It’s easy to lose heart and live in discouragement. If you look around, it looks like evil is winning.

People are mocking God and seeming to get away with it.

People are mistreating God’s people and no one seems to be able to do anything about it.

So many churches that are supposed to be a witness to the world of God’s grace have become so much like the world that they no longer have a discernible testimony and the true gospel has been sacrificed in the name of tolerance and relevance.

The news is getting worse every day. It seems like more and more the planet is drifting toward anarchy and chaos and away from God’s created order.

But when you read the last chapter of the last book of the Bible, you know that the story doesn’t end with ashes and tears. If you can look through eyes of faith, you can still see God at work even in the darkest of times.

Corrie ten Boom lived through some dark times. She saw some of the worst of humanity and lived to tell about it. She wrote about how when the train goes through a dark tunnel, you don’t jump off the train and throw away your ticket. You stay on board and trust the Engineer.

In the same way, when the news seems to be all bad, you don’t abandon your faith and throw away your Bible. That would be like jumping off of a life raft in the middle of a stormy sea.

You hold fast. You trust that the same Jesus who spoke peace to the waves will one day speak peace to the world. You trust that the Author of all that is good and right will again make all things good and right and whole and new.

If you need a reminder, read Revelation 22. Then you know that the story has a happy ending. Better yet, it has a happy beginning.

Mondays are rude. I’m putting this out there because there you are enjoying your weekend and then bam! here comes Monday. No one asked for Monday. No one wanted Monday, but Monday showed up uninvited all the same.

Mondays can be especially annoying if you’ve been away from the office like I have. Then Monday just feels super long and super awkward and super tiring. Thankfully, Mondays only come once a week.

But in case you’re feeling like you’ve got a bad case of the Mondays, here’s a bit of levity to brighten your day:

I used to think that I didn’t have a testimony. I felt like since I wasn’t dramatically delivered from drugs and alcohol or brought back to life after flatlining on a table somewhere, I didn’t really have a salvation story to tell.

One problem with that kind of testimony is that it makes salvation a past tense experience, as in I got saved back when. The Biblical idea of salvation is that you were saved (justification), you’re being saved (sanctification), and you will be saved (glorification). In other words, it’s a one-time event with ongoing results leading to a final destination.

My testimony is that I got saved at an early age and that God is still in the process of making me a new creation. It’s not once I was lost and now I’m found and life is perfect and pain-free. It’s about putting off the old sinful self, being renewed, and putting on the new Christ-dwelling self.

If you have truly had a salvation experience, there should be a difference. There should be a before and an after. I don’t mean that you’re perfect but that you’re striving and seeking to be more like Jesus because the Spirit of Jesus is in you working in you to want these things.

If you truly belong to Jesus, you won’t look like those around you who aren’t saved. You won’t act and talk like them. If the only difference is that you throw in a nod to Jesus and church in your conversations every now and then, you might want to question the validity of your faith. The Bible calls that working out your salvation with fear and trembling. It’s making sure that you are good soil for the gospel to take root, go deep, and produce a harvest.

True faith means that you want more than anything else to obey Jesus. It doesn’t mean that you never disobey or sin, but that you can’t live in disobedience and have peace. You can’t live in sin and live for Jesus at the same time.

The good news is that God always reward those who seek Him in genuine faith. If you earnestly and honestly want to follow Jesus, He will give you the ability to follow — and most importantly, to obey.

Today is Veterans’ Day, honoring all those who have served in the military, not to be confused with Memorial Day, honoring those who died while serving their country.

I found this prayer from an unknown soldier that beautifully applies across all walks of life, though it seems especially poignant in light of a soldier whose life has been affected by injuries sustained in combat.

This prayer highlights that God often doesn’t give us what we ask for but what we need. He gives us not happiness but joy. He gives us not what we want but what our hearts desire.

The idea of blessing isn’t getting everything I’ve prayed for. In fact, sometimes, God not giving us what we pray for is a blessing because we don’t know what we pray for at the time.

The real blessing is knowing that there is no gift from God apart from God Himself. What we really need more than God’s provision is God’s presence because to have everything apart from God is defeat, while having God and nothing else is victory.

If you were like me and grew up in church, then you know the Lord’s prayer. If you’re old school like me, you probably know the KJV version that starts off like “Our Father, who art in Heaven . . .”

You also know the part about Thy will being done on earth as it is in heaven.

I’m all for God’s will prevailing. Until it conflicts with my will. Until it means that what God wants trumps what I want, and God’s plans trump my plans.

If I’m honest, what I really want is for God to rubber stamp my plans and give me the green light for every desire and wish of my heart.

But deep down part of me knows that is not healthy. Especially when I look back and see what I thought I couldn’t live without. Or better still, trying to remember what it was that I lost sleep over all those years ago because it didn’t go the way I wanted.

I believe that if I knew what God knows and saw the whole picture of history and my existence (as opposed to the fragments that I can see and understand), then I would absolutely want what He wants and desire what He desires. I would probably also appreciate what I already have instead of always lusting and craving after what I don’t have.

In the end, it’s God’s will. Nothing more. Nothing less. Nothing else. The end.

“God never fits His word to suit me. He fits me to suit His word” (Oswald Chamber).

I remember reading something profound in a Francis Chan book a while back. Basically, the idea is that if we say that God would never do something because we would never, it’s setting us up as the standard by which God must be judged. It’s making us the arbiter over what God can and can’t do.

Lately, I see quite a few who want to modify their beliefs to make the faith more palatable and Jesus easier to follow. I seem to remember something Jesus Himself said about the road to eternal life being narrow and few finding it versus the road to hell being broad and many find it, but that’s not a quote people like to bring up about Jesus. It’s more like, “Don’t judge” and all those more seemingly inclusive sayings.

If you change God to suit your feelings and your moods, you end up with another gospel. You end up worshipping a different god (and not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob).

The idea is not for me to change what God says to accommodate my sin, but for what God says to change me. God isn’t the one who changes — He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. I’m the one being changed and transformed and being made into a new creation.

If God could change, I could never trust anything He says. His promises could change. My hope of salvation could one day be secure and the next day not so much. I’d never be able to be sure I was in right standing with God.

But since God is unchanging, so are His promises. So is my hope. So I will let God’s word have its way and do its work in me because I’m the one who needs to change.

I endorse this message. That’s really the heart of the gospel. God loves you. God is on your side. He is coming after you. He is relentless.

That is what God does in bringing someone to salvation. That is what God does every day after from the moment of salvation to the moment of glorification.

The love of God doesn’t always look like we think it will.

Sometimes, it’s a warm and comforting love that reaffirms our identity as children of God.

Sometimes, it is a tough love that refuses to indulge our selfishness and sinfulness but chastises us to lead us to repentance and renewal.

But it is always love. It is always pursuing us. It is truly relentless.

I read this earlier today and found it such a well-stated encapsulation of a lot of what’s wrong with this social media-obsessed society, including yours truly. I heard once that so many of us spend our lives trying to look good and feel good rather than to do good and to be good.

The joke goes that they’re called selfies because narcissistie is just too hard to spell. I am not opposed to selfies, but it can be an indicator of self- and me-obsessed thinking that looks at the world and all that happens in it through the lends of only how it affects me.

It’s a bit longer than my typical post, but it’s worth the extra time:

“It’s such a strange time in which to live. There was about a 5-year period around the first decade of the 2000’s when a convergence of sorts happened: We turned the camera back towards ourselves and the modern-day selfie was born; it seemed to almost cap off the self-empowerment movement that so many daytime talk show hosts guided us through (Yes I can, The power is in me, etc.).

I think selfies are harmless, by the way, but I also feel that they somehow symbolized the full arrival of what started when I was in my 20’s: an almost absolute elevation of self and preoccupation (to a fault) of our own happiness and well-being. It’s been the norm in American culture for so long, that it’s hard to remember a time when it wasn’t as prevalent.

I’m trying to walk a fine line on this topic – because the fact that mental, emotional, and physical self-care have become more important and more talked about is a good thing. It has surely saved many lives. I get that self-care is an investment, I really do. I’m more talking about the reason behind it all, the endgame. If we’re only caring for ourselves so that we can then care more for ourselves, etc., etc. . .

What is self-improvement for if not to then in turn help someone else? I’ve heard that you can’t pour from an empty pitcher – and I think that’s true; but I do think it’s imperative that we do actually pour – pour ourselves into those around us, into something bigger than our individual selves. I feel like our culture would have us make sure the pitcher is full just so the pitcher can feel better about itself and gain affirmation and likes from other pitchers.

As I get well into my 50’s and care less and less about impressing anyone — I look back and realize that I spent SO much time, especially in my younger days, just focusing on myself. I once heard Rich Mullins say that even thinking of oneself in an overly-negative way can be a way of thinking too much of ourselves. In other words, good or bad – I need to just think of myself less (not think less of myself, mind you. . .but think of myself less). I need to have a true and proper evaluation of myself, but not more than that.

As much as any generation tends to lament and accuse the next one – I actually think the generation or two coming up under me is doing a better job at this than mine did. Yes, there are still spoiled, self-obsessed teens and young adults, and yes, there are some who like the idea of helping others more than actually doing it; but I think in general the younger generation is showing great promise in their capacity for compassion and service. As they grow older and gain more resources, I’m optimistic that they will do well on the follow-through.

I can’t look at any profound topic without shining it through the lens of faith. Although I don’t always hit the target, I’ve chosen to align myself with the Bible, Christ’s teachings, and his example while he was here on earth; and while I do believe that the Christian life can result in a deep, abiding sense of joy and peace, I’ve never seen where Jesus’s goal was his own personal happiness. However, in our culture I dare say many Christians, much less the public-at-large, would say that one’s own happiness is one of the only things that gives life true meaning; but I’m just not sure that’s the truth (at least from the Bible’s point of view).

Perhaps equally miraculous to Christ’s more ‘popular’ revelations of his power was the fact that he chose to spend his roughly 3 years of ministry on earth as a lowly servant – living a life of no means with a ragtag group of guys and gals – when he would’ve had every right to just lavishly set himself up as a more traditional ‘King of Everything.’ His own personal happiness isn’t really mentioned much in scripture. He wanted to do His Father’s will, and frankly, that wasn’t always a feel-good place. He was poor, misunderstood a lot, rejected by pretty much anyone who was highly regarded at the time, and was eventually killed. Now, I know the end of the story, so it’s for sure not all bad; but I dare say that during his time on the earth – the part that we’re supposed to exemplify today – he was tons more focused on serving God and pouring himself into others than he was self-affirmations and ‘feeling good.’

I’m going to wrap this up now, because I could ramble on (if I haven’t already), and I’m not sure what to do with these thoughts. There’s just some kind of humility that comes with having lived more than half your life. It’s caused me to reflect more on how I’ve lived the last 50 years vs. how I want to live the next 30. In some mysterious way, I think happiness comes about as a byproduct of not focusing too much on it. Come to think of it, maybe that’s it: There’s a joy that surprises you, comes “out of nowhere,” when you give yourself away – and it supersedes the shallower happiness that comes from personal achievements, a pile of stuff, and striving for the affirmation of others.

Again, not sure if this resonates with anyone else – maybe I’m just getting more pensive, but I’m hopeful there was a point in there somewhere:-)” (Carey Dyer).

“Good to let the ugly past rest in the hands that have scars” (Rose Marie Miller).

I went to a training about how to have Gospel conversations with trauma in mind. Basically, it’s all about how to share your faith with someone who’s dealt with PTSD in the past.

I’m not suddenly an expert on PTSD. I’m not sure I fully understand all the ins and outs of how past trauma can affect present day emotions and behavior. I’m not sure I’d even know what to say to someone who’s dealing with it.

But I do know that Jesus still has nail-scarred hands. No one in history ever experienced more trauma in one 24-hour period, much less a life time, than Jesus did from the time of His arrest to His crucifixion. No one suffered more physically — not even counting carrying the sins of the world on His shoulders — than Jesus.

I think about Job and his friends. They were at their best when they sat with him in silence. They weren’t so hot when they opened their mouths and tried to explain his suffering. They got even worse when they tried to blame him for his misery and even pointing out what possible sins had let to his trauma and tragedy.

I think the key is empathetic listening. Not listening with a view to correct or to fix, but simply to understand. I believe that God promises that when we are attuned to the Holy Spirit and in submission to His will, He will give us the right words to say when the time comes. It won’t be my wisdom or cleverness but my obedience that will matter.

I’m looking forward to another season of Room in the Inn starting next week. Maybe I’ll be better at having conversations with the men that come through on Monday nights. I’m praying for me and all the other volunteers that we will see God’s healing hand through us all throughout the next 5 months.

It will be in good hands. It will be in nail-scarred hands.

Tomorrow begins my staycation. It’s like a vacation, but you don’t go anywhere. At least nowhere that involves extensive traveling and overnight stays. You stay at home. Hence the name.

Sometimes it’s nice to be able to sleep in for a week. While I do love a good vacation and seeing places and things, it’s relaxing to not have an itinerary or schedule but to go places on a whim and to be spontaneous.

I can finally use that gift card to the coffee shop that I got last Christmas. I can visit that record store that closes at 5 pm. I can stay up later without having to worry about being a zombie at work the next day. If I choose, I can do absolutely nothing all day. The options are endless.

It’s fitting that I just finished listening to The Hobbit on Audible. The story is about an unexpected adventure taken by one very set-in-his-ways hobbit. I plan on having a few unexpected adventures myself (hopefully of the good kind).

I will let you know of any hijinks or shenanigans that ensue.