Caroling, Caroling

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I did something I haven’t done in a long, long time. Not since college. Maybe even high school. I went caroling, complete with printed sheets of lyrics and everything. Just like it was back in the late 1900s.

It’s been that long.

Back in the day, we’d all gather together and carpool from place to place with our arsenal of festive seasonal classics. I’m sure we were joyful and triumphant in our attempts to pull off the carols and jingles. We probably came closer to making a joyful noise than anything else. I couldn’t tell if the guy next to me was trying to harmonize or was just really off-key, but it didn’t really matter in the end. A good time was had by all.

Tonight, we started off visiting the house of a deacon who very recently had been fighting for his life. It was heartwarming to see him standing in the doorway, a sort of miracle in itself, with his wife wiping away tears of gratitude as we sang loudly and zestily (if not always in tune or in the same key).

Then we headed over to my pastor’s parent’s to do more yuletide crooning. They’ve both had health issues and have had a rough 2022, but they were both pleased and grateful to see us gathered in their front yard, singing about those herald angels.

The last stop was the next-door neighbor who was a founding member of Brentwood Baptist Church along with her late husband. She lost him around this time last year, and I’m sure she was thankful for the company. Christmas is a beautiful time, but sometimes I forget that it’s not the easiest season if you’re missing a loved one.

I snapped a picture of this forlorn little reindeer in one of the yards. Hopefully, someone got a good snapshot of all of us singing in different keys and sometimes different verses at the same time. The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir we were not.

But I’d do it all again tomorrow night if I could. In fact, I hope this caroling thing becomes another tradition that I can look forward to through the spring, summer and fall.

The Most Reluctant Convert

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I did something that I rarely do these days — I went to an actual movie in an actual movie theater. It’s been a while.

Normally, I like to wait for it to hit streaming services because few films are worth paying the current price of movie tickets. But in this case, I made an exception. I wanted to support a faith-based film from a group that I’ve grown to respect as I’ve gotten to know about them, the Fellowship for Performing Arts, led by one Max McLean.

The film is centered around the story of C. S. Lewis’ 10-year journey from atheism to Christianity. Without giving away too much, the narrative device they use to tell the story is unique and compelling. I feel like Mr. McLean masterfully portrayed the title character and the filming locations gave the production a note of authenticity.

But what captivated me most was the way the movie used Lewis’ own words. I believe a lot of the narrative came directly from his autobiography Surprised by Joy. For once, it’s a faith-based film that actually succeeds at being a good film first, and without being preachy or didactic.

It will make you want to dive deep into the writings of C. S. Lewis, both apologetic and fiction, as well as possibly leading you to check out some of writers who inspired him such as George MacDonald and G. K. Chesterton. I can’t recommend it highly enough for anyone who wants a quality movie about the nuances of faith and intellect.

Do Thou for Me

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“Do Thou for me, O God the Lord,
Do Thou for me.
I need not toil to find the word
That carefully
Unfolds my prayer and offers it,
My God, to Thee.

It is enough that Thou wilt do,
And wilt not tire,
Wilt lead by cloud, all the night through
By light of fire,
Till Thou has perfected in me
Thy heart’s desire.

For my beloved I will not fear,
Love knows to do
For him, for her, from year to year,
As hitherto.
Whom my heart cherishes are dear
To Thy heart too.

O blessèd be the love that bears
The burden now,
The love that frames our very prayers,
Well knowing how
To coin our gold.  O God the Lord,
Do Thou, Do Thou” (Amy Carmichael).

There are times when we simply don’t know how to pray for a circumstance or a loved one. Try as we may, the words will not come.

I think even then God hears the groans and sighs of our petitions and knows what they mean. He hears the deepest desires of our hearts and knows best how to grant them.

Even when we have words, they aren’t always the best ones. Sometimes, we ask without such a limited point of view. Sometimes we ask selfishly. Sometimes we have too small a view of God and ask too little.

In Jan Karon’s Mitford series, Father Tim Kavanaugh always has his go-to prayer, or “the prayer that never fails,” as he calls it. The prayer goes “Thy will be done.”

You can never go wrong with leaving the matter in God’s hands.

Perseverance

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“By perseverance the snail reached the ark” (C.H. Spurgeon).

Perseverance is the key. Sometimes you need to be like the snail. Not the fastest, not the brightest, but always waking up every morning and moving a little at a time toward your destination.

The key isn’t being the best ever. It’s showing up every day and not giving up, no matter how slow the pace or how far away the goal appears.

As ol’ Winston Churchill once said, “Nevah give up. Nevah evah give up.”

I like that.

God doesn’t choose the best looking or the most likely to succeed. He doesn’t pick the best and the brightest.

He chooses the least likely so that He can get the credit and we get the benefit of seeing God work in us and through us. All God asks of us is that we’re committed and surrendered and available. We just pray up and show up with expectation. God does the rest.

Lord, help us be like those snails who persevered all the way until they were safely inside the ark. Help us remember that it’s not by our might or by our power or even by our perseverance but it’s by Your own strength that we will finally reach home at least. Amen.

The Gracious Wounds of God

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“Sometimes the most gracious, merciful thing God could ever do is wound you. To wound you, (and in that wound bind you to Himself) is far more gracious than to bless you with everything you want and have you not know Him” (Matt Chandler).

I found out recently that my pastor who is battling cancer is in stage 4. I also learned that a surgery last month to remove the cancer was unsuccessful. At that point, a lot of people would either give into fear or throw in the proverbial towel altogether. But not my pastor.

He has maintained an incredible and submissive attitude throughout the entire ordeal. I’m not saying he never is afraid or gives into moments of doubt, but he is trusting God, no matter what the outcome. He reminded us that the way to fight spiritual battles is through praise.

It’s easy for me to lose perspective sometimes when I’m in a struggle and forget that others are dealing with way worse than I am. The secret is not comparison with others or dwelling solely on the problem but keeping our eyes on God. As I’ve heard it recently, the antidote to anxiety is the adoration of God.

My pastor referenced a passage where King Jeoshaphat is facing a combined army that is invading Israel and the odds are not good. Instead of panicking, he turns to God in prayer. The last line of his prayer is one of my favorite verses in the Bible: “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”

Sometimes, God has to wound us to get us to look up. Sometimes, He allows trials and suffering to get our attention. Sometimes, we face hardships and trials to purify our faith and get us to turn our eyes on Jesus. I’d rather be wounded and find the comfort of closeness with God than get everything I’ve ever wanted and not know God. That would be tragic.

Lord, get our attention. Help us see that there’s nothing else that we could ever desire that is better than You. You are the only one able to hold us together when we feel like we’re falling apart. You’re the only one who can heal our woundedness and brokenness. We don’t know what to do so much of the time, so we once again turn our eyes on You, the author and finisher of our faith. Amen.

Letting Love Grow

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“‘Do you remember, Grace and Glory, when you looked into your heart beside the pool, and found that my kind of love was not there at all– only the plant of Longing-to-be-loved?’

She nodded wonderingly.

‘That was the natural human love which I tore out from your heart when the time was ripe and it was loose enough to be uprooted so that the real Love could grow there alone and fill your whole heart'” (Hinds Feet on High Places, Hannah Hurnard).

“You see, true love germinates in the soil of sacrifice, sprouts in the garden of surrender and matures in a matrimony of servanthood.  Love isn’t love until it has cost you something to give it away” (Josh Hopwood).

Sometimes, it takes a long time for true love to germinate and grow in someone’s heart. We call a lot of things love that are closer to lust or to selfish longing, but God’s kind of love always involves sacrifice. That is, the love God wants for us isn’t known for taking but for giving. And forgiving, as well.

God in Jesus doesn’t love us for what we can do for us. He knows we bring nothing to the table and have no gifts or talents apart from Him that we can give. Everything we give to God is something God gave us in the first place. When we love others in that way, it’s not about expecting something in return but giving sacrificially because that’s the way God has loved us.

Lord, give us the love for others that never seeks to profit but only seeks to be like David who said that He would not offer to the Lord that which cost him nothing. May we always seek to give and not expect anything in return because we know that our reward is ultimately and only from You in the end. Amen.

Not My Will

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“Lord, I give up all my own plans and purposes, all my own desires and hopes, and accept Thy will for my life. I give myself, my life, my all, utterly to Thee to be Thine forever. Fill me and seal me with Thy Holy Spirit. Use me as Thou wilt. Send me where Thou wilt. Work out Thy whole will in my life at any cost, now and forever. Amen” (Betty Scott Stam).

This is another good prayer to pray. I mean, I have nothing against prayers about God blessing us and giving us the desires of our hearts, but the prayer that God will always honor is one that says, “God, Your will be done.”

I’ve learned over the years that I’m not the best at choosing what’s good for me. Sometimes, I feel what’s best instead of thinking it. Sometimes, I want something because I see that someone else has it. My motives are a mixed bag at best.

But when I leave the choice with God, I can rest assured that God will always choose the best. He will pick what brings Him the most glory, which in turn is what is always for my greatest good.

If God gives me something other than what I asked for, He is still good. If God doesn’t give me what I ask for, He is still good. If God gave me nothing else from this point on, He would still be good. No matter what, through feast or famine, through garden or desert, He is still good.

Lord, have Your way in me. I lay down every one of my desires at Your feet to do with as You will. Whether or not You ever give me any of them or not, You are and will always be good. Amen.

Quote of the Day for May 15, 2026

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“To do for yourself the best that you have it in you to do — to grit your teeth and clench your fists in order to survive the world at its harshest and worst — is by that very act, to be unable to let something be done for you and in you that is more wonderful still. The trouble with steeling yourself against the harshness of reality is that the same steel that secures your life against being destroyed secures your life also against being opened up and transformed by the holy power that life itself comes from. You can even prevail on your own. But you cannot become human on your own” (Frederick Buechner, The Sacred Journey).

A New Take on Isaiah 40

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“Why would you ever complain, O Jacob,
or, whine, Israel, saying,
“God has lost track of me.
He doesn’t care what happens to me”?
Don’t you know anything? Haven’t you been listening?
God doesn’t come and go. God lasts.
He’s Creator of all you can see or imagine.
He doesn’t get tired out, doesn’t pause to catch his breath.
And he knows everything, inside and out.
He energizes those who get tired,
gives fresh strength to dropouts.
For even young people tire and drop out,
young folk in their prime stumble and fall.
But those who wait upon God get fresh strength.
They spread their wings and soar like eagles,
They run and don’t get tired,
they walk and don’t lag behind” (Isaiah 40:27-31, The Message)

Again, I don’t always love The Message. Sometimes it gets a little loose with the paraphrase. But sometimes, it really gets the nuances of the text in a way that traditional translations don’t.

If you’ve read the same verses in the same way, it can almost lose its meaning. It’s like with a familiar song. Your brain goes into autopilot and you’re singing the words without really thinking about them or what they mean. Sometimes, you need to read a familiar passage in an unfamiliar rendering to see it with new eyes, like when an old hymn gets a new arrangement and suddenly the lyrics stand out in a way they didn’t before.

If you trust in God, He will be your strength. He will be the fuel to get you where you’re going. He isn’t like anybody else because we’re hit or miss on most days. Some days, we’re trustworthy. Some days, not so much. But God is the same every day. He’s always good, always gracious, always ready to help. always strong to save, and always a safe place to land.

I Have Decided to Follow Jesus

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I recently heard the story of how the hymn I Have Decided to Follow Jesus originated. I don’t think I’ll ever hear those words the same way again. I know so many hymns have amazing backstories, but this one might just be my new favorite.

A man from the Garo tribe in Assam, India (modern day Meghalaya) during the 19th century converted to Christianity. He then led his family to follow Jesus as well. Eventually, he was confronted by the tribal leader along with the rest of the community. They wanted him not only to stop evangelizing but to recant his faith. He refused.

He said in essence, “I have decide to follow Jesus. No turning back.”

Then they proceeded to murder his children in front of him and his wife, followed by killing his wife. He still refused to recant.

He said, “Though none go with me, still I will follow.”

Even after they threatened him with his own death, he would not and could not deny the Christ who had miraculously delivered him and saved him.

He said, “The world behind me, the cross before me. No turning back, no turning back.”

After witnessing how the man was able to endure the loss of his own family and even his own life for the sake of the gospel, the tribal leader eventually placed his faith in Christ, along with many others from the village. That village became a sending place for missionaries.

These days, it’s becoming more and more dangerous to follow Jesus, especially in certain parts of Africa and the Middle East. In places, professing Christ can be tantamount to a death sentence. Even in America, we’re frowned upon for holding to our biblical convictions and for preaching Jesus as the only way to salvation. Perhaps one day soon we’ll see Christians forced to deny Christ or lose their lives even in this country.

So I think we have to decide if following Christ is worth it. My prayer is that everyone reading these words will be able to sing the old hymn with complete conviction and sincerity: “I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back, no turning back.”

Giving God His Breath Back

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“Worship is when we give God His breath back” (Louie Giglio).

The more I think about that quote, the more I love it. I think Louie encapsulated all of worship in those eight words. After all, worship involves praise and singing songs to God, but it’s more than just the songs. True worship involves every aspect of your life from morning until night.

Worship is a response to God giving us life. Just as God breathed life into Adam at creation, so God breathed life into each and every one of us. Everything after that first breath is also a gift from God. So our lives are a response of thanksgiving back to God. As Ephesians 2 says, we are heaven’s poetry etched on human lives.

Every time we do our jobs with excellence, we give God His breath back.

Every time we love our families well and show them Jesus in our sacrifice and generosity, we give God His breath back.

Every time we respond to hatred and hurt with God’s love toward our enemies, we give God His breath back.

Every time we go across the globe or across the street to share Jesus with our neighbors, we give God His breath back.

Every time we gather together to celebrate the glory of God through preaching, giving, and singing, we give God His breath back.

Worship is not us earning our salvation or even in some way attempting to pay God back. It’s our lived out gratitude that overflows into all the parts of our daily lives. It’s us declaring the worth of God to anyone who is watching. That’s when we give God His breath back.

More About Humility

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“Humility is to expect nothing, to wonder at nothing done to us, to feel nothing against us. It is to be at rest when nobody praises us and when we are blamed and despised. It is to have a blessed home in the Lord where we can go in and shut the door and kneel to our Father in secret, and be at peace when all around is trouble” (Andrew Murray).

I still think a lot about a book I read a couple of years ago called Unoffendable by Brant Hansen. It completely blew me away and forever changed my perspective on believers and anger. Basically, we should be the least offendable people on the planet because we know what grace looks like and what we were without it. We know that apart from grace, there is nothing too base for us to fall into.

Again, humility isn’t thinking less of yourself but thinking about yourself less. It’s to take all the frustration and anger to the Lord in secet and leave it there, knowing that ultimate vengeance is in God’s hands not mine. It’s to be at peace and not get caught up in the perpetual turmoil and anxiety that marks the waking life of most of the world’s population.

Humility is to see ourselves the way God sees us through the lens of seeing God as He is. Once we understand that the world does not in fact revolve around us, we see that God’s plans are so much bigger than us as individuals. We can then gladly serve wherever God calls us out of the overflow of His love to the multitudes on stages or to the few in secret. Either way, the joy of the Lord will be our strength.

Lord, I know this is a dangerous prayer, but make us humble. Keep us from the pride of thinking we can achieve Your will and Your ways through our own means instead of us relying 100% on You for everything at every moment of every single day. Amen.

IGBOK

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When I was a member of Fellowship Bible Church, we had these bumper stickers with IGBOK on them. That stood for It’s Gonna Be O.K. A worthy motto then, and a worthy motto now.

It’s not some kind of pie in the sky fantasy wishful thinking. It’s based on the reality of God’s revealed Word. As Billy Graham once said, I’ve read the last chapter of the Bible, and everything really is going to be okay.

Actually, better than just okay. It’s going to be the best imaginable future that anyone can hope for. For those who have hoped in Christ, it will be way better than your best dreams or your wildest fantasies.

Sometimes, it’s hard to see the ending when you’re stuck in the middle. It’s a it like the old saying that you can’t see the forest for the trees. When you’re too close to something, you can’t really see the big picture and how it’s unfolding.

Spoiler alert: God wins. Good wins. Everything evil and wrong comes untrue. Everything will be made right. It will be like all the fairy tale stories come to life, but infinitely better. It really is going to be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not yet the end.