Maybe it’s because I’m tired or maybe it’s because I’m old. Maybe it’s both.

All I know is that these days what I look forward to on the weekends is sleeping in on Saturday. Nothing brings me more joy than when I open my eyes at 5 am, I can simply close them again and roll back over for more sleep.

It’s not glamorous or exciting. It’s not one of the traits of the super successful and super influential. But hey, I’m just being honest.

It’s especially enjoyable to sleep in when it’s cold and rainy outside. Not having to venture out into the freezing wet cold is always a plus in my book. Yes, I know my trusty old car keeps me warm and dry, but I have to go from the door to my house to my car, and that’s where the cold wetness is.

I heard once that you should follow your dreams. That’s why I’m choosing to go back to bed.

“If our certainty is only in our beliefs, we develop a sense of self-righteousness, become overly critical, and are limited by the view that our beliefs are complete and settled. But when we have the right relationship with God, life is full of spontaneous, joyful uncertainty and expectancy. Jesus said, ‘ . . . believe also in Me’ (John 14:1), not, ‘Believe certain things about Me.’ Leave everything to Him and it will be gloriously and graciously uncertain how He will come in—but you can be certain that He will come. Remain faithful to Him” (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest).

“After centuries of handling and mishandling, most religious words have become so shopworn nobody’s much interested anymore. Not so with grace, for some reason. Mysteriously, even derivatives like gracious and graceful still have some of the bloom left.

Grace is something you can never get but can only be given. There’s no way to earn it or deserve it or bring it about any more than you can deserve the taste of raspberries and cream or earn good looks or bring about your own birth.

A good sleep is grace and so are good dreams. Most tears are grace. The smell of rain is grace. Somebody loving you is grace. Loving somebody is grace. Have you ever tried to love somebody?

A crucial eccentricity of the Christian faith is the assertion that people are saved by grace. There’s nothing YOU have to do. There’s nothing you HAVE to do. There’s nothing you have to DO.

The grace of God means something like: “Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are, because the party wouldn’t have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It’s for you I created the universe. I love you.”

There’s only one catch. Like any other gift, the gift of grace can be yours only if you’ll reach out and take it.

Maybe being able to reach out and take it is a gift too” (Frederich Buechner, Wishful Thinking).

Think about that. Grace is something you can never GET but only be GIVEN. Let that sink in.

How about this year we have less complaining and less shaming and more giving thanks?

Maybe less comparing and condescending and more gratitude?

If you look around you and find nothing for which to give thanks, maybe the fault lies with you and your perspective.

Maybe the cure to excessive greed and consumerism is simply contentment and giving thanks for what you already have.

Just a thought.

That’s my charge to anyone who’s reading this right now– just be kind.

That’s all. Be kind.

It doesn’t cost anything and pays dividends in the long run.

I see all sorts of people shaming all sorts of other people on social media: people who don’t wear masks, people who wear masks all the time, people who voted for Trump, people who voted for Biden, people who like chocolate, people who don’t . . . I can’t even bring myself to finish that one, people who are solid in their theology, people who are questioning their faith, etc.

It goes on and on.

I challenge you to name me one person who changed his or her mind based on being shamed on social media. Just one.

You can’t do it because it’s never happened.

People are fighting all kinds of battles that you know nothing about. Be kind.

People are struggling to get out of bed and it was all they could do to just be present in the world today. Be kind.

You never know when it will be you one day who needs kindness even though you probably won’t deserve it on that day. So show it to those who deserve it least but need it most.

You know what else kindness is called? The grace of God.

You know who needs it every day? You. Me. Everyone.

So show grace. Be kind. That’s all.

One of my favorite theologians and writers, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, wrote a poem in a letter that he sent out not long before he was executed by the Nazis in 1945. The context may be quite different to what many of us are facing today, but the themes and message remain timeless and relevant as ever:

“With every power for good to stay and guide me,
comforted and inspired beyond all fear,
I’ll live these days with you in thought beside me,
and pass, with you, into the coming year.

While all the powers of Good aid and attend us,
boldly we’ll face the future, be it what may.
At even, and at morn, God will befriend us,
and oh, most surely on each new year’s day

The old year still torments our hearts, unhastening:
the long days of our sorrow still endure.
Father, grant to the soul thou hast been chastening
that Thou hast promised—the healing and the cure.

Should it be ours to drain the cup of grieving
even to the dregs of pain, at thy command,
we will not falter, thankfully receiving
all that is given by thy loving hand.

But, should it be thy will once more to release us
to life’s enjoyment and its good sunshine,
that we’ve learned from sorrow shall increase us
and all our life be dedicate as thine.

To-day, let candles shed their radiant greeting:
lo, on our darkness are they not thy light,
leading us haply to our longed-for meeting?
Thou canst illumine e’en our darkest night.

When now the silence deepens for our harkening,
grant we may hear thy children’s voices raise
from all the unseen world around us darkening
their universal paean, in thy praise.

While all the powers of Good aid and attend us,
boldy we’ll face the future, be it what way.
At even, and at morn, God will befriend us,
And oh, most surely on each new year’s day!”

“Wait on the Lord, wait quietly, wait trustingly. He holds every minute of every hour of every day of every week of every month of every year in His hands. Thank Him in advance for what the future holds, for He is already there” (Elisabeth Elliot).

This applies to 2021 as much as it did for 2020. And it will be good for 2022 and beyond.

Nothing takes God by surprise.

You can trust that He knows what He’s doing and that His plans for you are always good.

So less fretting and more trusting. Sound good?

Happy 2021!

My one goal for 2021 thus far is to remember what day and date it is. Sounds simple enough, right?

Not so much. With all the cray-cray in 2020, it was all I could do most of the time to remember what month it was, much less the day of the week or the date.

Here’s to a much less dramatic 2021. Maybe no news (or less news) will be good news.

In the meantime, I’m done. I waited up for the new year and now I plan on sleeping in tomorrow (or more accurately, later on today).

May you have a happy, blessed, and COVID-free 2021!

This more or less describes my big New Year’s Eve plans for 2020. Whatever minuscule chances I had of actually going out on the town for December 31 got scuttled by the resurgence of the pandemic. So by the time midnight rolls around and 2021 creeps in, it’ll most likely be me and Peanut toasting in the new year. Hopefully, there will be something sparkling and bubbly.

I’m actually way more stoked at the prospect of sleeping in on Friday than anything related to seeing the new year in. Don’t get me wrong. I’m ready for new beginnings, but I’m just not feeling wild and crazy this time.

I am ready for a party — if by party, you mean a nap. I think I like the idea of hibernation. Could someone let me know when that starts and how I can get in on that, ’cause I am all about hibernating for a bit.

I don’t know if this is theologically accurate or not, but I wonder sometimes if God doesn’t give us our requests if only for the simple reason that we never asked for them in the first place. I think of James 4:2, which says, “You do not have because you do not ask God.”

Maybe that’s taking the verse out of context, but I think the message is to ASK. Pray for healing. Pray for a miracle. Pray for what seems impossible. Pray for what only God could do so that when the request is granted, all you can do is to thank God for it.

And keep praying. Don’t give up. Be like that annoying widow who finally got what she wanted because she persisted. And I say annoying because the judge was so annoyed that he finally gave in.

That’s all. Just keep praying.