As COVID-19 has reached us here in the west, life has changed rapidly in just a matter of days. Our routines have been upended by the sudden mandate to work from home, take children out of school, distance ourselves socially, and even worship from afar. All these sudden changes have prompted people into self-preservation mode. Store shelves have emptied as people stockpile for the worst, with toilet paper apparently being a must-have in a crisis. I finally braved venturing to Trader Joe’s today, and I had to remind myself to buy appropriately, and not out of fear.

News media is also unhelpful for helping us remain calm. I want to stay current, but too much of the news puts me in greater panic. And what about all the conflicting information on different outlets? It’s hard to know what to believe, and which experts hold the truth. And reading about symptoms makes me second guess a cough or scratchy throat.

I’m also all of a sudden more sensitive to all the germs around me. I tell myself to wash my hands, and not touch my face. I keep my Lysol wipes near, and try not to become too compulsive about using them. When my water randomly shut off the other night, I felt completely unclean not being able to wash my hands, brush my teeth, or shower. It wasn’t my finest moment, and thankfully the water came back on in an hour. “Planned shutoff” I was told by the water department. Again, not helpful right now.

When we sense our vulnerability, it exposes our weakness. Do I really trust in a God who has promised to be faithful? My resolve has definite cracks, and I find myself wavering. Lord, have mercy on my anxious soul. Help me to remember that perfect love casts out fear, and there is nothing in which you are not completely sovereign. Help me to fix my eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. May your Spirit draw many more to our Savior Jesus Christ in these uncertain times, and may your name be glorified as we the church seek to be light and hope to the world.

The side button on my phone has decided that it wants to ignore my double clicking. Curiously, after a few futile attempts to will it into submission, my phone decides to make a SOS call, prompting a frantic scramble to cancel the “emergency” that my phone has determined for me.

I think a lot of times we don’t know when to ask for help. I see it already in my 1-year old niece. She often initially refuses help, determined to go at it on her own. After a few tries on her own, when asked again if she needs help, she will reluctantly signal that yes, she wants that help after all.

It’s necessary to be reminded that we have to get help. As much as I think “I got this,” each time I see my inability to do exactly that or stumble into sin, I have to relinquish my pride and turn to a God who has put into motion our rescue ever since man decided that he could go at it on his own, becoming like God. “Hear, O LORD, and be merciful to me! O LORD, be my helper!" - Psalm 30:10

Most years I start playing Christmas music the week of Thanksgiving. It aligns nicely with when the local light rock radio station switches over to holiday music. For a month straight, it’s pretty much a steady stream of Christmas music for me. 

It’s now a few days into the new year, but there’s been one Christmas song that I’ve kept on repeat: “O Come All Ye Faithful.” Mariah Carey’s rendition has been particularly worship inducing, regardless if much of her music has her pining for lesser things (“All I Want for Christmas is You,” anyone?”) Credit those ridiculously high diva notes for prompting me to re-examine the lyrics to this , which resonate as a beautiful invitation first published in Latin by John Francis Wade:

“O come…” 

The invitation is in the word “come.” It’s a given that all invitations ask the recipient to come in some form, yet I can’t help but think that I often drag my feet when it comes to drawing near to God. It reminds me of the prophet Isaiah’s invitation: "Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.” (Isaiah 55:1-2) 

“...all ye faithful”

To be considered faithful is to remain steadfast in all circumstances. I admit to waning when I can’t see a path to deliverance, or a clear manifestation of His presence. It takes a lot to be faithful, but let’s not forget the important insertion of “all.” This implies that we are part of a community of redeemed, and I find that it is in community with the church of Jesus Christ that I am prodded along to be counted amongst the faithful.

“Joyful and triumphant”

I love that these two adjectives are juxtaposed. Sometimes the idea of being joyful without the fact that we are triumphant feels empty - we need this assurance as we live godly lives in the present as we are “waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.” (Titus 2:13) 

“Come and behold Him”

Beholding something is not a modern sort of expression, but it has this plea to hear, or pay attention. To behold Christ who came so humbly, and yet is Savior of the world is beyond worthwhile. And yet I find so many other things to fixate on, especially in a digital age when I am increasingly fidgety, wanting to move on to the next thing rather than just be still and fix my eyes on Jesus.

“O come let us adore Him, O come let us adore Him, O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord”

Besides the fact that choruses by nature repeat on their own, I think it’s important that this line is sung 3x. It takes a constant call to adore, or worship our Savior because if we’re being real with ourselves, we need that push. The change in pronoun to “us” is also significant. Together we assemble in worship, and together with representation from every nation we will worship Christ together, declaring, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!" (Revelation 7:11)                                                                                                                 

My prayer is that this invitation to come, behold, and adore lingers on well into the new year. Not that I want to be listening to Christmas music come June, but that I will continue to ponder anew this Christ, who alone is worthy. 

The fact that each of us is gifted in the Spirit for the common good (1 Corinthians 12:7) is an outstanding one. Yet ask Christians what their gifts are, and either they hedge their answer or become self deprecating in a way that appears as though they really don’t possess those gifts. Yet those gifts are what bring about the fullness of Christ in His church (Ephesians 4:12). In other words, the practice of our gifts in fact hasten our maturity in Christ. Not only that, we bear witness of God’s great salvation in Christ with those gifts (Hebrews 2:4). Therefore, dear Christian, rejoice that the Spirit apportions and wills those gifts (1 Corinthians 12:11) to each of us.

You may be full of conviction and truth consoling someone in misery, but something in that person’s spirit cannot be roused. When Moses spoke to the Israelites after their labor intensified under Pharaoh, it fell on deaf ears. Moses pointed to the fact that God would yet be their redeemer, “but they did not listen to Moses because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.” (Exodus 6:9)

Like the Israelites, I’ve been in places where I can’t see beyond my present pain and every word with good intent comes across as mere platitude. It’s a defense, really - to preserve a morsel of dignity on my own terms. 

The story goes on that in spite of the Israelites’ deaf ears, the Lord nevertheless delivered them. Though not much is recorded of the Israelites’ reaction as the ensuing plagues swept through Egypt, we see that their deafness eventually gave way to faith when instructed by Moses and Aaron regarding the Passover. “And the people bowed their heads and worshiped. Then the people of Israel went and did so; as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.” (Exodus 12:27-28). Perhaps it was the succession of plagues that finally stirred the Israelites from their stupor. Regardless, their misery was not the final word. Gracious is He who aims to break down our defense, compelling us to faith to see that only He can save!

It’s hard for me to grasp anything unless someone tells me the bigger picture and connects the dots. Take math, for instance. My easiest math class was the first semester of geometry when the logic for the Pythagorean theorem made a whole lot more sense than the very abstract math of calculus. No one ever explained to me the real world application of calculus, and I was blindly plugging and chugging my way through equations without much of an idea of where it was all going. 

When the bigger picture is absent, I’m admittedly struggling. I realize when I teach my students I’m trying to always give them the bigger picture. Try telling college students how relative clauses matter in the grand scheme of their future careers. It’s a stretch, I know. 

Ultimately, whether or not students get the bigger picture or not, it’s about them trusting that as their teacher, I’m going to get them there. Sometimes I find that they don’t need the rationale as long as they know that I have their best in mind. 

I’m not always as trusting as my students when it comes to how I view God. I know THE bigger picture - that the kingdom of God will one day be fully established, but I struggle with the living that happens in between. I need glimpses of where this is all headed. But that’s exactly where faith resides - in the not knowing. And sometimes when God graces me with the hindsight of connecting the dots of past decisions made in faith, I am awestruck by their reverberations into the present. Let’s not discount the faith needed for today as we welcome the bigger picture from afar. 

To say that we have strayed from our created ideal is a gross understatement, and yet I’m still realizing just how much so. For example, I’ve known for some time that my Achilles heel is the deep need to be accepted, which manifests itself in a high work ethic and feeds my perfectionism. Beneath this is a fear that I am somehow unacceptable, and therein lies my shame. Shame says that I am less than, and it mistakenly neglects the crowned glory and honor I possess as an image bearer of the Most High. Instead, I don a covering of proverbial fig leaves, believing they present me acceptable to the world.

The gospel brings good news for our shame. It says that yes, we are completely messed up, but we are absolutely accepted because of Christ. Oh, the freedom to acknowledge our shame in light of a Savior! “...he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present [us] holy and blameless and above reproach before him...” Colossians 1:22

It’s easy to be pessimistic when things are less than what they should be. And things are often not what they’re supposed to be - from the state of the world to the state of my favorite baseball team. It’s one thing to choose to be optimistic, and quite another to maintain your positivity with the cynics around you pronouncing doom and gloom. You have nothing to prove otherwise, so why not join the chorus of naysayers?

I have to constantly remind myself that we are headed for something greater, despite what I see around me. Human institutions fail us, but their failure should compel us to delve deeper in their trenches, proclaiming the full coming of God’s kingdom where everything will be made right. As for the church - it is no human institution - it is the bride of Christ, and as such it is the one institution that ultimately will be ushered into eternity. Why, then, all this cynicism around the church? Let us live as people with hope, and build her up until Christ’s return when she will be presented blameless before the throne.  “...to him be glory in the church and in Jesus Christ throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen”  (Ephesians 3:21).

You don’t usually expect anything terribly profound on sports radio, and yet the other day I heard the most sublime description of watching the shadows of baseball players stretch over the field as dusk approached. The moment was described as “giving the mundane its beautiful due.”  Baseball game aside, the beauty of that moment in its inherent wonder was enthralling to its beholder. 

This made me think - how much more, then, has our Savior accomplished for our delight in the ordinary? Indeed, He came not just to give us life, but life in the full (John 10:10). Thus, He didn’t die just so that I could experience life on the margins. Yet the great disrupter in Satan wants to rob us of that life, and when I find myself inexplicably sad, my capacity to behold the lovely is lost. Lord, help me to see that you have came so that even the mundane has its beautiful due.

There are things that Christians say to each other that sound good in the moment, but often check out to be false, or unbiblical. Most of the time I don’t think people intentionally do this. In fact, I think most are trying to be helpful, but in the end up propagating an untruth that can be subtly damaging. 

Take this seemingly innocuous statement I heard the other week: “just make yourself available to God and He will use you.” Taken at face value, it sounds like a compelling call to service. But does it necessarily follow that when I make myself available that God will use me? Embedded in this statement is a hidden message that my usefulness is self-initiated. Not only that, it implies that service is somehow about reaching my potential. 

The final point is not that we realize our usefulness, but the power of God for salvation. The Apostle Paul recognized this when he stated that he and the other apostles had “this treasure in jars of clay, to show that this surpassing power belongs to God and not to [them].” (2 Corinthians 4:7) Furthermore, they understood that it was the love of Christ that compelled their service (2 Corinthians 5:14-15), and not the enticement of being used by God. In fact, God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, so can it really be about me (1 Corinthians 2:2-5)? We also see early on in the lives of the patriarchs - Abraham, Moses, David to name a few - an imperfect and sometimes reluctant bunch - that they were all ultimately heralded for their faith (Hebrews 11), and not their usefulness. Furthermore, we know that as members of the body of Christ we have been gifted by the Holy Spirit upon salvation to build the church and we are not lacking in any gift (1 Corinthians 1:7). 

All this is not to say that there is nothing of our own accord that must be done to build the church of Christ. The harvest is plentiful and the workers are few (Luke 10:2). We must go and make disciples (Matthew 28:19). Yet our correct motivation is our response to the greatness of our salvation (Galatians 2:20). He alone is worthy. “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20-21).