The Sound and the Fury (Friday Devotional)

 

Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

- Colossians 3:13

Every morning, Lindsey and I have expectations for the kids before they go to school. They need to make their beds. They need to get themselves dressed. They need to practice piano. They need to eat breakfast. And they need to brush their teeth.

As for me and Lindsey, we also have things to do. We have to get dressed, make our bed, and brush our teeth too. She makes the kids’ breakfast, I get their backpacks ready to go, one of us changes the baby’s diaper, and I do whatever kitchen cleanup is needed.

All of these jobs have to be completed in an hour—between 6:30 AM, when I rouse everybody out of bed, and 7:30, when everybody loads into the car for school. On a good morning, when everybody wakes up cheerful and ready to move, that’s more than enough time.

That being said, there are five of us—the odds of everybody waking up perky on the same day are slim.

So what we wind up with most mornings, frankly, is a lot of yelling. Me yelling because Andrew is bouncing a basketball instead of playing piano. Lindsey yelling because Katherine’s been at the breakfast table for 20 minutes and she still hasn’t taken her second bite of eggs. Isaac yelling because he’s a baby. Lots and lots of yelling.

It’s not ideal, and it means the day starts with a dark cloud over it. But 95% of the time—whether on the way out the door, on the drive to school, or at dinner that night—something happens that brings a little light. Me and Lindsey take a breath and apologize to the kids for losing our tempers and ask them to forgive us. The kids say it’s ok and admit they weren’t being as good of listeners as they could have been either. And we all say ‘I love you.’

Repentance. Forgiveness. Reconciliation.

We understand how this works between ourselves and God; it’s a foundational doctrine of our faith—if you confess your sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Our relationship with God is built upon the knowledge that we are sinners in need of his grace.

But what we are slower to acknowledge is that we need to live out that same process in our relationships with our fellow human beings, from our family members to our friends to our neighbors. Being in a relationship with someone means bearing with their faults and forgiving when there is grievance. It means showing a fraction of the grace you were shown on the cross.

Everybody has a bad day occasionally But when those bad days come—whether you’re the one doing the yelling or you’re the one getting yelled at—let grace be your guide toward reconciliation.

The Pursuit and the Prize (Friday Devotional)

 

I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

- Philippians 3:14 

My son Isaac is endlessly fascinated by the sight of me in a baseball cap. The moment he sees me wearing one, he reaches out to grab it—doesn’t matter what colors are on the hat or what team it represents. He is locked on my cap until he manages to wrest it off my head.

But I’ve noticed something funny: once he has a hold of the hat, he doesn’t know what to do with it. Sometimes he’ll put the brim in his mouth, other times he’ll raise it above his head like a trophy, and still other times he’ll crawl away clutching it in one hand. Whatever he does with it initially, he almost always gets bored after a few seconds, at least until I put it back on my head. He’s like the proverbial dog that caught the car—he knows he wants it, but once he’s got it, he doesn’t know what to do. 

There are things that people spend their entire lives pursuing. From fame to fortune, from power to prosperity, we thirst for those things which will make us feel successful, those things our culture says bring happiness. 

But what many find is that once they graduate from the pursuit of happiness to the achievement of their dreams, they still feel empty. Money can’t buy happiness, and power doesn’t win you love. The deeper longings of the soul are not rewarded by earthly gain, no matter how much you acquire.

Scripture speaks of a different pursuit than the kind our world glorifies. Paul wrote about pressing on toward the goal to win the prize—not a trophy or a title, but the prize of knowing Christ in life and thus being assured of resurrection after death. This pursuit was one that drove him every day to share the gospel—and this prize was one that lasts for all eternity. Knowing the Lord, he showed, satisfies your soul.

Everybody needs a reason to get up in the morning, some kind of chase motivating you to keep pushing. Don’t settle for worldly prizes that inevitably disappoint. Instead, find your purpose in his glory.

The Main Thing (Friday Devotional)

 

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

- Matthew 6:33

If you go to football stadiums around the nation, from MetLife Stadium in New Jersey to Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte to AT&T Stadium right down the road in Arlington, you’ll see advertisements and sponsorships everywhere, from the parking lot to the concessions stand. Indeed, just the naming rights for major arenas are multimillion dollar contracts. Go to any college or pro sporting event these days and you’ll be bombarded with marketing.

Everywhere, that is, except for the largest of them all, Michigan Stadium, a.k.a. “The Big House.” The Wolverines are one of only two FBS programs—the other is Notre Dame—to eschew corporate advertising in their facilities. Where you might normally find a Coca-Cola logo or a Geico sign, you instead find photos of past Michigan greats and other reminders of the school’s history. Not until last year was there even discussion of introducing corporate advertising, because the football program’s mentality is simple: we want to keep the main thing the main thing.

In a field like college athletics, where money is everything, that attitude seems contradictory, even foolish. But for Michigan, it hasn’t seemed to hurt the bottom line—Michigan has the most all-time wins in the history of college football, is a title contender every year, and won the national championship as recently as 2023. By maintaining their focus on what matters most, they trust that the smaller things will take care of themselves.

Believers can learn something from that attitude. We often get hung up on our own concerns, priorities, and opinions, running ourselves ragged trying to make sure things are under our control. But Jesus told us what priority number one ought to be: “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” Following God, not pleasing ourselves, is supposed to come first.

And the beautiful truth is, when you do that, the things you would otherwise have been obsessing over tend to work themselves out—as Jesus put it, “these things will be added unto you.” While the secular proverb says, ‘God helps those who help themselves,’ the Bible teaches that God blesses those—whether spiritually, emotionally, or materially—who align themselves with his will. Keep the main thing the main thing, and the secondary stuff comes second.

So here’s the big question: what comes first in your life?

More to Learn (Friday Devotional)

 

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

- 2 Timothy 3:16-17

The other night, I sat down to read a chapter from the Bible with the kids, as we do most nights before bed. We recently started Genesis, so that night’s reading was chapter 7, the story of Noah building an ark to spare him, his family, and a sampling of the earth’s animals from the great flood God was bringing. I had only read a couple of verses when Katherine interrupted me with a question: “Daddy, I already know this story, so do I have to listen while you read it?”

It occurs to me that her question, with all its innocent bluntness, is one which believers, especially those who have known the Lord for a long while, probably sympathize with. While most Christians have their blind spots when it comes to biblical literacy—I have yet to meet a lay person well-versed in Nahum or Jude—there are likely stories, passages, and even whole books of the Bible that you feel like you know backwards and forwards.

So when you turn to Psalm 23 in your reading plan, when the pastor preaches from Romans, or when Easter rolls around and you’re reading the gospel accounts of the crucifixion and resurrection once again, the natural reaction is to close your ears and turn your brain off. Surely there’s nothing new to learn, no teaching you haven’t heard a million times before, no new insight to be gleaned.

If the Bible was just any old book, you would probably be right about that—there’s a limit to how much you can derive from War and Peace or Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. But the Bible is more than just literature, more than just a library of interesting stories, pithy proverbs, and helpful teachings. Scripture is God-breathed; its writings are divinely inspired—it is more than just a good book, it is the Good Book.

The amazing thing, indeed, the supernatural thing about the Bible is that it is living and active, meaning that God never stops speaking to us through it. When you read it, you may not pick up a new piece of trivia, but if you have ears to hear, you will learn something. God constantly reveals himself through the study of his Word, just as he does through prayer, through worship, etc.

So don’t come to Scripture with an arrogant heart or a closed mind, convinced you have nothing left to learn. God’s not done with you yet, and he still has plenty to teach you through his Word.

Always Open (Friday Devotional)

 

I lift up my eyes to the hills—from where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. 

- Psalm 121:1-4

It happened for the first time on December 26, with presents all unwrapped and the kids looking for something to do. It happened again the following Monday, when I left the church office thinking I could find a change of scenery. And then it happened for a third and final time on New Year’s Day, when I really should have known better.

Every time, the same story—I drove up to the public library and found its parking lot empty and its doors locked. Closed.

That’s a common occurrence this time of year, when businesses, schools, and organizations give their employees extra time with family before getting back in the swing of things after New Year’s. And even on a normal week, most places have at least one day where their doors are not open. Nevertheless, it’s always a frustrating feeling when you drive somewhere and find out they’re closed for business.

So what a joyous relief to be reminded that there is never a time—not on Saturdays, not on holidays, not in the middle of the night—when God is unavailable to hear our prayers. He never takes a day off, he’s never too busy or too preoccupied to listen, and he never pushes us away.

Whether you come to the Lord with thanksgiving or sorrow, reverence or requests, hallelujahs or cries for help, God is always listening. So don’t be shy about lifting your eyes to heaven, and don’t withhold your prayers—because heaven is always open for business.

My Resolutions for 2025

 

At the beginning of every year I make a lengthy list of resolutions for the new year and share them for my accountability and your entertainment. Some of these are purely personal, some are church-related, and a few are just for funsies. But as of January 1, 2025, I intend to keep them all.

Of course, we'll see how I feel by January 3. Here's the list:

1. Read some poetry every day

You know what's really good at forcing you to slow down? Poetry. Coincidentally, you know what I've read very little of since high school? Poetry.

There's no quantitative goal here—I'm not trying to knock out 10 poetry books or anything like that. Some days I may read one sonnet and then shut the book, other days I may spend half an hour immersed in some poet's collected works. Regardless, I want to devote at least a few minutes every day to the kind of literary beauty that only poetry offers.

2. Memorize Scripture

Recycling this resolution from 2020, because I think most of the 368 verses I memorized that year have fallen out of my brain by now. Scripture memorization is just not something that comes naturally to me, and it's an area where I wish I had more confidence.

I don't have a specific number in mind for this one, I'll just make flash cards in conjunction with my daily devotional time. And I want to be sure I keep those flash cards so I don't have to recreate them again in 2028 when this resolution inevitably makes its next reoccurence.

3. Read Ulysses and Finnegans Wake

I don't get James Joyce, I just don't. I've read Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and Ulysses, and after each book I walked away somewhere between underwhelmed and annoyed. I find him pretentious and snobbish, and think half the literati who praise his name are just doing so to fit in with the crowd.

But here's my dirty little secret: I want to see what they're seeing. I don't understand James Joyce, but I wish I did.

So, inspired by our trip to Dublin last year, I'm making this the Year of Joyce. I've accumulated a stack of study guides to aid me in comprehension and I'm going to tackle not only Ulysses, his masterpiece, but also Finnegans Wake, notoriously regarded as the most difficult work of literature ever written. By the end of the year I will know for sure whether Joyce really is the genius everyone says he is or whether I can abandon trying to understand him once and for all.

4. Organize music library

Because I am hopelessly old-fashioned in this department, I still maintain an iTunes library of purchased, downloaded music despite also having an Apple Music subscription so I can stream like the rest of the world does. There are currently 10,019 songs in that library, taking up 63.29 GB of memory on my computer, and some of the songs haven't been listened to in literally 20 years.

So, a few minutes a day, I want to do two things: 1) cull through the music I don't care about owning—mostly free demos and giveaway albums, and 2) burn the albums I do care about to CDs so I have a hard copy somewhere when my computer inevitably crashes. I know, I know, the cloud, blah blah blah. You heard the part about me being hopelessly old-fashioned, right?

The fun part of this project: rediscovering music I haven't thought about in ages. The maddening part: using iTunes. Apple really has abandoned it, and it shows. But I press on, raging against the dying of the light.

5. Listen to Bob Dylan's complete discography

Speaking of music, have you heard of this Bob Dylan fella that Timothée Chalamet is playing in A Complete Unknown? I hear good things, but I confess that my exposure is almost exclusively limited to the hits (which did not stop me from opening my wallet back in the days when all my spending money went toward buying music—I own 16 Dylan albums.)

So in 2025, with Bob Dylan: All the Songs as my guidebook, I'm going to work my way through Mr. Zimmerman's discography, all 40 studio albums. For the sticklers out there, that's the finish line: studio albums. If I get to The Bootleg Series, the 21 live albums, and his work with the Band and the Traveling Wilburys, then cool. But I've got to draw the line somewhere.

So if my voice suddenly starts sounding really nasally this year, you'll know why.

6. Write a Lenten devotional book

In 2022, I wrote and self-published a devotional book for Advent. It was well-received by my congregation and friends, and I still get a thank you or two every December from folks reading (or rereading) it as part of their daily time with the Lord. It was a lot of work, but it was a fun process, and I'm proud of the end result.

So this spring I want to do something similar for Lent, giving folks something to guide their devotional time in the season leading up to Easter. You'll know by March 5 (Ash Wednesday) whether I've pulled this one off!

7. Lead a strategic planning process for SGBC

Like many churches, mine has declined over the last 5 years by virtually every statistical measure. That doesn't mean the sky is falling, but it does mean we can't just keep doing what we're doing and expect things to get better. Not only is vision needed, but so is strategy.

So in the last quarter of 2024, our deacon chair and I assembled a committee of church members to serve as a strategic planning team, with a mission of crafting a written report of proposals the church needs to take to better live out our vision. That group has already had its first meeting, and will continue to meet roughly once per month until the fall.

So this resolution, the most important on this list, is to lead that committee to write a report that is comprehensive but succinct, imaginative but realistic, and persuasive enough to be adopted by the congregation. It's a big job, but a needed one, and I'm excited by the possibilities.

8. Get healthy

You know the drill: Run every day. Cut my sugar intake. Drink more water. And, most importantly, watch what I'm eating.

Some variation of "get healthy" is the most popular New Year's resolution every year. At age 35, it's time for me to get on board. I don't anticipate this one being easy, but I'm weirdly motivated about it in a way I never have been before. We'll see.

9. Finish my sermons on Friday

Every Saturday night after the kids go to bed, I go to the church to review my sermon for Sunday morning. The idea is for that to be a time for practicing the sermon out loud and cutting any fat before I preach it to the congregation the next morning.

Unfortunately, there have been way too many Saturdays over the last few years where I'm still writing new material at 11:00 pm, less than 12 hours before I'm supposed to stand and deliver. Not ideal.

So the resolution for 2025 is to routinely have my rough draft finished by the time I head home on Friday afternoon. I'll allow myself grace on super busy weeks, but I need to be doing a lot more editing and practicing than writing on Saturdays.

10. Walk to work

I live two blocks from the church. Why am I wasting gas every day when I could be getting some fresh air instead? Time to stretch my legs and pound the pavement instead of lazily "commuting" 45 seconds down the road.

11. Spend less money

I don't need more books. I don't need more baseball caps. And if I'm going to honor resolution #8, I don't need more fast food either.

So, starting with a family-wide No-Spend January, I'm trying to cut back on the retail therapy. I'm far from a spendthrift, but I can be more frugal than I have been to this point. And with three kids to put through college in a few years, every penny counts.

12. Track my time

At various points in adulthood, starting in college, I have kept a detailed, handwritten log of how I spend my time in half-hour increments. At best, it's a great tool for memory, record keeping, and accountability, and it discourages me from wasting time—after all, it's pretty sobering to write "doomscrolled" down for a 2-hour block of time. At worst, it feels anal-retentive and crazy.

Well, I haven't been doing it for more than a year, and I think I could use a little crazy to break some bad habits (see resolution #9). So in 2025, at least when I'm working, I'm going to get back to tracking my time.