriously: I want to be more joyful this year. My God is too good, my life is too good, and my life is too short for grumpy to be my default setting. Here's to a joyful 2026!