Takeout Worship (Friday Devotional)

Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

- John 4:21-24

If you’re like me, you ate a lot more takeout in 2020 than you did in 2019. Maybe it was because you were so exhausted by the end of a day of Zoom meetings and doomscrolling that the last thing you wanted to do was cook. Maybe it was because you wanted to support a local restaurant struggling to hang on. Or maybe you just missed eating out and were willing to settle for the next best thing.

What’s interesting is that, after a year of bringing home restaurant food in Styrofoam containers, I’ve learned that it’s not so bad! The food is still fresh. I don’t have to wait for a table. And if my kids can’t sit still during dinner, I don’t have to worry about the judgmental stares of strangers. Sometimes I miss the ambience and service of eating out—but it’s been nice to learn I can bring some of that experience home.

When we think about worship, we tend to tie it to a place: the church sanctuary. After all, it’s the place where the musical instruments are, where the audio-visual equipment is, and where the congregation of believers is. It’s where the preacher delivers his sermon and where the tithes and offerings are collected. It’s where new believers are baptized and where the Lord’s Supper is taken. Worship is something that happens in the sanctuary for one hour every Sunday.

Or so we think. But Jesus reminds us that worship is not confined to one place, nor to one time, nor to one style. Worship—that is, bringing God your praise and your devotion—has far fewer limits than we imagine. What is crucial to God is not the methodology of our worship but the motivation—not that we worship at 11:00 in the church house, but that we worship in spirit and in truth.

I love being able to worship every Sunday morning in the sanctuary with my church family. But I also appreciate the reminder we’ve been given in the last year that worship isn’t as tied down as we believed. God meets us where we are, whether the windows are stained glass or screened. Try some “takeout worship” today.

Grab a Spoon (Friday Devotional)

 

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

- Philippians 2:4

A Lithuanian parable tells of a man who walks into a packed dining hall filled with delicious food, but also starving people. Puzzled by the apparent contradiction, the man learns that the spoons the people are required to use are so long they can’t bring the food to their mouths.

Ushered next door, he enters another dining hall. This room has the same setup—long tables filled with food, and spoons just as long as those next door. Yet here everyone is happy and smiling. When the man asks what is different, he is told to see for himself: taking the long spoons in hand, the people are feeding each other.

In our world, you are encouraged to look out for yourself first and foremost, to solve your own problems with your own solutions and expect the same from others. Those who give to the needy are seen as naïve, and those who accept help are considered leeches. It’s every man for himself out here.

But the gospel points us toward a different way of life, one embodied by the Lord who gave everything for us. He calls us not ignore our neighbors but to love them, not to disregard others’ care but to accept it with thanksgiving. Instead of calling us to rugged individualism, Jesus invites us to beloved community.

The troubles this world presents are many, and far more than any one person can handle alone. But we can be thankful that Christ doesn’t call us to make our way through life singlehanded—we are part of the family of God, surrounded by brothers and sisters in faith. Grab a spoon.

Peace That Sticks (Friday Devotional)

 

Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. 

- Romans 14:19

By the time our first worship service started on Sunday, my Facebook news feed was already full of photos of snow-covered rooftops, lawns, and college campuses. From Lubbock to Waco, my friends couldn’t wait to show the world the snowmen they were building, snowball fights they were having, and Christmas card-worthy blanket of white powder that covered their streets.

So by the time the second worship service ended, I was excited to see that we were getting our own flurries here in Garland, a deluge of soft white flakes that kids were delightedly catching on their tongues in the parking lot. But if my friends around the state were waiting for me to post my own snow day pictures then they were disappointed, because none were forthcoming. With the temperature resting at 37 degrees and the ground even warmer than that, every snowflake melted almost immediately upon landing. No matter how much snow fell, none of it was going to stick until the ground cooled down.

Following the explosive, tragic events at the U.S. Capitol last Wednesday, there have been not just flurries but an avalanche of calls for unity, both from those who sincerely want harmony and those who are trying to change the subject from their own divisive actions. There is a hope that the horror we saw last week can serve as a shock to the system, a wake-up call for a nation that has become increasingly divided over the last several decades.

But if these flurries are going to stick, they need to land on ground that is cool enough for them to do so. Achieving unity takes more than calling for it, it requires being willing to create the conditions where it can prosper. Harmony, in other words, isn’t just something you demand from others, it’s something you extend to others.

There’s not much reason right now to expect calls for unity to stick nationwide—but you can make them stick in your own circle. In your family, you can pursue peace when it would be more self-gratifying to take a cheap shot. In your workplace, you can show kindness when you would rather show hostility. In your church, you can be the voice of calm when others’ voices are raised.

It’s my prayer that unity blankets our land like new fallen snow. But for that to happen, believers in the Prince of Peace will need to follow him by putting down our swords and healing those who are hurting. For it’s through such acts of unwarranted mercy that peace starts to stick.

Splashing and Swimming (Friday Devotional)

 

For this very reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love. For if these things are yours and are increasing among you, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

- 2 Peter 1:5-8

Every Wednesday for the last six months, I left the office for an hour in the middle of the morning to take my 4-year-old son Andrew to swimming lessons. Each week I watched as he incrementally progressed, transforming from a boy afraid to put his head underwater to one who can swim 20 yards unassisted, float on his back, and jump in the pool with delight instead of fear.

Pleased with Andrew’s progress, Lindsey and I decided that this semester we’d also enroll our 1-year-old daughter Katherine in lessons so she could get an early jump on learning to swim. This past Wednesday was her first lesson, and it looked understandably different from Andrew’s. The primary purpose of the lesson was simply to get her used to the water—no attempts to dog paddle or float, and certainly no jumping in the pool. All of that will come in time. For day one, it was mostly just a lot of splashing.

Following Christ bears some resemblance to learning to swim. Anyone who professes faith that Jesus is Lord comes out of the baptismal waters ‘splashing’—they are a new creation, and there are a million things to learn about this new life in Christ. Salvation brings with it the promise of eternal life, but it doesn’t transform your entire personality or eliminate your temptations—you remain in the world even as you are now a citizen of heaven.

In order for salvation to become sanctification, for inward change to manifest outwardly—in order to ‘swim’—it takes time, discipleship, and prayer. Growing in Christ isn’t something that just happens, it’s the result of intentionally seeking the Lord and following where he leads. It's something that comes through prayer, the study of God’s Word, the practicing of spiritual disciplines, worshiping with fellow believers, and learning from trusted, mature Christians. And the more you grow in Christ, the more you experience the abundant life he promises.

Everyone’s relationship with Christ starts at square one, but we cannot be content to remain there. The Lord wants us to know him better day by day, to not only trust him but follow him, to be his witnesses in the world. Conversion must not be the end of your faith story, but only the beginning—because splashing is fine, but swimming is better.

My Resolutions for 2021

 

Each of the past two years, I've managed to come up with 13 New Year's resolutions ranging from the easily attainable to the laughably impossible. This year I decided to whittle things down to what I can actually pull off, and cut the list down a little. Here's what's in store for 2021:

1. Watch the entire Ken Burns filmography

Maybe you've noticed, our country's going through something of an identity crisis. The question "who are we?" is one that a liberal Californian, a moderate Wisconsonian, and a conservative Texan would probably answer very differently from one another right now.

Ken Burns has spent his entire career telling the story of America through documentaries about everything from the Civil War to baseball to jazz to our national parks. So in 2021 I'm committing to watching his entire filmography (I already got a jump at the end of 2020 with my annual rewatch of his 11-episode Baseball doc.) This is easily the most fun resolution on the list.

2. Read all my unread books

As I've mentioned before on this blog, I keep a handwritten list of every book I own, and when I finish a book, I cross it off the list. The goal for years has been to eventually cross every single book off the list.

At the time of this writing, I'm 11 books away.

It's go time.

3. Reach out to 5 church members every day

The pandemic made it more important than ever to keep up with my church members, and more difficult. No longer could I count on casual conversations in the hallway, quick chats after Sunday School, or unexpected drop-ins to my office throughout the week. If I want to keep up with my people, I have to make the effort to reach out.

So in 2021, I'm committing to reach out to 5 church members every work day (Sunday-Wednesday and Friday). Reaching out = a phone call, a text, an e-mail, a Facebook message, a personal visit, or a note in the mail. It does not include contacting people for "business" reasons (scheduling a meeting, replying to an e-mail they sent me, etc.)

4. Read through the Bible with Lindsey

In 2020, Lindsey read the entire Bible with the help of the Bible Recap reading plan and accompanying podcast. In the course of doing so, she talked with me numerous times about some of the things she'd noticed and learned about. So in 2021, we're going to make those conversations a daily occurrence by reading through the Bible together. Excited for this one!

5. Pay off our SUV

We currently have two outstanding debts: our car payment and our mortgage. With an assist from some Christmas checks and the latest stimulus package, we think we'll be able to pay off the former this year if we stay focused and don't do anything dumb. Stay focused and don't do anything dumb...sounds like a New Year's resolution to me!

6. Spend 5 hours per week writing (not for work)

This is a revision of one that was on last year's list, when I committed to writing for one hour each day. Whether I'm writing a blog post, a music review, or a chapter of that book I keep saying I'm going to write someday, I want to commit to 5 hours per week of writing...and sermons, Bible study curriculum, and devotionals don't count.

7. Do something nice for Lindsey every day

Another holdover from last year that I embarrassingly didn't follow through on. "Something nice" can mean writing her a nice note, doing one of the chores that's normally hers, buying her a Sonic drink...really anything. The point is to do something kind each to show her I love her.

8. Listen to 3 songs per day

This was on my list in 2019, and here it is again. I like music too much to listen to as little of it as I do. I really wish I could work with music playing.

But since I can't, I'm committing to 3 songs—ten minutes, basically—of dedicated listening per day. Eyes closed, headphones on, nothing else going on. Anything beyond that is great. But I'm not going to bed until I've done at least that much.

9. Put my phone down

My average screen time per day (on my phone, not my computer) is nearly 4 hours. I don't know about you, but that makes me say yikes.

Goal for 2021: get that number closer to 2 hours.

What's Next (Friday Devotional)

 

For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

- Ephesians 2:10

After all the “good riddance, 2020” memes, all the farewells to a year we’re glad to see go, I woke up this morning and the world was…pretty much like yesterday. The newspaper still had pages of coverage about COVID-19, and much of the news was bad. I will still need to wear a mask when I go run errands later today. I still can’t hug my grandmother. For all our hopes that 2021 will eventually be different from 2020, for now the world remains the same.

But while the world has not yet changed, you can. We spent so much of 2020 bemoaning the state of the world and reacting (sometimes well, sometimes poorly) to the latest domino to fall. We felt like we had no control over what would happen next, no say in what tomorrow had to offer.

In 2021, you still have little control over what the world throws at you—but you get to determine what you throw back. In Christ, we are called to lives of good works, to extend to the world the grace which has changed us. In days of darkness, Christ doesn’t call us to wait for light, but to produce it.

In a continuing season of isolation, you can reach out to your neighbors. In a continuing season of cynicism, you can be a voice of earnest faith. In a continuing season of bad news, you share Good News. You don’t get to choose the times you live in, but you get to choose how you respond.

There’s no telling what exactly 2021 holds, no way to know for sure how differently the world will look 364 days from now. But with Christ as your hope, refuge, and strength, you can decide right now how your witness for him will look. The world will change, like it or not. Will you?