Based on my childhood, I should be immune to a lot of things, not the least of them being COVID-19. I ate my fair share of Flintstones vitamins, I used to dry my hands with the communal gas station bathroom cloth towels (you know, the ones everybody and their grandmothers had used), and I took all kinds of gross cough medicines through the years. Plus, I practice the five second rule when it comes to food falling on the floor. Well, on most things.

I should be immune to EVERYTHING.

Check on your friends with naturally curly hair. We are not okay in this heat. We’re over here looking like alpacas. Seriously. It’s that bad.

I’m not a fan of the heat. More specifically, I’m not a fan of hot and humid. I don’t mind dry hot weather nearly as much as I mind it when it’s super muggy outside, especially after a summer rain.

That’s why I’m more of a fan of the milder seasons — spring and fall. Except spring has pollen. And fall has nearly all the good holidays. Summer has the 4th of July. And lots of hot humidity.

If I wanted to sweat, I could go stand in front of an oven. And don’t even get me started on people who wear long sleeve flannel on super hot days. Y’all are making me sweat even more just by looking at you overdressed for summer. And yes, I feel the same about people who wear shorts and t-shirts in the middle of cold winter. Y’all are just as crazy.

But if I can hold out for 41 more days . . .

John Prine had a song back in the day that told people to blow up their TVs and throw away their newspapers and move to the country where they can plant gardens instead. That’s how I feel some days about the current state of the media. It’s unrelentingly pessimistic and designed to increase your anxiety so that you will keep coming back for more and more information. There’s so much misinformation and half-truth and misleading that it’s hard to know who or what to believe.

But what if you decided to make your own headlines? What if you decided to turn off the news and listen to classical music instead? Or watch a sunset? Or read that book you’ve been meaning to get around to for a year now? Better yet, what if you invested in the people around you where you live, work, and play? What if you let them know that MSNBC or FoxNews or CNN doesn’t have the last word at the end of the day? God does.

Never give up on anybody. Including yourself. Sometimes, you do need to remove yourself from certain people’s lives for your own well-being and safety, but you can still keep them before the Lord in prayer. Even when someone you love is thousands of miles away, you can still keep them near through intercession before the throne of God.

Before you scoff at miracles, remember that you are one. You may not believe that a miracle can happen for someone you love, but also remember that the reason you’re still here and seeking God is the miraculous grace of God.

At the end of the day, no matter how good or bad, it’s helpful to remember that God’s mercies will be new in the coming morning just as they have been every morning up until now.

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but no one ever saw the error of their ways by being shamed and called names on social media. No one ever said, “That passive aggressive post really helped me to see how wrong I was, so I’m now doing a 360 and changing my ways.”

You are responsible for you. You and you alone will stand before God to give account about your life and how you lived it. You are not called to govern someone else’s life. You can point to what you believe is right in a loving way, but you can’t make other people live by your standards of right and wrong.

I read that people don’t like to be told that they’re wrong or ignorant. It’s better to show them that they may not be seeing the bigger picture or that they don’t see all the pieces yet. I still think that you have to earn the right to speak into people’s lives by how you live with integrity and invest into their lives consistently.

When someone else acts or speaks in a way that bothers or offends you, I recommend first taking the matter to God in prayer before you post about it on Facebook. Then ask yourself what it was that bothered or offended you so much, or whether you’re really upset about something else entirely. Then you can approach the other person in a spirit of love and humility. It’s better to confront in person rather than over text or social media.

It always helps me to remember that I’ve done plenty wrong in my life, and that I have been forgiven much through the blood of Jesus, so I should be equally as forgiving to others.

“Life is dessert – too brief to hurry…’Where ever you are, be all there’ is only possible with eucharisteo. Slow down and taste life, give thanks, and see God. Simplicity is ultimately a matter of focus. Eucharisteo keeps the focus” (Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are).

I was never a morning person. Up until recently, I was a night owl. Now I find that I can’t do early mornings or late nights anymore, but I can rock 2:30 pm-4:30 pm like nobody’s business. Anything past 10 pm these days ends up with my brain doing the automatic shutdown for the night. I can’t think of anything but crawling into my comfortable bed.

But I had a good night at a Mexican restaurant with some friends from Kairos. And those quesadillas were mighty tasty. Even as tired as I am, I give thanks for good food and friends and God’s graces. Above all, God’s graces.

“They say time is money, but that’s not true. Time is life. And if I want the fullest life, I need to find fullest time… the busyness of your life leaving little room for the source of your life…God gives us time. And who has time for God?Which makes no sense.” (Ann Voskamp).

Do you know how to spell love? You spell it T-I-M-E. That’s right. You make time for who and what you love. Always.

If you think you will automatically have time for the people you love, you won’t. That’s why you have to make a deliberate and intentional choice to MAKE time for them. That’s what love is, after all. More than a feeling, love is a deliberate act of the will.

If you love God, you will make time for God. You will cut out something else from your schedule to create margins in your life to seek God in earnest. I like how someone else said that you must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life, especially your spiritual life. And if you belong to God in Jesus, isn’t all of your life — your work life, your home life, your love life — essentially spiritual?

Remember, you will always make time for what and who you love, whether it’s a hobby or a career or a cause or a person. Always. You can tell where your heart is by your checkbook and your calendar. May your heart be filled with such a transforming love for God that it changes both you, your checkbook, and your calendar.

“Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is beauty, admire it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is too precious, do not destroy it.
Life is life, fight for it” (Mother Teresa)

At work, I have my go-to coffee mug. It’s a giant Death Star mug that holds a ridiculous amount of coffee (or for me, a ridiculous amount of coffee-flavored sugar milk). It gives me that false sense of confidence that life is beautiful and wonderful and that everything is going to work out perfectly just like in those 80s sitcom where all problems are resolved in less than 30 minutes.

It also helps me with adulting. I’m able to keep my eyes open, form complete sentences, and wear pants, all thanks to the magical mixture of coffee beans and hot water.

Since tomorrow is Friday, I’m throwing all caution to the wind and having TWO cups of coffee. I too like to live dangerously.

This. Just this. I will never stop reminding people of this: we are too prone to engrave our trials in marble and write our blessings in sand. How forgetful we are of the goodness of God, especially in seasons of night when all we can see are the trials.

The Israelites were as forgetful as we are. That’s why God commanded them to lay up stones for monuments as reminders of His faithfulness in the past. That’s why God had faithful men record these events in Holy Scriptures so we could remember the stedfast loyal love of God all throughout history.

A few years back, I took on a challenge to write down at least 1,000 things I was thankful for, no matter how seemingly insignificant or small. I went above and beyond, because I kept remembering more and more tokens of God’s generosity to me and my gratitude kept growing. I challenge you to write down five things you’re thankful for during the next week. After that, you can stop or you can keep going as you bring to mind all that God has done for you.

The more grateful you are, the more you will see God around you and the more you will have reason to give thanks and the more you will grow into the generosity of God, but you will never outgive or outlove God.