In a completely unrelated note, I finished watching all four versions of A Star is Born. I can say with some certainty that I liked them all, but my favorite of all these is the 1954 Judy Garland version.

Back to the topic: I don’t want to spend my life in a comparison war with everyone else. I don’t want to constantly always be striving to be better than the next guy. If there’s a competition, I want it to be with myself. I want to be better than I was yesterday.

I want to be a little more disciplined, a little more patient, a little more loving, a little more Christlike.

Ultimately, it’s Jesus in me who is making me better. He has promised to finish the work He started in me so long ago and to bring it to completion. That’s my hope. As I strive to walk closer to Jesus, these attributes that I long for and strive for will grow in me.

Some days, I don’t see a lot of difference. Some days, I don’t see any. But all I need to do is to look back 10 or 20 years ago and remember some of the old fears and behaviors to remember how far I’ve come. I suspect you could probably do the same if you look back far enough compared to who you are now.

Don’t try to be better than everybody else. Just try to be better than you were yesterday.

I found out recently that a Christian artist that I greatly admire and respect has come out as an exvangelical. Basically, as I understand it, an exvangelical is someone who essentially rejects the evangelical Christian teachings and seeks to deconstruct his or her faith in the same way that Thomas Jefferson tore passages out of his Bible that mentioned the miraculous or dealt with matters he didn’t agree with.

This artist says that he now believes in a Universal Christ. I’m not sure what that means, but it sounds a bit vague. I don’t presume to know his mind, but I can say for myself that I don’t find much hope in a generic sort of spirituality that removes the miraculous. I know that my final hope isn’t in a mystical Christ figure but in a real flesh and blood Jesus who lived and died and rose again.

What is my response to exvangelicals? I think it’s to love them in the same way Jesus loved Judas Iscariot, knowing he would fall away and eventually betray Him. He loved those He knew would reject His message. He loved those who would know He was Messiah and still not choose to follow Him.

I confess that the modern evangelical Church hasn’t done much to help its cause. We too often confuse right-wing politics and conservatism with the gospel. While issues like pro-life and the sanctity of marriage are important, we sometimes turn them into requirements for salvation along with faith in Jesus. We haven’t been very compassionate toward each other or toward our enemies. We haven’t loved sacrificially the way Jesus loved (and loves) us.

I can also pray for exvangelicals. I still don’t pretend to know how prayer works in regard to man’s free will and God’s ultimate plan, but I know that it does. Therefore, I keep praying. Who knows but God could turn someone’s heart back to Him or rekindle the dying embers of faith into a flame once more?

I can do everything in my power to make my own salvation sure. I can never take for granted that I prayed a prayer once as a child or know so many Bible verses or have the occasional feelings of euphoria during worship. The evidence of my salvation shows in how I live and think and act and speak in the present tense.

I know that I could be one of those exvangelicals. It’s only the grace of God that sustains me. It’s only God upholding me that keeps me believing and trusting from one day to the next. My security isn’t based on the size of my faith in God but in the size of the God of my faith.

For those of us who are honest, we still have to confess along with the father of the possessed boy in Mark 9:24, “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.” Thank You, God that You believe in us even when we struggle to believe in You — or ourselves. Amen.

I think I’ll go with D) all of the above, if that’s an option. I didn’t start drinking coffee until I was in my 40s, but I think I’ve been making up for lost time with my ginormous Death Star coffee mug that I keep at work.

I confess that I’m not one of those purists who like their coffee black with no creamer or sugar. I take mine with plenty of both on a typical weekday. At least when it’s Folgers.

But still, all of the above still applies. So happy Monday, and we’re already 1/5 of the way through the week. Yay.

In my church, we’ve been going through the book of Ruth for the last three weeks. It’s been fascinating to see how God orchestrated a Jewish widow and a Moabite woman to bring about His purposes in bringing the Messiah into the world. But it didn’t happen overnight.

There was quite a bit of time involved, as well as a lot of waiting. For me, I’m not a fan of waiting. I’d rather get what I want sooner than later. But sometimes I wonder if I’m doing it wrong.

There’s a difference between waiting passively and waiting proactively.

Waiting passively is like hoping to get a date for Saturday night by sitting next to the phone and hoping it will randomly ring. Waiting proactively is like going out there and meeting people and making friendships and putting yourself out there.

Ruth waited proactively by being faithful in what she knew to do. She served Naomi, her mother-in-law, and provided for them. She sought out Naomi for her wisdom and guidance and put into practice what she learned.

Waiting on God does not mean doing nothing while you wait for God to provide. It means you make yourself ready to receive what God will give you when the time comes. It means you develop a character that can handle what you ask from God.

Lord, help us all to wait the right way, trusting in Your timing and provision in every circumstance, knowing that You above all know what we truly need and when we truly need it. May we never forget that You alone are what can truly satisfy our hearts’ deepest longings and desires. Amen.

I had a dream a few nights ago that has stayed with me. In my dream, my Uncle Bob and my cousin Timothy visited me and brought me gifts. I don’t remember what the occasion was or what the gifts were. I do remember that I was awed by the gifts. It did my heart good.

I do know that my Uncle Bob’s gift to me that I still carry with me is a love of music. When I listen to certain artists like the Grateful Dead or hear old-school jazz, I think of him. Whenever I see one of the old Ford Broncos, I also think of him pulling in the driveway for one of our family Thanksgiving or Christmas meals. I still miss them both and regret that I didn’t appreciate them more while they were alive.

If you have a family, the one gift that you can give your children is a legacy of hope and faith. They will gravitate toward faith in Jesus if they see it lived out in your life. It takes more than regular church attendance and paying lip service to God. It takes you bringing Jesus into every area of your life every day of the week and making all your words and actions into acts of worship.

While you can’t pass down your faith as an inheritance, you can pass down a lifetime of teaching them to observe all that Jesus said and did. God doesn’t have any grandchildren, as the old saying goes, and all your children must come into their own faith in Jesus, but nothing will help them along the way than seeing your faith taught and walked in front of them every day of their lives.

Even if you’re not married or if you’re married and don’t have children, you can still leave a legacy of faith to those in your sphere of influence — your relatives, your neighbors, your co-workers, and so on. You never really know who’s watching you and deciding if God is real based on how you live out your faith. But if you trust God and live a prayerful and faithful life, God will honor the results.

Tonight, I took a stroll down one of my favorite streets in Middle Tennessee, Fair Street. Just about all the houses look like cottages out of a George MacDonald fairy tale. I could see myself living in any one of them.

One in particular caught my eye. It had a sign that noted that it was in the process of restoration. In my own vivid imagination, I could see it one day looking like it used to look back when it was brand new in the early 1900s and life was much different than it is now.

I think my dream job would be to be a part of taking an old movie where the film elements were nearly beyond saving and removing the years of decay and dirt and scratches to reveal the art underneath. My favorite part of watching an old movie is seeing the before and after of the restoration process.

I believe that God’s primary business is also restoration. He takes broken lives and hearts. He rescues souls tarnished and decaying almost beyond saving and restores them to His original image. What seems like the daily humdrum of monotony is really God at work, chipping away the rough edges and slowing removing all the years of debris and dirt and decay.

It may not look much on a day to day basis, but one day you will look back and see how you used to look and think and feel and act all those years ago compared to who you are now. You will see the transformation in your own life and in the lives of all those whom God has been working on all this time.

God’s business is making all things new. God’s business is making you new again.

God says that you must forgive because you have been forgiven. Period.

Forgiveness does not mean you let them keep hurting you. Forgiveness does not mean accepting abuse. Forgiveness means that you relinquish the expectation that they can fix what they did to you.

When forgiveness is difficult, it helps to remember two things: 1) who you are in Christ and who you might have been but for the grace of God, and 2) Jesus didn’t just die for the people you like and who treat you right — He died for everyone.

Remember that God forgave (and continues to forgive) the worst in you, so you are not above forgiving anyone of anything. As with anything else, faith doesn’t make forgiveness easy but makes it possible.

Above all, forgiveness means that the other person no longer has a stranglehold on your mind and your thoughts. You can let them go and watch the bitterness and unrest in your heart being replaced by peace and joy.

Lord, help me always to choose forgiveness because of how freely you forgave me in Christ Jesus. Amen.

I think this says it all.

I don’t know about you, but I’m tired. And it’s only Tuesday. At least tomorrow is the midway point of the week. Then the weekend.

This is one of those weeks when I don’t want to adult. I don’t even want to human. I want to dog (or cat) and lay around all day and take naps whenever I feel like it. Right now, the idea of hibernation sounds really good.

Still, there’s coffee. That always perks me up (pun intended).

I can always pick up my Bible and read about the God who never slumbers nor sleeps. He never gets tired. His strength never wavers or weakens. He says that when I’m weakest is where His strength is perfected in me.

I don’t have to be strong all the time or brave all the time. I don’t always have to have all the answers and have my life 100% figured out. I can admit that I’m weak and He is strong. And His mercies will still be as new in the morning as they ever were. His faithfulness will never cease even when mine wavers.

I decided to list out a few pros and cons from this Monday, May 10 in the year of our Lord 2021:

Pro: I woke up.

Con: It was Monday.

Pro: At least it wasn’t raining today.

Con: It felt colder and windier than a mid-May day is supposed to feel.

Pro: It felt like a sneak preview of October — almost like a Maytober kind of day.

Con: I never felt like I was able to fully wake up all day.

Pro: There was coffee, so at least I could keep my eyes open and do adulty stuff (or at least fake doing adulty stuff really well).

Con: There are four more days until the next weekend.

Pro: Tomorrow is looking like a good day, and the rest might just surprise me with some unexpected goodness. And there’s more coffee.

Con: Potentially there’s a con to everything, depending on how you look at it, whether from a human-sized perspective or from a God-sized one.

Pro: God is bigger than anything I will face for the rest of the week . . . and beyond.

The End