Always There (Friday Devotional)

 

"For the Lord is good, his love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations."

- Psalm 33:4

Yesterday was unquestionably one of my favorite days of the year: Major League Baseball’s Opening Day. With MLB conveniently scheduling the unofficial holiday on my day off, I spent most of the afternoon switching back and forth between games, hanging on every pitch. No highlight escaped my notice, no star was ignored, and every box score was carefully studied before I went to bed last night. I couldn’t get enough.

It was Opening Day, and so I was transfixed by every moment of every game. But here’s the funny thing about professional baseball: all those teams are going to play again today. And again the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that. In fact, virtually every day between now and the first weekend of October, there is going to be at least one baseball game.

As a result, there are going to be plenty of days when the sport doesn’t have the tight hold on my attention that it did yesterday. In the dog days of summer, I will go weeks without even thinking about the Miami Marlins, much less studying their box scores. By September, I probably won’t be able to tell you three players on the roster of the Chicago White Sox. On busy days, even my beloved Texas Rangers will warrant little more than a quick check of that night’s final score.

That’s the beauty of baseball—unlike football, where every game is so consequential that it demands your undivided attention, baseball has 162 games in a season. Fans aren’t expected to live and die with every pitch; that would be unsustainable. Some days you’ll plop down on the couch and watch an entire game from start to finish, some warm afternoons you’ll fall asleep in the 3rd inning, and some days you won’t watch at all. But whether you’re watching or not, baseball is always there.

That kind of constancy reminds me of what the Bible tells us about our God: even when we are inconsistent, fallible, and faithless, his love endures forever. When our devotion to him wanes, his faithfulness remains steadfast. When we are shifting sand, he is a solid rock.

In a life of faith, you will have seasons when you are on fire for the Lord, when your worship is passionate and your obedience is unmatched. But you will also have seasons when you’re barely holding on, when your doubts and fears threaten to consume you. In those times, what a blessing to know that God is unchanged, that he is constant when you are variable. And what a blessing to know that, when your strength is failing, the Lord has more than enough grace for you.

You have good days and bad days, highs and lows. But God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. What a blessing to know that, even when we are volatile, the Lord is constant.

My Pleasure (Friday Devotional)

 

I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance…You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.

- Revelation 2:2-4

If you go to Chick-fil-A for lunch today, there is an exchange I can guarantee you will take place. They’ll hand you your meal, you’ll mumble a quick thank you, and, invariably, they will respond with two words: “My pleasure.”

Never “you’re welcome.” Never “sure.” Never “no problem.” Always “my pleasure.”

This practice goes all the way back to the chain’s founder, Truett Cathy, whose most important value in business was customer service. From his childhood days delivering bottles of Coke door-to-door all the way to his tenure as CEO of a Fortune 500 company, he wanted his customers to know that business was more than a transaction to him. It was an opening to make a connection, an opportunity to show he cared. It was his pleasure.

In a life of faith, not every day is a pleasure. From Job to Moses to Elijah to Jesus himself, the Bible is packed with examples of godly, obedient servants whose faith was tested by trials which threatened to consume them. Still today, at some point you will undoubtedly experience seasons of struggle, times when stress or anxiety or grief leave you so exhausted that it’s all you can do to put one foot in front of the other.

When those times come—and God’s Word assures that they will—perseverance can feel like the first priority. Power through. Keep moving. Just keep swimming.

But while that endurance is commendable, it’s actually not paramount. More important, the Lord says, is maintaining and growing in your love for him. You can attend church and serve the community and give abundantly—but if you lose sight of why you’re doing it, if it’s just checking a box, then you’re missing something.

God didn’t hire you to be a worker in his factory, he adopted you as a child in his family. He wants your service, but even more so he wants your love. So keep the first thing first—give the Lord your worship, and then service to him can truly be your pleasure.

Trust the Lord and Get to Work (Friday Devotional)

 

When the Philistine drew nearer to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine.

- 1 Samuel 17:48

A week ago, we had storms come through, accompanied by strong winds. Our house didn’t sustain any serious damage, but the wind did blow a metric ton of leaves onto our front porch. Lindsey and I observed the mess, but neither of us did anything to deal with it right away.

As the week went on, we started to notice something. Every time anybody went in or out the front door, one or two leaves made their way inside. At first, we attributed it to the kids being careless and tracking the leaves in on their shoes. But it didn’t take long to see that there was basically nothing we could do to keep leaves from trailing inside once that door was open.

Well, nothing except the obvious solution, that is. And so yesterday, I finally grabbed the broom and spent 10 minutes sweeping the front porch. No more leaves, no more mess getting tracked in. Our long national nightmare had come to an end.

Whether it’s leaves on your porch, the weird sound your car’s been making, or the phone call you’ve been dreading returning, everybody’s got some kind of a problem they’d rather avoid than deal with. Maybe, we think, if I ignore it long enough, it’ll just go away on its own. Better to live with the stalemate of things as they are than the unpleasantness of confronting the problem.

In the famous story of David and Goliath, the armies of Israel were living with just that sort of mindset. Every day, the Philistine commanders would send out Goliath, their fearsome champion, to belittle and humiliate the Israelites, demanding they send someone to fight him. And every day, the Israelites would cower, unwilling to meet him on the battlefield.

It took David, God’s anointed, to stand up when others stood back. Armed not with the king’s armor but with only his simple shepherd’s tools, David rushed to the front lines when others were unwilling to do so. Because David trusted in the Lord, he was willing to confront a problem that others would only avoid.

Not every problem is as big as Goliath (or as small as leaves on a porch). But the principle remains true no matter the size of your issue: waiting for things to work themselves out on their own rarely gets the job done. Maturity means facing the questions, the conversations, and the problems that others would rather dodge. It means counting on God to give you strength and then putting that strength to good use.

Wishing problems away won’t make things better. So instead, trust the Lord and get to work.

Strength in Gentleness (Friday Devotional)

 

[The fruit of the spirit is] …gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.

- Galatians 5:23

Years ago, my kids were playing in the front yard while I observed from the porch. Though they would periodically come to the porch to tell me something, and it was during one of these check-ins that Katherine shrieked and pointed at the ground.

“Daddy, LOOK!!!”

Glancing down, I saw a slug slowly oozing its way across the concrete. I laughed and bent down to get a closer look while Katherine shrank back and Andrew ran over to see what the commotion was. Seeking to reassure Katherine, I said, “Don’t worry, Sweet Pea, I’ll kill it.”

“No, Daddy!” Andrew cried out. “You don’t have to do that. Why can you just move it to the dirt? Then Katherine won’t be scared and it’ll be off the porch, but it’ll still be alive. That seems nicer to me.”

I’ve been thinking a lot this week about the conviction I felt in that simple moment. There are so many times in life when showing strength is the fastest way to solve a problem or get your way. Flexing your muscles—whether literally or figuratively—impresses onlookers, swells your ego, and oftentimes helps you get results. But when strength is wielded to dominate others, when you make yourself feel big by making someone else feel small, you may get your way, but you lose something important in the process.

In the crucified Jesus, we are given the perfect picture of godly strength: a Savior sacrificing himself for others. When Jesus could have called down a legion of angels to lay waste to his persecutors, he instead prayed for his enemies’ forgiveness. When he could have ended his own suffering by inflicting pain on others, he instead trusted God for deliverance. Glorification for Jesus didn’t come through victory on a battlefield, but death on a cross—not through justified violence, but gracious sacrifice.

Sometimes the simplest, most efficient path to getting what you want is to bulldoze whoever’s in your way, to say or do whatever it takes to get your way. But for those who have been filled with the Holy Spirit, there is a better way to live. Gentleness need not be confused for weakness, and self-control need not be abandoned in the name of strength. The cross is the proof: true strength is not found in crushing the weak beneath your feet, but by lifting them up with a hand of grace.

February Reading Log

It doesn't feel like I read a lot of books this month, but my book log begs to differ...8 books completed in the shortest month of the year! Take a look to see what I finished over the last 28 days.

GOD DREAMS by Will Mancini and Warren Bird

This was another book I read as part of Texas Baptists' PAVE program for church revitalization, having been recommended to me by my coach and fellow pastor David Lorenz. Its mission is to help pastors and church leaders determine and articulate the vision for their churches, using 12 different templates developed by the authors. The goal is not to give you a copy-and-paste vision statement—the explicitly warn against that, arguing that each church's vision must be its own—but rather to help you figure out what kind of church you are seeking to be so that your vision statement will reflect that dream and so that you can align your goals with it.

This is one of the more technical church revitalization books I've ever read—while not absent biblical exposition or case studies, it's chock full of principles and graphics. This is meant to be used like a manual, not read like a novel. For somebody in my context, that's no problem—I need a manual at this stage! But I offer that as a word of warning for anyone reading merely out of curiosity rather than for imminent use.

The content seems helpful, though I suppose the jury is out to some degree, since my next step is to be coached through its process alongside my church's strategic planning committee. I expect that after that I'll be able to recommend this book as a resource, but stay tuned!

THE SECRET LIVES OF BOOKSELLERS AND LIBRARIANS edited by James Patterson and Matt Eversmann

I do love a book about books. Or in this case, the places we get our books.

The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians is a collection of short essays by the employees of our nation's bookshops and libraries, all about what life is like between the stacks. In some cases, these are stories about the struggles of running a small independent business; in others, they're polemics against censorship; in still others, you get an anecdote or two about the strange but lovable customers they encounter. What all the essays have in common is a deep love for books of all kinds, from "serious literature" to the trashy romance novels of BookTok.

This was an impulse grab from, appropriately enough, the public library, and for three weeks it was my go-to during school pick-up and before bed. If read straight through, this kind of anthology would get repetitive, but in 10 minute bursts, it was always a warm, comforting respite from the world. Kind of like a bookstore or a library.

THE TWO TOWERS by J.R.R. Tolkien
THE RETURN OF THE KING by J.R.R. Tolkien

See last month's review of The Fellowship of the Ring.

THE ODYSSEY by Homer, edited by Robert Fagles

My first exposure to Homer's The Odyssey came via the PBS show Wishbone, where Odysseus was played by a Jack Russell Terrier. My next exposure will come from a rereading of James Joyce's Ulysses, one of literature's most famously difficult texts, and one whose structure follows that of The Odyssey. So with that wide of a spectrum of experience, it seemed like a good time to read the text itself, one of the most famous and influential in the history of literature.

The Odyssey, strange as it is to say, is a sequel, a follow-up to the epic tale of The Iliad. But where that was a wide-spanning story of war and peace, The Odyssey has a tighter focus, telling the story of one's man's quest to return home after years at war. Odysseus, a noble Greek warrior, must battle the Cyclops, resist the lure of the Sirens, overcome the wiles of Circe, and then ultimately battle his wife's greedy suitors before receiving his well-earned happy ending. Both aided and beset by Greek gods acting behind the scenes, Odysseus' quest to make it home takes on proportions as epic as the war he fought in.

Written as an epic poem, in Robert Fagles' translation, The Odyssey is presented in modern verse. It makes for an accessible translation, if occasionally feeling stilted in its desire to render the ancient in contemporary terms. I would have to assume other translations, such as Edith Wilson's recent and critically acclaimed edition, are more technically accurate. Nevertheless, for a casual reader like me, Fagles' translation gets the job done (and can easily be found at any used bookstore.)

The Odyssey is one of those classics which is so influential that reviewing its content feels almost beside the point. With that being said, this is the kind of ancient work that, at least in this translation, is relatively accessible and interesting. I'm glad to cross it off my TBR list, and found the journey to finish it to be a worthy one.

I SEE YOU, BIG GERMAN by Zac Crain

It's been an, ahem, eventful month for the Dallas Mavericks. Perhaps you've heard. (We miss you, Luka!)

In the midst of both mourning the loss of an icon and ruing the self-sabotage of the team, I decided it was as good a time as any to take a walk down memory lane. I See You, Big German is an ode to the city's most beloved athlete, the other European superstar known throughout Dallas by only his first name: Dirk.

Zac Crain, the late pop culture writer best known for his music writing with The Dallas Observer and D Magazine, wrote this book not as an objective journalist, but as a dyed-in-the-wool MMFL (that's "Mavs Fan for Life" for the uninitiated.) Its conceit is a letter from Crain to Dirk, seeking to walk through Nowitzki's career and to explain why he came to mean so much to both the writer and his city. Tracing Dirk's rise from unknown, doubted European prospect to incandescent but always-falls-short MVP to NBA champion, the book hits all the highs and lows that Mavs fans know so well from 1998 to 2011, when Dirk willed Dallas to its first and only championship.

But the book's central thesis, quoted on its back cover, is that 2011 isn't what made Dallas love Dirk. 2012-2019, when he stuck around despite slapdash rosters and his own declining skills, was. It was Dirk's insistence that being a Maverick was more important to him than winning another ring elsewhere that made put him on the city's Mount Rushmore. Having lived through Dirk's whole career, I'm inclined to agree with Crain. Dallas loves a winner, make no mistake—but maybe even more, we love being loved by a winner.

Who knows when the Mavs will win another title. Count me as one of the vast majority skeptical that Anthony Davis will bring home what Nico Harrison decided Luka could not (despite Luka being only 3 wins away literally last year). What I do know is that no Maverick—not Davis, not Dončić, not a player to be named later—will ever hold the place in our heart that Dirk does. It took every bit of his 21-year career, all the heartbreaks and all the points and that one unlikely, glorious triumph in 2011, but now we know: Dirk stands alone.

THE WITCHES by Roald Dahl

What if you found out that the world was secretly full of witches in disguise plotting to eat children? What if you discovered that a cabal of them, including the Grand High Witch herself, was having its annual meeting in your hotel? And what if, worst of all, you learned that they had crafted a special formula that could turn children into mice and were prepared to unleash it upon the world?

Well then, I suppose that would make you the protagonist of Roald Dahl's The Witches, one of the darker entries in his canon (scary enough in the early goings that we thought about aborting for Katherine's sake.) This one has a small cast and is light on plot—nearly a third of the book is just the protagonist narrator eavesdropping on the witches' annual meeting—but carried by Dahl's characteristic blend of imagination and humor, it makes the most of its 200 pages.

The ending is a bit unsatisfactory—in fact, if this book was released today, everyone would assume Dahl was just cynically setting up for a sequel—but the ride is a fun one. I wouldn't put this in Dahl's top 3 books, but it might be able to squeeze into the top 5. 

ESSENTIAL X-MEN VOL. 8 by Chris Claremont, Marc Silvestri, et al.

This volume is comprised of the X-Men's so-called "Outback Era," a time when the team was thought dead by the world (even mystically hidden from all technological detection) and they made their headquarters in the wilderness of Australia, conveyed to their missions not by a sleek jet but by an aboriginal mutant named Gateway. It's also a time when the team itself was made up largely of B-listers: Psylocke, Dazzler, Rogue, and Longshot are key players, and only Wolverine and Storm are so-called "main characters" on the team.

That may sound like a drag, but it actually made for my favorite volume of X-Men stories in several months. The change in scenery was a welcome one, and the team's under-the-radar status provided an interesting wrinkle to their various adventures. Thought dead by the world, the X-Men in these issues must not only save the world, but do it on the down low.

It all comes to a head with Inferno, the first true X-crossover event, which sees Cyclops' wife, Madelyne Pryor, transformed into the Goblin Queen as Limbo threatens to encroach onto this dimension. This particular story is classic X-Men in that there are are reality-defining implications, yet the character dynamics are the most interesting part of the story. With Chris Claremont and Marc Silvestri leading the charge, the  story is in good hands. I'm eager to see where things go in volume 9!

ABSOLUTE MISTER MIRACLE by Tom King and Mitch Gerards

Darkseid is.

With that simple sentence, Tom King gives voice to the anxiety that seems to dominate our world, the foreboding feeling that everything is wrong. Repeated as a mantra, often a non-sequitur, throughout the book, it acts as the voice in the back of your mind anytime things seem too good to be true.

Darkseid is.

That anxiety prompts Scott Free, the eponymous Mister Miracle, to attempt suicide in the book's opening pages. That trauma is a lurking shadow throughout the book, even as life goes on. Scott is thrust into a war between the dueling planets of Apokolips and New Genesis, where he must serve as a general and then eventually as Highfather. He leads an assassination attempt on the vile Granny Goodness, the master of torture who raised him. He is judged by Orion, a brother figure who despises him. He tries and fails to make peace at a summit with Darkseid's son Kalibak. It all feels so hopeless, so impossible.

Darkseid is.

At home, in the Los Angeles condo he and wife Big Barda share, they fret about the more workaday aspects of life. Should they renovate the condo? Who will watch their baby when they're off fighting the war? What kind of cake should they get for his first birthday party? The concerns are all small, with none of the epic elements of the Fourth World, but they're real. They're worrisome.

Darkseid is.

The book is a constant contrast of the fantastical and the normal, the Fourth World and the real world. Played for both humor and pathos, images like Darkseid eating a carrot stick or Scott cutting his son's umbilical cord with an Apokolips-forged fahren-knife dominate the book. Mitch Gerards' realistic, sketchy art style contrasted with the bright colors of Kirby's characters helps accentuate this dichotomy.  

It all culminates in the book's penultimate issue, when Scott kills Darkseid, only to learn that, as had been foreshadowed throughout the book, things are not as they seem. Is Scott actually dead, and the whole book has been a dream of sorts? Is Scott infected with the Anti-Life Equation? Is any of this real?

Darkseid is.

The book's final issue doesn't necessarily answer of these questions, not definitively. But life goes on for Scott and Barda. They have their home, their son, another baby on the way. They have each other. And, whatever trauma has happened and whatever anxieties are still to come, Scott determines they will face it all together. The darkness is real, but they won't let it have the final say. They'll enjoy what they have for as long as they get to keep it.

It's a small victory, maybe even an illusory one. But sometimes it's not about the sweeping battles or the swelling music. Sometimes hope is beautifully ordinary. And sometimes that's enough.

"Darkseid is."

"Yeah, I know. But we are too."

The Sickness of Sin (Friday Devotional)

“It is what comes out of a person that defiles. For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

- Mark 7:20-23

Two weeks ago, my son Andrew was unusually lethargic when we woke him up for school and was running a low-grade fever. With so many bugs running rampant, I took him to Urgent Care to see what was up and, after running the usual tests for strep, flu, and COVID, the doctor came back with a verdict: influenza A. We were instructed to keep him home from school for the rest of the week since that’s how long he would be contagious.

Here's the thing—after that first day, Andrew seemed to feel fine. He had plenty of energy, a normal appetite, and no discernible symptoms. Nevertheless, following doctor’s orders, we kept him home from school all week long. He watched waaaaay more TV than we would normally allow. He stayed in his pajamas all day. Being sick, he decided, was pretty great.

But then the following week, just when we were ready to send him back to school, his flu had some sort of a surge (or he came down with something else). Suddenly, we couldn’t keep his fever below 101 degrees for more than an hour or two. He didn’t want to eat anything. He was rarely awake for more than a couple hours at a time. Just like that, he decided it wasn’t so fun to be sick anymore.

It occurs to me that sin is a lot like my son’s experience with the flu. At first, yielding to temptation is often pretty satisfying—your flesh is gratified and any potential consequences seem to be a million miles away. But inevitably, after the binge comes the hangover—whether it happens immediately or years down the road, brokenness within leads to brokenness on the outside.

But here’s the good news: just as we were able to treat my son’s illness with medicine, there is a cure for the sickness of sin. Jesus died on the cross so that, by grace and through faith, we could be healed, so that sin would not have the final word. If you confess your sins, the Lord is faithful to forgive you and cleanse you, to make you new in him.

Our world excuses and glorifies sin, but all it takes is a little life experience to see that the juice isn’t worth the squeeze. Being sick isn’t fun—so come to Jesus and be healed.

Two Travelers and a Bear (Friday Devotional)

 

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.

- Psalm 34:18

Aesop’s fable of “Two Travelers and a Bear” tells the story of two friends who were walking through a forest when suddenly, a large bear appeared on the path. Terrified, one of the men quickly climbed a tree and hid, leaving the other behind. The second traveler, who could not climb, fell to the ground and played dead, knowing that bears do not attack lifeless bodies.

The bear came close, sniffed him, and then walked away, believing him to be dead. When the bear was gone, the first traveler climbed down and laughed nervously, asking, "What did the bear whisper in your ear?"

The second traveler replied, "It told me never to trust a friend who abandons you in danger."

In difficult times, you quickly learn which people in your life will stand by your side and who will scamper to safety. Sadly, there may even be times when, like that second traveler, you feel entirely alone in your stress, doubt, grief, or pain.

But the Bible reminds us that, even in the depths of despair, the Lord remains by your side. When you are at your lowest point, where none but those closest to you dare to follow, God is still with you. He never leaves his children, and his grace gives you sustaining power when your own strength is gone.

Sometimes life throws a bear at you, and sometimes all you know to do is play dead. But even when others forsake you, the Lord never will. He is near to the brokenhearted, and he stands ready to raise you up.