I love these words that speak to grief as if from the one who has passed away. I love the idea that for the believer death is not the period that denotes the end, but a comma that speaks to a momentary pause until the sentence resumes. Billy Graham once said that when he was reported to have died, he would be more alive than ever. He would have only changed his address.

“We will never be over those things that God has set under us until we learn to be under those things that God has placed over us. There is strength through surrender” (Adrian Rodgers).

Surrender and submission are two dirty words in this society. Maybe the only two dirty words left, since all the others have been deemed fair game. But God’s ways are not our ways.

There truly is strength through surrender. As soon as we put ourselves under what God has placed over us, the more we experience peace and joy. The more we know God’s will and hear God’s voice. The more we see God at work around us and in us.

The crux of the matter is that we are not our own. We were bought with a price. We’re free but not like the world says we’re free. We’re not free do do whatever we want whenever we want, acting out any and all impulses, sexual or violent or otherwise, without any consequences. We are free to do and to be all that God made us to do and be. We are free to flourish as we lay down our lives as Jesus did only to get them back, more abundant and overflowing.

The problem is that I want my way some of the time. I want God’s way some of the time, but in my own timing. As in right now. The best way is God’s way in God’s time.

The hardest truth to accept is that God’s ultimate desire for us is not our happiness but our holiness. And holiness comes through hardship and suffering and loss, but the thing is that there is no true happiness apart from God. And holiness, once it is birthed in us, brings joy. And joy stays when happiness comes and goes.

May our prayer always be, “Not my will but Yours,” and “I surrender all.”

It’s been two years, but those two years have really flown by, haven’t they? It seems like only yesterday they were introducing you as the new Kairos Pastor. Now you’ve accepted a new calling and chapter in your life in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

I’m grateful for those two years. I’ve learned so much from you and seen your heart for Kairos from day one. It’s always been about Jesus first and foremost with you.

I’m thankful that I have lots of good memories to keep in the months and years to come. Those Kairos 4th of July celebrations at Crockett Park. Those times we had Kairos at the Factory in Franklin. Those retreats in Willow Pond.

I think you helped to birth in us a vision for reaching the city of Nashville and a heart for college students and young professionals. I love that your last words to us were for us to carry out the Great Commission.

It’s true that none of us are junior varsity when it comes to proclaiming the gospel and sharing our faith. In this game, none of us are supposed to be spectators. We’re the ones Jesus called to go into all the world and make disciples — not just the ones who get paid to preach and teach.

I hope to visit your new digs in South Carolina. I hope you will get to come back once in a while to visit as Kairos enters a new chapter in a story God continues to write on our hearts and lives.

We thank you and your family for your faithfulness to God’s calling on your lives and your willingness to obey, no matter what. We will miss you but we also rejoice and give thanks to God for you all from now until Jesus returns.

Thank you.

Your will be done. It’s the simplest and yet the hardest prayer to pray in all the Bible.

It’s four words, but the ramifications are never-ending.

Your will be done, even if the healing doesn’t come.

Your will be done, even if my marriage can’t be saved.

Your will be done, even if I lose my job and my home.

Your will be done, even if the doctors don’t have good news.

It can go on and on.

And it’s not always bad news. Praying God’s will can also be full of blessings and joy.

The point is that either way, God is good and His will is best. Even if it’s not my will.

Your will be done.

I wish that I could say that I was peaceful and calm all the time. I wish I could say that stress never got to me because I always went to God in prayer first and got a proper perspective on my circumstances before freaking out.

Unfortunately, no.

It seems to me that a lot of my anxiety is just me looking at my circumstances with me in the place of God trying to figure out how to make it all work. The problem with that little scenario is that I’m not God — not even close. I don’t have nearly all of the answers. I don’t see every part of the problem. I am nowhere near omniscient or omnipotent or anything omni.

But God is.

The sooner I relinquish my anxiety, the better off I am in the midst of my stressful situation. And many times God doesn’t remove me from the trial but uses the trial to make me more like Jesus. In other words, to borrow the words from a song, He doesn’t always calm the storm but He calms His child in the middle of the storm.

It helps if you are able to see the stress in perspective. It’s not the end of the world. In fact, it’s not probably something you will remember next month. Or possibly even next week. Beyond that valley of trial is a greater joy and a greater hope and a greater vision of a great God who got you through. And beyond that is the ultimate happy ending where God in Jesus makes absolutely everything right and we get to be on winning team when evil and sin finally are defeated forever. Not bad, eh?

Going to Goodwill can be a kind of hit-or-miss thing. Sometimes, you don’t find anything. You wander all through the store and don’t see anything you can’t live without. Sometimes, you hit the proverbial jackpot.

Today, I found five vinyl albums, including this one by Kenny Rogers. The others were by Carly Simon, James Taylor, Gordon Lightfoot, and the Eagles. I’d call that a pretty good score, especially when you consider that each record cost me about $1.

It’s funny how Goodwill and thrifting can echo life sometimes. You never know what you will get from each day, but if you just keep showing up with expectations, you will occasionally find hidden treasures and blessings in places you never would have expected.

I’ve found that God shows up and speaks to me in the most unlikely places. The more I live in gratitude and expectation that God is working, the more I see Him and the more He speaks to me.

So keep showing up, keep praying up, and keep expecting God to do what only God can do. And the rest will surprise you . . . in a good way.

It’s June. That means that summer is nigh, although today felt a whole lot like a typical summer day with its heat and humidity. I wasn’t quite ready for that.

It’s also Pride month, a month in which we’re supposed to celebrate all things LGBTQIA+. We’re supposed to embrace all kinds of diversity unquestioningly. To do otherwise would be unloving, wouldn’t it? But what does it mean to be loving?

I think you can love a person without accepting everything about them. You can love someone while disagreeing with their lifestyle choices and habits. You can love someone and tell them the truth in a loving and compassionate way, as Jesus did many times during His ministry.

The mistake the Church in general has made in the past is to demonize homosexuality and other lifestyles and make them the unforgivable sin while giving ourselves a pass on things like pride (a different kind where you think more highly of yourself than you should) and gluttony and sloth and those other struggles that we have that we minimize. It’s all sin. We’re all sinners. We all need the grace of God.

I’m perfectly willing to lose followers. Jesus said that if they hated Him, they will hate you. If they rejected His message, they will reject yours. But I’d rather be on the side of Jesus than be popular or liked by a majority.

Jesus did say to the woman caught in adultery that He didn’t condemn her, but he also said, “Go and sin no more.” He didn’t justify her lifestyle to love her. He spoke the truth but in the most loving way possible.

It’s not loving to compromise your convictions and beliefs to be approved and accepted. It is loving to see each person, no matter their lifestyle or choices, as one for whom Jesus died and one who bears the image of God.

The goal is not to get them into a traditional marriage relationship. The goal is not so much to get them straight. The goal is to get them set free in Jesus. Their brokenness (and ours as well) isn’t just limited to the area of sexuality. We’re fallen in every area of our lives and need to be completely and wholly redeemed. All of us.

The Bible says there is no one apart from Jesus who has not sinned. No one who doesn’t need a Savior. No one who can get to heaven apart from Jesus. And especially no one whom Jesus does not love and whom Jesus will not save if that person calls to Him in faith.

So if the worst case scenario happens and I have two readers after this, then I can be okay with that. To gain the world by throwing away everything you held dear in the way of convictions and beliefs and faith is to gain nothing, but if all you have to hold on to is Jesus and nothing else, you have everything.

And just like that, it’s June.

Every year, the days and weeks and months go by a little faster. In less than three weeks, we’ll hit the summer solstice and the days will start getting shorter. But it already feels like they race by.

Back in the day, June meant total freedom. It mean no school, no classes, no homework, no tests. It meant not a lot to do and a whole lot of time to do it. I remember thinking summer would never get here, but when it finally did, it didn’t last long enough.

Now June means I still go to work. I still do all the boring grownup things I did in January and February. The only thing that changes is the temperatures start getting hotter and I sweat more. I do love the longer days, especially when it’s 8 pm and still light outside.

But I know that if I blink, it’ll be July. I close my eyes for a moment, and it’s August. Before you know it, schools will be back in session and summer will be over. But then comes my absolute favorite season of all, autumn.

But until then, happy summer and happy June!

“Dear God,

Speak gently in my silence.
When the loud outer noises of my surroundings
and the loud inner noises of my fears
keep pulling me away from you,
help me to trust that you are still there
even when I am unable to hear you.
Give me ears to listen to your small, soft voice saying:
‘Come to me, you who are overburdened, and I will give you rest . . .
for I am gentle and humble of heart.’ Let that loving voice be my guide.
Amen.” (Henri Nouwen).

It’s easy to let the chaos drown out the calm, and the noise to cancel out the still small voice that speaks your true name. I know that I can get caught up in the stress of the moment and forget the big picture. I still believe that 99% of what brings out my anxiety won’t matter a month from now . . . or a week from now. So why does it matter so much now?

Lord, help me to be in every moment but also not lose sight of the end — Your victory and my overcoming. Help me to remember that you have already overcome and defeated all that I will ever face in this life by Your blood and Your cross.

“Lord, yeah, the world may tilt off kilter tonight,

but it should have known better than to try to rattle the likes of us because we know that

though we’re broken, we’re not crushed,

though we’re battered, we’re never destroyed,

though we’re we’re not sure what to do, we absolutely know it like a burning inferno in our bones, that our God knows what to do,

though pressures keep coming from right & left, we can feel how God hasn’t left our side,

‘So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, *not a day goes by without His unfolding grace.* These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us.’ 2Cor4MSG

And all the weary people smiled and said their brave Amen, the celebration beginning even right now.

#RealHonestPrayer#StrengtheningEachOtherWithPrayer” (Ann Voskamp).

I love that. All the hardships in this world are small potatoes compared to what’s coming. They’re all a light and momentary affliction compared to the eternal joy that awaits.

Right now, the small potatoes look a lot bigger. Like they’re all we can see. But when we shift our perspective from the immediate to the forever, then we see things in their proper place. Everything we’ve been stressing over will seem so small looking back. In fact, I’d guess that a year from now we won’t remember what was giving us so much anxiety in a lot of cases. We will remember that God was faithful.

And when we look ahead, we can even now see glimpses of the coming glory. The closer we get, the bigger it gets, and the more glorious God appears to our senses, failing as they are in one sense yet becoming sharper and clearer on the eternity side.

So remember that. Small potatoes versus eternal joy.