I have several friends and family who are going through storms currently. One just put her husband into hospice care. Another is recovering from a rough bout with pneumonia. So many are figuring out how to handle wayward children or unfaithful spouses or stressful job situations.

I do think that you can talk about the faithfulness of God all you want, but you never really and truly understand it in a tangible way until you have nothing else to lean on but God. For some reason, most of us will try just about everything else before we resort to God, who ends up being the only true port in the storm.

I heard the word glory, as in the glory of God, described once as something substantial or weighty. In other words, you need something weighty at the center of your life to keep all the parts of your world in place and spinning in their proper orbits. Otherwise, when calamity strikes, your life flies apart.

Only God carries the kind of weight to keep you centered and calm when those proverbial storms strike. Only God can keep you singing in the dark places where you can’t see but can only trust.

It’s easy to throw cliches around like “it’s always darkest before the dawn” and “God won’t give you more than you can handle” (which is not biblical by the way), but it’s a bit more difficult to navigate once the storms hit. All I know is that we have to keep living, keep putting one foot in front of the other, keep doing what I believe is God’s will, keep trusting and praying even when all I have is sighs and groans, and keep remembering the promises God gave us in the daylight. Pick a favorite verse or a favorite Bible passage and soak in it as much as you can until you can quote it backwards and forwards and until it becomes a part of you.

So it’s true. In order to know the strength of the anchor, you need to feel the storm. But remember that God is simultaneously the One who goes before you into the storm and is with you in the storm and will be waiting for you after the storm passes.

“But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
‭‭Lamentations‬ ‭3:21-23‬ ‭ESV‬‬
https://www.bible.com/59/lam.3.21-23.esv

I finally broke down and bought me some new kicks. I’ve been needing new tennis shoes for quite a while now, so I bit the proverbial bullet and got these Brooks running shoes. These are the first shoes I’ve had in a long while that have white soles. Usually in the past, I’ve avoided those because they end up looking dirty after a while.

But these feel wonderful. I’ve forgotten how amazing new tennis shoes feel. It’s almost like walking on a cloud. I should buy new shoes more often.

In case you’re waiting on me to make some profound spiritual anology, there’s not one. I just really like the way new tennis shoes feel. That’s all.

I’ve both been there and done that. I’ve been at a job where a co-worker tried to explain a process to me, and it would never sink in. I’d go back and ask questions again and again and feel like a dummy. Finally, when I started trying to do it on my own, I’d start to get it. Finally, something would click and I’d have it down pat.

Sometimes, we just miss the obvious because we’re trying too hard and making things too complicated. I think when it comes to faith, you could boil it down to loving God and loving others. That’s how Jesus summed up the Law and the Prophets — Love God with all your being and love your neighbor as you love yourself.

You can’t really love God unless you understand how much He has loved you first. You can’t really love others as much as you love yourself until you really do love yourself, and that comes from knowing and embracing God’s love for you. It’s really sort of reflecting God’s love back to Him and to others, like the moon doesn’t generate light on its own but reflects the light of the sun.

So step one is to let God love you. To soak in it as you soak in the rays of the sun. Step two is to let that love permeate every fiber of your being. Then you turn around and reflect it back to God and to others. Step three is to repeat steps one and two ad nauseum until either you master it (which is highly unlikely) or until Jesus returns and you are finally perfected in love.

“The thief had no time left to make his Lord proud. Or impress his parents. He didn’t get to hear church members brag about how he’d really turned his life around. He never shared his testimony. He could not offer Jesus any service or effort or earn any badges. He won not a single soul for the kingdom. No mission trips. He never tithed. He witnessed to no one. He studied no scripture. He wasn’t baptized. He was surely the worst performing and least-decorated Christian in history. And the first one to enter heaven with Jesus” (Marc Phillips).

Let that sink in.

Don’t get me wrong. Evangelizing, missions, tithing, Bible study, baptism, and the like are all important. But they are not what gets us into heaven. They are not what keeps us saved.

The most important thing about any believer is that he or she belongs to Jesus. More than to your family or to your spouse or to your children, you belong to Jesus. He takes first place over everything and everyone else.

But also remember that He bought you with a price. You matter to Him. Your testimony in heaven will be not how many souls you led to Christ or how much you tithed or how many mission journeys you undertook or how much of the Bible you memorized. It will be that Jesus remembered you. Jesus sought you out when you were a stranger. No matter what happens between now and eternity, your song through endless ages will be that Jesus led you all the way.

I heard a famous preacher once say that when he died he wanted to sit at the feet of the thief on the cross as a reminder that Jesus didn’t save him or anyone else because of merit or worth or deserving but because of grace and mercy and a last minute plea.

Just a short note: The Last Battle is the seventh and final book in The Chronicles of Narnia series by C. S. Lewis. It was the very book that helped me understand heaven a little better and the one that finally made me excited and ready to go there some day. Here’s an excerpt from that book that I think you’ll like:

“Then Aslan turned to them and said: ‘You do not yet look so happy as I mean you to be.’

Lucy said, ‘We’re so afraid of being sent away, Aslan. And you have sent us back into our own world so often.’

‘No fear of that,’ said Aslan. ‘Have you not guessed?’ Their hearts leaped and a wild hope rose within them. ‘There was a real railway accident,’ said Aslan softly. ‘Your father and mother and all of you are—as you used to call it in the Shadowlands—dead. The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning.’

And as He spoke He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”

No, I don’t mean the kind of hangovers where you drink too much and have a headache the next day. I mean the kind where you have an extended holiday weekend and come back not knowing what day or month it is.

At least there’s coffee.

Even if it means mild confusion, I’ll take the extra day in the weekend. I don’t mind only working four days this week. But I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that it’s JUNE.

Where did May go? Or April? It feels a bit like we just started this year and now it’s almost halfway over.

I remember when I was a kid that those two or three months before summer break went by soooooo sloooooooowly. Sometimes, I didn’t think summer would ever come.

Now, I sneeze and a week goes by. I close my eyes for a bit and it’s already the next month. Time flying by is not as much fun as I thought it would be when I was little. Had I known how overrated and boring being an adult is most of the time, I wouldn’t have hurried so much through my childhood.

But at least there’s coffee.

I’m all for the beach, barbecues, and three day weekends. I like having the extra day off. But let’s not forget that today is about much more than that.

Today is the day we specifically remember all the fallen military who laid down their lives for our freedoms. Today of all days is the day that we choose not to take for granted all the liberties we enjoy. Today is the day that we pledge to be thankful for those freedoms and to thank those who helped make it possible. Especially those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

So from me, thank you. I can never tell you in person, but I say it in your honor and in your memory. Thank you.

“Going through the motions doesn’t please you,
a flawless performance is nothing to you.
I learned God-worship
when my pride was shattered.
Heart-shattered lives ready for love
don’t for a moment escape God’s notice” (Psalm 51:16-17, The Message).

I love all the places where I go for worship services. I especially love how the level of musicianship is stellar at all these places. The singers and band are always on point. In fact, they’re better than a lot of what I hear on the radio these days.

That can be both a good and bad thing.

Flawless performances in worship don’t mean anything if there’s no heart in it. Sometimes, talent can be a hindrance to worship if we end up worshipping the experience of worship rather than the God it’s supposed to be all about.

When I think of worship, it doesn’t begin and end with singing. Sure, that’s an important part of it but not all of it. Worship isn’t an activity only for certain environments on certain days of the week.

Worship is doing whatever you’re doing for the glory of God, no matter where you are and no matter when you’re doing it. Can you worship by scrubbing toilets? If it’s done for the glory of God, then yes. Can you worship by folding and stuffing envelopes? Again, if you do it for God’s glory, absolutely.

I’d go so far as to say that if you haven’t been worshipping in your every day living throughout the week prior to the worship service, you can’t really expect to worship then. Worship is a lifestyle and a mindset, not an event. It’s the daily offering in view of God’s mercies of your bodies — your talents, your passions, your activities, your desires, your occupation, your thought life — as a living sacrifice to God. Worship is not just praise through music, but true worship always leads to praise. A worshipful lifestyle can’t help but sing.

Some days, I feel like I have it all together. Then there are other days where I’m likely to stick my car keys in the fridge or look for my cell phone using my phone as a flashlight. Usually, there’s no in between for me.

Most days, I’m thankful that the security of my salvation doesn’t rest with me, or I’d lose it. In every sense of the word. If salvation was something I could lose, I would have already lost it long ago.

But I believe that my eternal security doesn’t lie in my firm hold on God but in His firm grip on me. He’s the One not letting go. He’s the One who is forever faithful to His promises to finish what He started in me. He’s the One who speaks of my future as if it’s already a done deal. And it is because God says so.

I see a lot of posts from believers on social media about how strong they are and how they’re the storm and how Satan better not mess with them. All I know is that when it comes to matters of faith, I’m not self-reliant at all; I’m completely God-reliant. Every day, I make a declaration of dependence that I need God as much as I did the day before — and perhaps even more. I’m as prone to wander as ever, as prone to leave the God I profess to love. Only God can take my heart and seal it and keep it tender instead of it hardening to stone.

Christians aren’t perfect. They’re far from it. At least if they’re honest. It’s too bad that the current climate in most churches won’t allow for admissions of weakness and failure because it keeps believers thinking they have to wear a mask.

This one isn’t the one mandated by the CDC. This one has a fake smile and a response of “I’m fine” to everyone who asks how you’re doing. This one tells everyone that you’ve got it all together and you don’t need any help from anyone at anytime ever. This one keeps people living the lie that they’re the only ones who struggle or the only ones with private sins they’re too shamed to confess or who feel like failures in matters of faith.

The more you understand that salvation is entirely from God and even the faith to believe is a gift from God, the more you can feel free to take that mask off. The more you can be free to be your authentic broken self and confess your frailties because you know that’s where healing and restoration come from. The more you free others to feel welcomed as they are and discover a God who can meet them there and make them who they were always meant to be.

My hope isn’t in my own faith. It’s not in my goodness or my faithfulness or my generosity or the size of my heart toward others. It’s in the God who is the strength of my heart and my portion forever, the One who sustains and guides and renews me. The One who is my righteousness and my goodness and my intercessor and my hope forever.

Recently, I discovered an online radio station that plays nothing but vintage Christian music from the 70s, 80s, and 90s. It leans more on the rock side with some pop and some holy hair metal thrown in. In case you’re intrigued, it’s at www.classicchristianrock.net.

Listening to these old songs takes me back. Some are new to me, but when I hear some of them, I’m instantly transported back to youth group days or those years at Union University when my musical world got expanded and I found out about a lot of great Christian artists.

I particularly like it when they will focus on songs from a specific timespan — like April 1987, for instance. I remember that there was so much variety in Christian music that seems to be missing in these days of hearing a lot of sameness on Christian radio.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m a huge fan of worship music, but after a while, it feels like I’m hearing slight variations of the same song played over and over. And yes, I know I sound old when I say things like that. I am old.

It gives me a bit of joy in the midst of the weekday grind. It’s nostalgic but also has the great messages of the faith that I still need to hear periodically. Plus, you can request songs and they will actually play them. Crazy, right?

If you grew up in the Church around the 80s and 90s, you need to check out this website and the radio station. Like yesterday.